By: Dr Matt Warnock
Tyler Ross is not your typical guitarist. Born and raised in the fields of East-Central Wisconsin, Ross’ musical tastes have led him to explore traditional and modern jazz, folk, blues, rock and the singer-songwriter tradition. A multi-faceted musician, Ross is equally at home on stage singing his favorite Gillian Welch song as he is arranging an original composition for a large jazz ensemble with string quartet.
Aside from performing as a sideman, in a wide range of genres, Ross also leads the up and coming modern-jazz group, TriOdelay. Featuring bassist Ben Willis and drummer Jeff Loehrke, the band thrives on reinterpreting jazz standards, and modern pop-rock tunes, along with writing their own, original compositions. With their debut CD in the can, the band is gearing up for their CD release tour of the Midwest this coming December.
Trained at some of the Midwest’s most comprehensive music programs, Ross has recently made the transition from student to professor when he accepted a position at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Starting out as a young guitar teacher at any university can be a tough process, let alone at a school as prestigious as the College of Charleston, but Ross is up for the challenge.
Drawing from his experiences studying at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Western Illinois University, Ross has begun to build a guitar studio that he hopes will not only become highly-competitive on the South-East Coast, but one that will provide students with the necessary skills they need to go out and make it in today’s competitive music scene.
Ross recently sat down with Guitar International Magazine to discuss his thoughts on modern jazz education, his myriad of influences and how he’ll be keeping his musical plate full in the coming year.
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Matt Warnock: It seems like becoming a professional jazz musician and educator is a bit of an odd choice for someone who grew up in a small town in East-Central Wisconsin. How did you first become exposed to jazz and when did you know that you wanted to pursue it as a career?
Tyler Ross: I was led to jazz through a desire to learn more about the guitar, and music in general. As a young teen, I’d been playing by ear for a couple years when my progress began to stagnate. At the time I was listening to improvisatory rock groups such as the Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, and Phish. Studying jazz, and music theory, seemed like the logical next step in helping me become a better improviser.
Fortunately, on the street where I grew up lived an air traffic controller, who also happened to be a terrific jazz guitarist and theory buff, named Phil Coe. He hadn’t been actively teaching, but was willing to take me on as a student. Through Phil I learned, though sometimes painstakingly, to read, basic music theory and gained an appreciation for jazz. I fondly remember listening to records by Charlie Parker, Joe Pass, and Grant Green in my parent’s basement. The tremendous sense of life and vitality was apparent to me even at that age; the music had mystic qualities.
I was also lucky enough to take part in my high school’s large jazz ensemble and combo led by another great teacher of mine, Dave Dunning. During my senior year of high school I even managed to do an independent study for guitar, which involved me jamming along to Band-in-a-Box for 70 minutes each school day.
As far as how I came to be a professional musician and educator. Until recently, I didn’t have a clear cut game plan as to how I was going to make a living in this world. My one continuing goal was to make enough money playing music to live a modestly comfortable life. My persistence has definitely paid off.
Since I was 12 years old, I’ve practiced nearly every day. I also began leading and booking bands at a young age, as well as writing and arranging music for various ensembles. Any serious musician knows that to make a living at it, a guy or gal needs to juggle many different roles. On the slightest occasions it has felt like work, but most days I’ve had a blast putting in the time.
With my current position teaching jazz guitar at the College of Charleston, I am able to work with a wide variety of students while still going out and performing multiple times each week. Both aspects of my professional life are extremely inspiring.
Matt: Can you talk about some of the experiences, good and bad, that you had as an undergrad and graduate student in jazz guitar? Does the modern day jazz guitarist need school to be successful as a performer and teacher?
Tyler: My belief on this matter is yes. Are there exceptions, of course, but if someone who is serious about becoming a professional musician asked my advice I would definitely tell that person to study music in a collegiate program. Aside from the fact that a young player will be immersed in music at a university, more importantly, they will make many of the most important friendships and working relationships of their life. The majority of my closest friends, most of whom are musicians, I met in an academic environment.
Now I have friends scattered all over the country. We still keep in touch regularly, talk about recent gigs, and inspire each other to keep at it. I have had some excellent teachers, but I have learned mostly from my peers. Without the college environment, I never could have formed these relationships.
My shared life and musical experiences with these people have been invaluable, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. And I still gig with all these guys. Aside from the emotional support system, there’s the monetary support system too. Within the past year I’ve had old college buddies call me, and pay me, to do clinics, write big band charts, play gigs, record, etc.
One more piece of advice I’d give younger players about to enter college is that it’s really up to the individual to get the most out of his or her college experience. Be proactive. Is there a concert happening on campus? Go to it. If you’re a jazz player, go see the orchestra, the wind band, sing in the choir.
If a pop or country band is coming through town and you don’t have anything cooking that night, check it out. There is as much to learn from a bad musical performance as a good one, or maybe the band will have a killer pedal steel player and you pick up a few of his licks
If you want to be a doctor you should go to med school. If you want to be a musician you should go to music school. It would be foolish not to surround yourself with as many opportunities as possible.
Matt: This summer you recorded a trio CD with your band TriOdelay, featuring musicians you met while doing your grad degree at WIU. How involved were you in the writing, arranging and production processes for the new album?
