"No other guitarist can master the extreme challenges of the complex compositions in the revitalized song genre as serenely as Brandon Ross..."
"...an ingenious dramaturge of a quiet quality imbued with the spirit of change." – Harry Lachner
As a performing and recording artist, guitarist and composer Brandon Ross has worked and collaborated with several innovative voices in modern music such as Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Cassandra Wilson, Jewel, Tony Williams, Lizz Wright, Arto Lindsay, The Lounge Lizards, Leroy Jenkins, Oliver Lake, Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris, Bill Frisell, Me'Shell N'degeocello, Arrested Development, Archie Shepp, Muhal Richard Abrams, Don Byron, Ron Miles and many others.
For Living Lovers
Ross leads For Living Lovers, his Chamber Music for Improvisors acoustic duo with acoustic bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi. The duo's debut album "Revealing Essence" was released to critical acclaim, and as a recipient of Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works grant, Ross was commissioned to compose the duo's new work titled "Immortal Obsolescence."
"...there is mystery present; often when you think you’ve got a hold on the music, it slips away from you. Like life and love, the world of For Living Lovers is never static. And even if they’re intertwined, two voices can never be the same." – Jazz Times
Harriet Tubman
Ross co-leads the avant power trio, Harriet Tubman, (with bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer JT Lewis) using electronics, and pan-tonality to sculpt a multidimensional, interactive, sonic language in a classic R&B/Rock configuration of guitar, bass, and drums.
"The effect of Araminta is to excavate a history of black music—of avant-garde jazz-rock—that, even today, remains somewhat hidden, in large part thanks to the narrow imagination and racialized marketing of the music industry." – The Paris Review
"...a renewal of meaningful experimental music that affirms the importance of the African-American cultural tradition." – NPR
Brandon Ross & Blazing Beauty
In his acoustic based quartet, Blazing Beauty, Ross plays banjo, electric, acoustic and soprano guitars to extend his expressive range into "folk" oriented musics and compositional approaches that communicate his dedication to fresh musical experience. He has released two albums with Blazing Beauty, "Costume" (2004) and "Puppet" (2006) on the Japanese label, Intoxicate Records. Both garnered rave reviews, and appearances on several Japanese critics', "best of the year" lists.
Described as "restlessly inventive" (Time Out New York), Ross explores various forms of expression in collaborations with artists that inspire him. In AiR with mezzo Soprano Alicia Hall Moran, Ross recasts Roland Hayes' Aframerican spirituals through contemporary electric guitar vernacular; In DarkMatterHalo, a 'Glyph' electronic music collective, Ross investigates the current state and use of "exo-technology" with regard to sound production; In Pendulum, Ross incorporates sound design to expand sonic and textural possibilities beyond the voice of a single instrument, and in Phantom Station Ross establishes a creative music context that hosts a revolving personnel and open musical direction dedicated to collective improvised music making and compositional interpretation.
Ross has been previously commissioned by the ASCAP Foundation, New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA), and is a recipient of Rockefeller Foundation's MAP Grant and Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works grant. He is a current ASCAP writer and publisher member. Ross' teaching credits include Banff Summer Institute of Jazz and Creative Music, Princeton University's Graduate Program in Composition, Artez Conservatorium of Arnhem (Netherlands), and Koninklijk Conservatorium, Antwerp (Belgium).
"All music is communication. My music is communication through revelation." – Brandon Ross