Some jazz albums immediately pull you deep within their calm atmosphere. That's just what vibraphonist
Joel Ross does on his intimately rendered fourth
Blue Note album, 2024's
nublues. A follow-up to 2022's
The Parable of the Poet,
nublues finds
Ross settling into a warm set of originals and standards alongside his group, featuring longtime associate alto saxophonist
Immanuel Wilkins, pianist
Jeremy Corren, bassist
Kanoa Mendenhall, drummer
Jeremy Dutton, and guest flutist
Gabrielle Garo. The opening "early" is a shimmering tone poem in the vein of '70s
ECM albums where
Ross and
Wilkins intertwine in a cascade of harmonies that have the hushed feeling of a rainy Sunday morning. The song flows directly into a slowly swaying take on
John Coltrane's classic modal piece "Equinox." It's an organic blend, mixing
Ross' original compositions with his deep jazz influences and perfectly setting the tone for the rest of the album. From there, we get the original "mellowdee," a roiling, mutable song that starts out like one of
Coltrane's fiery '60s invectives, rife with skronky asides from
Wilkins, before it ebbs into a mid-track dreamscape of breathy bowed bass and moaning, lyrical piano arpeggios. Elsewhere, we get the classical and gospel intimations of "bach (God the Father in Eternity)" and the driving swing of "ya know?," the latter of which brings to mind the kinetic '80s post-bop of artists like
Terence Blanchard and
Branford Marsalis.
Ross rounds out the session with two vibrant covers, including a shadowy, off-kilter take of
Thelonious Monk's "Evidence" and a dewy, after-hours reading of the
John Coltrane ballad "Central Park West." Those last songs nicely underscore the vibraphonist's thoughtful, entrancing distillation of blues and ballads at play throughout all of
nublues. ~ Matt Collar