JIMBO ROSS

JAZZ PASSION & SATIN LATIN

Bodacious Records

Jimbo Ross, electric 5-string viola/violin; Joe Gaeta, guitar; Stuart Elster, piano; Peter Marshall, upright bass; Ron Wagner, drums.

Over the years, Jimbo Ross has built quite a reputation as a jazz improviser and expert musician on the viola.  In fact, at a concert during the mid-1970s, Don Ellis introduced Jimbo Ross as “the only jazz violist in captivity.”  I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed the viola as a lead instrument in a jazz ensemble until this moment. The Ross touch on the viola is certainly distinctive and impressive.  He makes the instrument a solo thrill, leading the band in a number of familiar songs with a sensual flair all his own.

They open the album with the Victor Young tune “Delilah” from the movie soundtrack of Carmen Jones.  Jimbo Ross begins the soloing with gusto and improvisational beauty.  He dances all over the strings of that viola and he ‘swings.’  He is followed by a happy-go-lucky solo featuring jazz pianist, Stuart Elster. Elster can always lay down a groove. On this tune, he does not disappoint. Then Joe Gaeta steps into the spotlight on guitar.  He has a magnificent sound and like all the others, Gaeta can ‘swing’ with the best of them.  I am captivated by the sound of this quintet, pumped up and wrapped in rhythm by Ron Wagner on trap drums, who is in locked-arm stride with Peter Marshall on upright bass. Together, this group of great Southern California musicians remind me a little bit of a Gypsy band, in the style of Rhinehardt.  Ross ‘swings’ hard on “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” and this becomes another favorite of mine.

When Ross plays “Polka Dots & Moonbeams” he tattoos the song on my heart with his viola interpretation. Although this is a Great American Book Standard, Jimbo paints this song with brand new, vivid colors, using his bow to splatter improvisation all over the face of this familiar tune. I would call Jimbo’s playing, viola fusion.

We usually think of violin or cello as lead instruments in a string quartet or in a jazz setting.  Rarely do we hear the viola player step through the curtains to become the spotlighted soloist. The viola, often thought of as a big brother to the violin, is generally stuck in the middle for harmonic blending. Jimbo Ross is one of the only working jazz violists in Los Angeles who has the nerve and the talent to bring the viola to the front line of their music. I am absolutely thrilled by Jimbo’s musicality.

In addition to this stellar jazz quartet, Jimbo Ross also leads a group called his “Bodacious Band.”  They cover a variety of styles, digging into the history of New Orleans Zydeco music, playing Chicago blues, along with R&B, funk and soul, he shows what his viola can do once shining in the spotlight.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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