Born: August 19, 1977 Primary Instrument: Guitar
Sacramento guitarist Ross Hammond has been playing music on large stages and in small corners on the West Coast and beyond for the past decade.
He has received the Sacramento News and Review music award for Best Area Jazz Musician in 2008, 2009 and 1999 (with Chili Palmer Project) and received a Critic’s Choice award for Special Achievement in 2007.
Hammond currently hosts “Nebraska Mondays,” a weekly improvised music series at Luna’s Cafe in Sacramento. To check out the series go to www.nebraskamondays.blogspot.com.
He programs the annual “In The Flow Festival” in Sacramento which he founded with Byron Blackburn in 2008. For information go to www.intheflowsacramento.com.
Recent projects include:
-Electropoetic Coffee, a duo with poet and vocalist NSAA.
-Lovely Builders, a guitar and drum duo with Scott Amendola
-A Quartet with Vinny Golia, Alex Cline and Steuart Liebig
-V Neck, a duo with drummer Tom Monson
He has collaborated with Erik Kleven, Phillip Greenlief, Kevin Seconds, Vinny Golia, Alex Cine, Scott Amendola, Josh Fernandez, Roscoe Mitchell, GE Stinson, Oliver Lake, Tony Passarell, David Boyce, Sameer Gupta, Rick Lotter, Daryl Shawn, Lee Bob Watson, Brian Ballentine, Wes Steed, Christian Kiefer, Darren Johnston and Devin Hoff, Kevin Corcoran, Lucio Menegon, John Hanes, Byron Blackburn, Lisa Mezzacappa and many others...
Awards:
2009 Best Area Jazz Artist by Sacramento News and Review 2008 Best Area Jazz Artist by Sacramento News and Review 2007 Critic's Choice Award for Special Achievement by Sacramento News and Review“Sacramento based guitarist Ross Hammond's Teakayo Mission is one of those rare, indie sessions that creatively succeeds where so many others fall by the wayside. Leading a potent group that listens as effectively as it plays...Hammond merges rock, jazz and free improvisation into a cohesive collection beyond category....Flying under the radar of the mainstream, Teakayo Mission straddles the border- lines of multiple genres, occupying a creative no-man's-land of the future....” -Troy Collins, All About Jazz
“Blending '70s-era fusion styles with Latin and Indian influences Teakayo is a free-jazz outfit featuring percussionists Joaquin McPeek and Scott Amendola, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and saxophonist David Boyce. Hammond and his brethren are free, but not abyssmally so. Their music still swings.” - Rachel Swan, East Bay Express 6/28/07
”Ross is a guitarist and on this release he surrounds himself with impeccable musicians who obviously share his joy and belief in this type of jazz. It’s a bold album. It is challenging and intelligent and joyous. I like it very much.” -Mark Robinson, www.itsajazzthing.com
“Ross Hammond is to the local jazz scene what alternative rock was to the late 1980s and early 1990s....the RACE!!! Quartet played a blistering, intricate set that was exploratory and fascinating. RACE!!! is one of the most interesting musical projects currently working in Sacramento, and I suppose jazz fans can rejoice in seeing such a group in the super- intimate settings it tends to play. Check where you can catch them next. You certainly won’t be disappointed.” -Christian Kiefer, Sacramento News and Review 11/05
“Hammond and Jenkins exhibited confidence and craft as they jammed through 40 minutes of India- themed guitar and tabla improv, with a pre-recorded tamboura droning in the background as accompaniment. Hammond’s use of guitar effects like layered harmonies, sounds turned backward, and distorted individual notes--just to name a few tricks--along with Jenkins’ dexterous percussion made it easy to forget there were only two musicians on stage” -David Riedel, Sacramento News and Review 1/07
“Hammond’s music continues to impress me with its particularly laid-back and yet very contemporary take on jazz, managing, as he does, to fuse the mellow and romantic qualities of Chet Baker and--for a guitarist’s comparison--Wes Montgomery, along with Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis. The end result is one moment spacey and another melodic, and altogether interesting music.” -Christian Kiefer, Sacramento News and Review, 6/04
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Primary Instrument:
Guitar
Location:
Sacramento, CA
Willing to teach:
Beginners
Credentials/Background:
Been teaching theory and guitar privately and scholastically for
14 years.
Available at certain times
weekdays. Private lessons are $50 per hour, or $30 per half
hour.
Clinic/Workshop Information:
Improvisation clinics have been taught in Sacramento and Davis,
CA. The goal
of the workshop is to get
out of one's comfort zone and focus on communicating with other
musicians.
