Ross McHenry

Ross McHenry is an award-winning Australian composer, bass player, and record producer. His whose work forms part of an ongoing international discourse on creative improvised music. His original compositions encompass a broad range of styles including jazz, Afrobeat, contemporary electronic, and sample-based music. His original compositions, including the title suites from 2013's Distant Oceans and 2017's The Outsiders, encompass a broad range of influences. McHenry's work reflects the unique and changing cultural landscape of Australian creative music and modern Australian cultural identity within the context of an increasingly interconnected global musical scene. McHenry works solo but was a member of futurist funk and soul outfit the Transatlantics, Max Savage & the False Idols, and Hurricanes, as well the leader of Afro-jazz ensemble <a href="spotify:artist:5zcJp5jvssOgZXcxI1wuWe">Shaolin Afronauts</a>. As a solo artist, McHenry has performed extensively around the world, often collaborating with artists such as <a href="spotify:artist:6K3loJxbWoXzVycXOBKh7P">Mark de Clive Lowe</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1UC8QBhdrzQGgnGPcdEMDd">Myele Manzanza</a> (later as a member of the Ross McHenry Trio), <a href="spotify:artist:6de0V6wLyRKp3I2LDMrXCr">Marcus Strickland</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6yJkbSRofSN6kk4BWaqlax">Eddie Bo</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:691nF1fI0SKCfsIypzFr7h">Marva Whitney</a>. McHenry has performed at many of the world's leading arts festivals, including Glastonbury, The Sydney Festival, The Adelaide Festival, Womadelaide, Falls Festival, Wellington International Jazz Festival, and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

All three of the <a href="spotify:artist:5zcJp5jvssOgZXcxI1wuWe">Shaolin Afronauts</a> albums (Flight of the Ancients, 2011, Quest Under Capricorn, 2012, and Follow the Path, 2014, all on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Freestyle%22">Freestyle</a>) were globally acclaimed and picked up by DJs for extensive play in clubs and at festivals. His 2013 debut solo offering, Distant Oceans (with a septet on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22First+Word+Records%22">First Word Records</a>), won the South Australian Music Industry Award prize for best jazz album, and an achievement award for his contribution to Southern Australian music from the Fowlers Live Music Awards in 2014. Two years later, he recorded Child of Somebody using many of the same players as on his debut, along with <a href="spotify:artist:6de0V6wLyRKp3I2LDMrXCr">Strickland</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4QpFZwYNSqn212bHXtpDrc">Corey King</a>, Tivon Pennicott, and <a href="spotify:artist:371h9y9TkJSNXcTzHW6b3u">Duane Eubanks</a> at Red Bull Studios in New York. It received even wider global acclaim. McHenry switched gears for 2017's The Outsiders, working only with a trio that included New Zealand drummer <a href="spotify:artist:1UC8QBhdrzQGgnGPcdEMDd">Manzanza</a> and New York-based multi-award-winning Australian pianist <a href="spotify:artist:0JPXDx4VWAKMfFCVg2mw5E">Matthew Sheens</a>. Rather than replicate what the American and British traditions had already established, these compositions are derived from an exploration of geographical identity, embracing the uniqueness of their own cultural sonic qualities. McHenry explained it thusly: "We are connected to and understand the international history of jazz music, but we are outsiders. We belong in that grand and important lineage of artists, but our perspective is unique, because of where we are from; and as people from small, isolated cities and countries, we are outsiders. Even within the context of our own countries, we do not live or come from the most populous capitals of culture, we are outsiders. This is something we can rebel against, or it is something we can choose to own. I choose to own it, this group chooses to own it, but, most importantly, I feel it in the music." The album was greeted with universal acclaim from critics of independent rock and pop as well as jazz.

2020's Nothing Remains Unchanged found the bassist collaborating with an all-star quartet comprised of <a href="spotify:artist:0gaASCUAMqvXxGFDYaNFca">Ben Wendel</a> on tenor saxophone, <a href="spotify:artist:0wTdAqanDZiEonTBUmBSQh">Eric Harland</a> on drums, and <a href="spotify:artist:0JPXDx4VWAKMfFCVg2mw5E">Matthew Sheens</a> on piano. Composed the previous summer at the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre for Creativity, the album was "strongly influenced by the mountain setting, which provided the solitude and space for deep reflection on both the present and the past, an aesthetic concern McHenry has illustrated throughout his career. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi