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Joel Ross: Nublues review – vibraphonist’s innovative homage to tradition


The American musician shifts away from 12-bar blues to ‘an energy’ in this mix of seven originals and Monk and Coltrane covers

This fourth offering, while made with his regular Good Vibes group, a high-grade four-piece featuring alto sax player Immanuel Wilkins, is more accessible. The set is anchored by breezy covers of Thelonious Monk’s Evidence and John Coltrane’s Equinox and Central Park West, with seven original pieces. has echoes of Charles Mingus’s mournful Goodbye Pork Pie Hat; Bach (God the Father in Eternity) is church-like; while on Chant, Ross switches to piano for a brief, intense duet with flautist (and partner) Gabrielle Garo.

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Joel Ross