Kelly Rossum - "What's all this Jazz about Kelly Rossum?" By Kable Reid

Well personally speaking I had first met Kelly about 2 years ago when his first album titled Party's Over/Begun came out. You see I dabble in many music avenues, as many people do in the Twin Cities, and I had been working with specialty genres like Jazz for a company that handled radio promotion. He came to where I was working at that time for some radio promotion and I was fortunate enough to work with him on his album. I began to see his true love of creativity and music, as most of you will now begin to see for yourselves in this article.

Kelly Rossum is a trumpet player and composer residing in Minneapolis. He moved to Minneapolis in 1996, he knew he found a nurturing artistic environment to continue his process. Home to a thriving jazz scene as well as world class orchestras, it was a place where he could develop professionally. Kelly freelanced with rock, swing, jazz and classical musicians as well as performing with the acclaimed Lyra Consort. Jazz remained his true calling and in the year 2000 Kelly started his own quintet (The Kelly Rossum Quintet) to perform original jazz compositions. By tapping into the vibrant Minneapolis music scene, this recording ensemble is some of the best and brightest stars of the urban jazz underground.

“After returning from a 3 week gig in Zurich, Switzerland, I decided to get my quintet into the studio.” His first recording as bandleader, Party's Over/Begun, was released in 2002 through Yebo Productions. This CD documents many of Rossum's early compositions in an acoustic jazz format. Party’s Over/Begun received strong reviews on the national scene and continues to climb in sales through Internet outlets.

He managed to acquire decent exposure and airplay in radio (charting #1 in Alaska), which had helped his regional credibility. He continued to do shows with his quintet (The Kelly Rossum Quintet) around town and throughout the Midwest. It was about this time that MacPhail Center for Music hired me as Jazz Coordinator for their emerging jazz program. MacPhail now has a 15 person jazz faculty and will hopefully be running 10 jazz combos and a handful of other offerings for fall of 2004.

It was also around the time of his first recording that Electropolis (www.electropolis-net.com) began to play live shows. Electropolis is a jazz/rock/metal quintet based almost entirely on improvisation. “With my own quintet, I decided to add electric bass and Rhodes piano to my acoustic group, not because of Electropolis, but because of my fond memories of the 1970's and the kind of sounds that were prevalent in that era.” So by mixing traditional jazz sensibilities and instruments based on throwback technology, the foundation was laid for the new quintet. By adding some new musicians to Electropolis the sound and style emerged. The first experiment was a show at the Bryant Lake Bowl in spring of 2003. “After that show, I knew we were on to something.”

His second album Renovation is Kelly Rossum's current project which is due to be released in May of 2004 on the label 612 Sides. “I wanted to challenge some of the conventions in jazz. The styles and forms are slightly different than one would expect from a traditional jazz album. We added electric Rhodes piano and electric bass for some tunes and the resulting sound combinations are fantastic. The band played great, the studio sounded incredible and the artwork is beautiful. I can't wait until this record is on the shelves!”

After many performances, they recorded at Wild Sound studio in NE Minneapolis. “The album was in the can after three easy sessions.” The new CD is going for radio ads nationally May 6th, 2004. Keep checking the website, www.krossum.com, for updated chart status and for further information on the CD release party on Wednesday, May 26th at The Cedar (www.thecedar.org). Make sure you check it out because right after the show he will be taking off to Italy for the month of June to play and book more European tours.



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