Multi-award-winning bassist, composer and Adelaidean, Ross McHenry returns from New York to promote his new album, 'Child Of Somebody'.
Recorded in New York last year, Ross says 'Child Of Somebody' is heavily influenced by the time he spent studying with talented musicians overseas. “It’s a bit of a different concept. The large group albums are recorded with a seven-piece band… yet ‘Child Of Somebody’ was recorded with another eight-piece band… and those records are, in some ways, an extension of a lot of other kind of group writing that I've done through some other bands I've been involved in. Probably most importantly The Shaolin Afronauts, so it’s kind of my personal take on the kind of soundscapes that you can create within a large, ensemble setting.”
Ross says he has been very fortunate to study overseas with different musicians, which has had a "profound impact" on him as an artist. “I spent two periods of time in Los Angeles with two contemporary composers and musicians, both of who are very, very different, but also have a kind of community and collaborate with each other. [However, both] are brilliant in their own ways.
“I've spent time with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, who is revered as an incredible virtuoso viola player, but also an amazing composer and arranger… best known for his work with artists associated with the Brainfeeder label. So, all the string arrangements on the Flying Lotus records, Thundercat [records], that's him, it's all him.
“He [also] did all the arranging and conducted the orchestra for orchestral interpretations of the music of the late, great hip hop producer J Dilla, and so I spent some time studying composition and arranging with him in Los Angeles and it was a kind of life-changing experience for me, and it really changed the way I perceived a lot of things. So in some ways it wasn't a beginning, but it was the beginning of a new way of thinking about things for me.
“And then the other person I was incredibly fortunate to study with was pianist Vardan Ovsepian, who has an incredible intellect – actually they both are incredible – but Vardan is a very deep thinker about music, and a very different type of musician in a lot of ways, too. Also, both of them work a lot within large ensembles arranging and composing jazz, but in a very contemporary way, and a way that is very much rooted in the times that we are living. So that was really phenomenal.”
The Ross McHenry Trio also includes New Zealand drummer Myele Manzanza and New York-based pianist Matthew Sheens, who Ross says is a “virtuoso in his own right”. “I think there's an exciting energy between all three of us that I’m excited to share with the world, and you know I think the thing is that – I’m reluctant to use the term jazz [to describe us] because of the connotations it immediately conjures – we are all under the age of 30, [we are] musicians who have grown up listening to a wide variety of different musical styles.
“So we play improvised music but it's all original, it's all contemporary. It's music that is written about our experiences of living in 2016. It's not this kind of music that belongs in a museum, you know what I mean?”
'Child Of Somebody' will be released in late 2016.
Ross McHenry Tour Dates
Fri 3 Jun - The Jade Monkey (Adelaide)Sat 4 Jun - Melbourne Recital Centre supporting Robert Glasper Trio
Sun 5 Jun - Uptown Jazz Club (Melbourne International Jazz Festival)
