Home » Jazz Musicians » Ross Hammond

Ross Hammond

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

Gear

1950s Silvertone archtop (a gift from the late Erik Kleven), Vintage Roots hollowbody Jazzmaster, G&L ASAT, 1930s Fischer Acoustic Archtop, 1950s Magnatone Lap Steel, Fender Musicmaster Amp, ZT Lunchbox Megabrute, Epiphone Valver Jr., Tascam 38 Reel to Reel, TEAC 2 Track Reel to Reel, and a list of various loopers, delays, fuzz boxes and effects that keeps changing...


Tags

3
Album Review

Jon Raskin, Ross Hammond, Clifford Childers, Dana Wendel: Space and Time Blues

Read "Space and Time Blues" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


On the captivating Space and Time Blues saxophonist Jon Raskin, with three equally adventurous colleagues, puts a uniquely intriguing twist on country blues. The heavily improvised release is made up of seven interconnected parts each with a picturesque title. The result is a cinematic and evocative suite filled with warmth and spontaneity. Opening the album with a dramatic sense, “Amongst The Reeds" starts off with collective tolling sounds reminiscent of church bells. Within the somber mood that drummer ...

Album Review

Ross Hammond: Our Place On The Wheel

Read "Our Place On The Wheel" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


Dopo alcuni anni di gavetta come chitarrista e improvvisatore jazz, il chitarrista Ross Hammond ha deciso di dedicarsi prevalentemente a un genere identificabile come American Primitive Guitar, termine inizialmente introdotto da John Fahey per indicare uno stile che ha le sue radici nella tradizione country e blues, mescolata con materiale non tradizionale di diversa estrazione, come la musica classica europea e i raga indiani, ma seguendo sempre un approccio spontaneo e non accademico (da qui deriva il termine Primitive). Lo ...

4
Album Review

The Flatland Quartet: Songs From The Urban Forest

Read "Songs From The Urban Forest" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


The members of The Flatland Quartet are not only accomplished improvisers, they are socially aware artists. Their activism permeates Songs From The Urban Forest. This is not only because the proceeds from its sale will be donated to the Sacramento Food Bank. All six interrelated pieces are simultaneously abstract and earthy, marked by a sublime balance of the cerebral and the emotive. Opening the set is “Joe Hill's Last and Final Will." It is built around the poem ...

4
Album Review

Ross Hammond & Jay Nair: Hope

Read "Hope" reviewed by Mark Corroto


We are all one people. That bears reiterating, and is probably why 12-string steel guitarist Ross Hammond and Indian Carnatic singer Jay Nair have repeated their musical collaboration; Hope follows the duo's 2018 release Songs of Universal Peace (Prescott Recordings) as they reconvene to spread their message once again. One may ask what does an Appalachian folk/delta blues guitarist have in common with a classical Indian Hindu singer? Well nothing, yet everything. Just as John Coltrane borrowed from ...

4
Album Review

Ross Hammond - Oliver Lake - Mike Pride: Our Place On The Wheel

Read "Our Place On The Wheel" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Let's make the blues great again. Like a certain political slogan from the 2016 election, the blues, like America, has always been great. Guitarist Ross Hammond's blues are also analogous to the American experience, with his diverse and heterogeneous perspective. His trio recording Our Place On The Wheel reflects this variegated approach. The 'great' part is that Hammond's compositions are communicated through a dream team trio. His steel guitar is matched by jazz master saxophonist Oliver Lake of World Saxophone ...

106
Album Review

Ross Hammond & Jon Bafus: Masonic Lawn

Read "Masonic Lawn" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Guitarist Ross Hammond's radar blip keeps flickering across a multi-genre display the past several years, whether leading experimental jazz ensembles or morphing pre-conceived boundaries into other spheres. The Sacramento-based artist has performed with composer, reedman Vinnie Golia, drummer Mike Pride and a host of other cutting-edge progressive jazz heroes. On this release, Hammond unites his multifaceted musical persona with like-minded drummer Jon Bafus for a hip, roots-driven session that is a limited-CD release (only 50 copies) yet available as a ...

Multiple Reviews

Ross Hammond: in solo e in duo con Vinny Golia

Read "Ross Hammond: in solo e in duo con Vinny Golia" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


Dopo diversi anni di attività svolta principalmente nell'ambito del jazz e della musica improvvisata, il chitarrista Ross Hammond ha recentemente intrapreso una nuova direzione musicale abbandonando temporaneamente la chitarra elettrica in favore dello strumento acustico, in versione 12 corde o resofonica, e ha inciso una serie di album per chitarra acustica tra i più belli degli ultimi anni. Ci siamo già occupati dei primi due da lui realizzati, Flight e Upward; diamo ora un'occhiata ai due lavori successivi, recentemente pubblicati ...

Read more articles
1

Recording

Guitarist Ross Hammond Releases Humanity Suite on Prescott Recordings

Guitarist Ross Hammond Releases Humanity Suite on Prescott Recordings

Source: Matt Merewitz

Featuring Vinny Golia, Catherine Sikora, Dax Compise, Clifford Childers & Kerry Kashiwaga History may be written by the winners, but it can be rewritten by anyone courageous enough to speak truth to power. Guitarist Ross Hammond‘s new record, Humanity Suite, on Prescott Recordings, is a powerful statement, both musically and historically, taking its starting point from Kara Walker‘s truth-telling artwork. It’s also a follow-up to his well- received 2013 album Cathedrals. In 2013, Hammond was offered a chance to play ...

145

Recording

Ross Hammond's "An Effective Use of Space" Released

Ross Hammond's "An Effective Use of Space" Released

Source: All About Jazz

With aid from Lisa Mezzacappa on bass and John Hanes on drums, the music glides easily between the sleepy and bombastic, sensual and aggressive Rachel Leibrock, Sacramento News and Review

Ross Hammond's new album “An Effective Use of Space" (Prescott, 2009) is a mix of solo and trio pieces. Released 9/04/2009, the trio session was recorded by Myles Boisen in Oakland CA, in May 2009. Solo selections were recorded at Studio Wha? in Sacramento. The cover art was ...

”Ross Hammond is a man who can probably express himself with a guitar better than most of us can with the English language...” -Sacramento News and Review, 2009

“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

Read more

Primary Instrument

Guitar

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

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.

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Hope

Prescott Recordings
2022

buy

Songs From The Urban...

Gold Lion Arts
2021

buy

Space and Time Blues

Gold Lion Arts
2021

buy

Our Place On The Wheel

Prescott Recordings
2020

buy

Follow Your Heart

Prescott Recordings
2017

buy

Acoustic Sanctuary...

Self Produced
2017

buy

Euphonium Prodigy

From: Teakayo Mission
By Ross Hammond

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.