Rashawn Ross was first introduced to music in the 3rd grade at the Ulla F. Muller Elementary School under the direction of Joe Francis where he honestly only chose to play the trumpet because that was what all the other boys wanted to play. His love for music came from his mom and dad; they introduced him to Teddy Pendergrass, Freddie Jackson and groups like Earth Wind and Fire. He even remembers stealing his first jazz CD from his dad.
Now a member of the world renowned Dave Mathews band, Rashawn is one of the most sought after trumpet players in musical collaborations ranging from jazz, country and gospel to hip hop, dancehall and rock. He has recorded with and performed with some of the top names in music today including: Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, the Fugees, Willie Nelson, Talib Kweli, Ron Blake, Fred Hammond and even Sean Paul. CORE sat down with Rashawn to find out how he crafted such a phenomenal career.
Rashawn began to hone his jazz improvisational skills while practicing with Reginald Cyntje, Lasim Richards (his best friend to this day) and other talented young musicians at the time. He favorite trumper players are Clifford Brown and Arturo Sandoval.
As a graduate of Berklee’s College of Music, Rashawn remembers the profound impact his experiences there had on his career. “When I got to Berklee there was a whole movement going on. There were jazz musicians appearing on hip hop albums. So the Jazz Nazi mentality was somewhat being challenged. The idea that a jazz musician looking down on other genres and jazz musicians should only play jazz was fading every time a pop or R&B record came out. So being in that environment was conducive to versatility which was great for me, because I grew up in a musically versatile culture.”
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He goes on to explain: “Coming up, I aspired to be a jazz artist/musician. Now I don't consider myself a jazz artist/musician at all because that's not what I do for a living. I'm just a musician that just happens to know how to play a little jazz. And it's helped me tremendously. I guess I'm just a plain ol' musician. I'm successful as a musician. I'm happy doing what I do. I love it no matter what genre. I love playing music.”
When asked about which cross-genre collaboration stands out the most in his mind, he quickly said Willie Nelson because he never thought he would ever play country music. Touring with DJ Quik, a ‘gangster’ rapper, was also interesting.
But he doesn’t consider himself a crossover musician because all his life he has been playing a wide array of different musical styles. “So being successful as a musician as a whole is all I've ever wanted. Now I'm in a well known rock band and things couldn't be better. That's life. Things change. But I thanks god for bringing me this far…I knew that I'd be traveling the world and playing music. But I never in a million years thought that I'd be doing it at the level that I am now. I never foresaw playing to anywhere from 16,000 to 50,000 people every night. I still took to the audience sometimes and can't believe it's real. I'm very grateful for everyone in my life that's gotten me to this point. Especially my mom, Beverly Monsanto and my dad, Randy Ross(god rest his soul).”
His advice to young musicians is to: “Practice!!! Give yourself as much real world playing experience as you can. And make sure you love what you do and take pride in it. Always strive to get better at what you do. Always try to touch your listeners with the music you play. Try to make the listeners leave feeling better than they did when they walked in to hear you. Never forget music is an art form that's meant to be shared.”
“...make sure you love what you do and take pride in it...”
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