I am back after taking a week off and I feel recharged. Even though the business end of maintaining this site does not take a vacation, it still is good to give the brain a little break once in a while. Also, it’s good to come back with a feature of one of our promising young musicians, Kevin Ross. His music and story bring with it a lot of energy, and I hope that will be apparent to all of you reading this week.
Kevin Ross was tagged quite early in his development as a musician on the rise. At this point in his career he is still rising, with a long way to go. We hope. Even after years of activity in the music industry, it feels like we are at the start for Kevin Ross. This week we will discuss the life and musical background of Kevin Ross, perhaps shedding light on the reason it feels like The Carpenter’s hit song, “We’ve only just begun”.
Several years ago Kevin Ross explained much about his start in an interview with rollingout.com. “I began to take music serious as a sophomore at Duke Ellington School of the Arts. We always did a Motown review in the spring time and that particular year I was selected to do Stevie Wonder. So big deal around school was like who was gonna do Stevie Wonder and I was selected to do it. I was nervous at first, but to get that feeling from the crowd was beyond euphoric and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.”
As I learned more about Kevin Ross and his high school days, I wanted to know a little more about Duke Ellington School of the Arts. First, it was named after the American jazz bandleader and composer Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, himself a native of Washington, D.C. The curriculum itself is designed to train the next Kevin Ross and more.
Graduates of the school are prepared to pursue an artistic and theatric occupation. In addition to completing the traditional public school college prep curriculum, students must audition for and complete studies in one of the following artistic areas: dance, literary media and communications, museum studies, instrumental music, vocal music, theater, technical design and production, and visual arts.
The school developed from the collaborative efforts of Peggy Cooper Cafritz, a long-time member of the D.C. School Board and Mike Malone, a veteran of Broadway, off-Broadway, contemporary dancer, director, and master choreographer, who were co-founders of Workshops for Careers in the Arts in 1968. In 1974 this workshop program developed into the Duke Ellington School of the Arts at Western High School, an accredited four-year public high school program combining arts and academics. It is currently operated as a joint partnership between D.C. Public Schools, the Kennedy Center, and George Washington University.
Interestingly, this particular recollection of events in high school were during his sophomore year. It is a little unusual for a student that young to standout early in such a setting. Such programs, especially high school programs, are designed in a way to promote musical and emotional growth. Therefore the older student normally takes advantage of such opportunities. Nevertheless, it shows that Kevin Ross stood out much earlier in his musical life. Following high school, he accepted a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied contemporary writing and production.
During that same rollingout.com Ross discussed events surrounding his entry into Berklee. “I was 17 when I went to Berklee, so I had no idea of what I really wanted to do. I knew that I could sing and I knew I loved to sing, but I didn’t know how I could make it into a career. I didn’t have that conversation with my parents to say, well, you know there are millions and millions of singers out here, what makes you different? They’ve always instilled in me that I was different. So going into school, I knew that I was different.”
While attending Berklee, Ross appeared on BET’s 106 and Park’s as part of the shows Wild Out Wednesday competition. Ross ended up winning the competition and through his win, caught the attention of executive producer and music industry veteran Troy Taylor. After graduating from Berklee College, Ross moved to Atlanta where he began his songwriting career. After successfully landing several songwriting placements with Trey Songz, Jamie Foxx, and other platinum artists, Kevin signed a recording deal with Motown Records.
Now as with most stories this one appears to be headed toward a happily ever after. Young man graduates from prestigious music high school program, goes on to attend prestigious Berklee College. He then goes on to sign a contract with legendary record company Motown Records. I couldn’t write a better script for an aspiring artist.
Kevin’s first solo release on Motown, Dialogue in the Grey, was released in 2014. The 4-track EP, which featured appearances by Ne-Yo and T.I, allowed Kevin the opportunity to tour nationally as the opening act for Maxwell’s Summer Soulstice tour and Ne-Yo’s One Night With Ne-Yo tour. After having a breakout year, AOL named Kevin Ross their “Best New Artist” for 2014. In 2015, Kevin announced the release of his long-awaited debut album on Motown, The Awakening however, the project would not be released until 2017. During that time, Kevin held his audience over by creating his 1990s R&B mash up series. The mash-up series ended up becoming popular on social media and introduced Kevin to a whole new audience.
About the time of his big hit single, Long Song Away I considered featuring Ross in Weekly Music Commentary. As I have discussed before, sometimes it is difficult to schedule artists for a variety of reasons. At least I have the opportunity to feature Kevin Ross now. The single peaked at No.1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Song chart and radio’s Urban Adult Contemporary chart, making him the first debut Motown recording artist since 2010 to accomplish that feat. On September 17, 2017, Ross announced the release of his third EP, Drive.
Ross took a brief hiatus from the music industry. In January 2019, he reemerge and announced his exit from his recording label Motown and the creation of his own label, Art Society Music Group. When asked his reason for leaving Motown, Ross says “I wanted to have the freedom to decide who I am doing co-ventures with. It’s just like in any kind of business, when you have too many cooks that’s within the kitchen, sometimes you don’t get the best result, especially when everyone doesn’t have the same end goal in mind. Everyone can have great intentions, but if you’re not on the same page, good intentions are kind of pointless.”
That brings us to 2020. Early 2020 to be exact. Ross announced the release of the 7-track EP Audacity, Vol. 1 on January 31, 2020. A very good EP complete with hit song Thing Called Love. Kevin Ross is ready to deliver music on his terms now.
Yes, that word audacity fits perfectly in this case. A noun that means a willingness to take bold risks. Kevin Ross had the audacity to leave Motown, to take a hiatus from the music industry, to create his own label and start over again. Get ready for Audacity Vol. 2.