Tyler: I was very involved in the entire process. The group actually formed through one of those instances where I was in town playing with close friends. Ben Willis the bassist, Jeff Loehrke the drummer, and myself had a free night and decided to throw a concert slash party at a local loft. I quickly put together a set of material that we could pull off with little or no rehearsal.
In choosing songs, I was looking for tunes that would appeal to a younger generation, but that would still allow the guys in the band to get their rocks off. The gig went great and later that night, over a couple beers, we decided to get serious. I wrote a few new tunes, we rehearsed heavily for a couple days and then we played a handful of gigs to workshop the material. Two months after playing that first gig we were in the studio.
Matt: As well as being a talented instrumentalist you also write and perform in the singer-songwriter tradition. How did you discover your love for this genre of music and who are some of your songwriting influences?
Tyler: My love for the singer-songwriter genre has been extremely natural. As a child both my parents played guitar and sang around the house. I remember hearing John Prine, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Neil Young, and Jimmy Buffett. As a teenager, I memorized all the Beatles albums. As an undergrad, aside from jazz, I listened to a lot of Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, and Nick Drake, as well as contemporary artists such as Gillian Welch, Damien Rice, and Iron and Wine.
As soon as I first picked up the guitar, I was writing songs. And I still turn to songwriting as a source to investigate my thoughts and life experiences. There’s something elusive and intangible in a great song. I enjoy the process as much, or maybe even more, than the finished product.
Matt: You recently posted a video on YouTube for the song “Say it Ain’t So” from your debut album. Did you put together the video yourself and if so how did you come up with the images used in the video?
Tyler: In a world where it is so incredibly easy to publish a piece of art via the Internet, I figured since so many non-musicians are releasing decent music, I thought I’d try to put a video together. I basically just filtered through a mass of digital pictures I had taken in recent years and attempted to formulate a cohesive story that was reminiscent of the song’s lyrics.
The video ended up displaying many images of rural Midwestern life, which I feel has had a strong impact on my musical tendencies. The protagonist in the video, Joel Andreason, is an excellent trumpeter who actually played on the first TriOdelay gig. Hopefully I can get him a royalty check at some point for his starring role.
Matt: That song, “Say it Ain’t So,” was written by the band Weezer, and you guys are covering it in an instrumental, quasi-jazzy, genre. Do you feel that this is where jazz is headed, drawing from current pop and rock bands for material to cover, instead of the American Songbook standards we’re used to hearing?
Tyler: I feel that the trend to cover more contemporary pop songs is extremely important in helping introduce new listeners to improvised music. In the early to mid portion of last century, jazz musicians would interpret the popular music of the day. Somewhere along the way, jazz players began to cling to the standards rather than explore current material. I think learning standards is absolutely vital. I personally love playing standards. But there is also tons of great music being written today.
Again, shared experience is one of the greatest aspects of music. I grew up listening to bands like Weezer, and I know other people from my generation did the same. If they walk into the club and hear a chunk of melody from “Say It Ain’t So,” they’re going to get it. It’s topical. They aren’t going to pigeonhole us as jazz. And I happen to thoroughly enjoy playing the tune as well, so it’s a win-win.
Matt: What gear did you use to record the TriOdelay album and how does that differ from your live rig?
Tyler: My live rig and the gear I used to record with are exactly the same. The guitar is a Gibson ES-135 with reissue PAF’s. I use two amps: an all-tube 1×12 Rivera combo and a Polytone that isn’t much of a Polytone anymore; it has been fitted with a great Jensen speaker for a more focused attack. I have a Lexicon MPX-100 rack unit for reverb and a bit of delay. Then, on the floor I currently use two Ibanez Tube Screamers, Boss digital delay, Line 6 DL-4, Dunlop tremelo, and a volume pedal. For strings I use round wound DR-Pure Blues 11’s.
The main difference between the studio recording and the live sound is that in the studio we put a large diaphragm condenser mic in front of the guitar itself, in order to pick up some of the acoustic properties. This is a bit reminiscent of many Jim Hall recordings. When I practice guitar at home with the amp at low volume, the acoustic timbre of my archtop is very much a part of the sound I hear. At loud volumes on stage this effect gets lost, but in the studio I wanted to capture the intimacy of my sound.
Matt: With jazz sales and concert attendance declining in recent years where do you see the future of jazz in America if it’s going to survive as a valid and innovative art form?
Tyler: I think jazz and/or improvised music will always survive. You are talking to somebody who grew up in a town in Wisconsin, who happens to have lots of friends from that same town that love and avidly support this music. The one thing that I do fear and warn against is the feeling of elitism. I’ve witnessed, and have probably been guilty of this myself at some point, musicians and music fans outwardly looking down upon “inferior” styles of music.
That type of mindset is extremely detrimental. Find common ground. Remain open minded in the same way you would wish a Taylor Swift fan be open minded if you played her a John Coltrane recording. We all need to be advocates and promoters of good music.
Matt: With your new CD set for release in December what are your plans for the coming year? Is there a new CD or possibly a method book on the horizon?
Tyler: I have a singer-songwriter project that I plan to finish recording over the winter holidays. That album is tentatively titled An Apple and Eve. It features my good friend Mike Neumeyer on marimba and percussion. Also, I’m starting a folk-rock outfit in Charleston in the upcoming months, and have begun thinking about doing a trio disc of something more straight-ahead before too long. I guess I’ll be busy.
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Links
College of Charleston Music Homepage
