Joel Ross + Parables

“Studious and self-assured, with a casually debonair style and a warm but faraway air, the Chicago-born Mr. Ross, became ubiquitous on the scene over the last few years without forcing himself in, by virtue of his rhythmic distinction and his adaptive spirit.

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The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra began its life as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1966.The world-famous Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City booked the newly formed band for three Monday nights that February. Those performances were wildly successful and the engagement was extended indefinitely. The Village Vanguard’s owner, Max Gordon, told Mel Lewis, “We’ll keep it going until it tapers off.” Over half a century and more than 2700 Monday nights later, it still hasn’t. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra stands apart from all other modern ensembles of its kind and is still as strong and vital as ever.

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“Among his generation of jazz musicians, Kurt Rosenwinkel has to be the most beloved guitarist. Chalk it up to his originality: He's set trends among his peers with ideas about harmony and form, and he's created an easily recognizable playing style on an instrument where individuality is rare in mainstream jazz.

“In the quest to describe the music of Fred Hersch in a word — a preposterous task, but not a pointless one — you could do a lot worse than “refinement.” Mr. Hersch is a pianist of cultivated taste and erudition; he’s also the sort of jazz musician who brings a lissome elegance to his playing, disinclined to accentuate the effort behind it all. But there’s another definition of refinement that has to do with painstaking progress, the incremental stretch toward an elusive ideal.  

“No rhythmic inflection went unexplored, harmonies within a tune kept changing, and the formal elements were simply signposts for the soloists…she’s a virtuoso.

“The bassist and composer Linda May Han Oh makes music that is resolutely of the moment...Her innovative range and stellar improvisations have made Ms. Oh one of the most dynamic rising stars in jazz today.

“Changes come and go in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood, but the basement club occupying 178 Seventh Avenue South since 1935 remains a stable and revered New York City landmark.