Young jazzman’s new album vibrates with parables of hope for our times

Young jazz composer Joel Ross’s new album should give us all hope for the future – and not just because of the music

Jazz vibraphonist Joel Ross whose new album The Parable of the Poet is being released on Blue Note in April-May 2022.

• Head and shoulders above the rest
• Jazz on a winter’s day
• Good things come in threes

Chicago-born vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross came to music through going to church – his father was a choir director and a big influence on his music and faith – so it is no surprise that the opening track of his stunning new album on Blue Note, The Parable of the Poet, is called Prayer. And what an uplifting track it is with his eight-piece band building on the simple melody he taps out in the opening moments.

Uplifting and joyful, the song is influenced by the singing preacher and choir format that is the backbone of any Black American church. Working with musicians who are all friends, including guest Gabrielle Garo on flute, the seven tracks each embody Ross’s collaborative approach to jazz. He would give the band a chart with a melody, an outline of what he wanted, and left it to them to improvise but always keeping in mind the central melody.

The result is a suite of mainly slow but never dull musical parables, and the titles all deal with weighty issues – Guilt, Choices, Wail – with some scorching alto sax from Immanuel Wilkins – The Impetus (To Be and Do Better), Doxology (Hope) and Benediction.

It’s a rich blend of instruments with Wilkins, Maria Grand on tenor saxophone, Marquis Hill on trumpet, Kalia Vandever on trombone, Sean Mason on piano, Rick Rosato on bass, Craig Weinrib on drums, and Garo.

Joel Ross’s album The Parable of the Poet is out now.

On some songs they are let off the leash – Doxology is the only fast track and is a post-bob pearler – at others the beautiful interweaving harmonies and phrases are almost orchestral.

Rosato’s solo bass kicks off Guilt, before it builds to an anxious upward curve, while Hill’s soulful trumpet solo sets the scene for some ominous and weighty moments in Choices. Wail is visceral with Wilkins sax keening over some frenetic drums from Weinrib and Vandever’s echoing trombone (listen out for the Beethoven’s Fur Elise quote from Wilkins).

Vandever gets to drive The Impetus before Mason’s piano spells out the memorable main tune.

Calm and hope is restored by Mason with the hymnal Benediction which closes this lovely suite.

With so many jazz legends gone in recent times – Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Ellis Marsalis, McCoy Tyner and Lee Konitz among them – it would be a mistake to think that the genre is dying as well. Ross is in the peloton of a younger generation of exciting and innovative musicians and this new album should give us all some hope for the future – and not just because of the music itself.

Ross allows both listeners and bandmates their unique, experiential readings of the music. “I’m just so interested in what the listener receives, what they take from it, the same as you would from any parable.”

The Parable of the Poet is available from Birdlands Records for $30 and from the usual download and streaming platforms.