Joel Ross | Gospel Music Review

by Darnell Jackson

Gospel Music by Joel Ross is a collection of songs where faith is carried in the architecture of sequence, shared space, and the authority of an ensemble that understands belief as something built together rather than proclaimed aloud.

Joel Ross has long written music attentive to structure, but Gospel Music feels distinctly constructed. It does not rush to assert meaning. Instead, it constructs an arc that is measured and deliberate, as each piece functions as a chamber within a larger design. The album’s spiritual presence is not theatrical; it is sequential.

The opening invocation, “Wisdom Is Eternal (For Barry Harris),” establishes this spirit immediately. The ensemble’s layering and pacing are devotional without becoming static. The form feels episodic rather than cyclical, as if the music is laying foundations rather than presenting a theme to be reiterated. Each phrase leaves room for the next, and the ensemble enters that room carefully.

From there, the record begins to widen. “Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)” distributes its thematic material across the front line, allowing the dual saxophones of Josh Johnson and Maria Grand to speak in layered dialogue. The structure is less about spotlight than conversation. Jeremy Corren’s piano, Kanoa Mendenhall’s bass, and Jeremy Dutton’s drums support without crowding, maintaining clarity even as density increases. The music expands, but the architecture holds.

On “Protoevangelium (The First Gospel),” the transition of gradually gathering momentum is  the ensemble focus on shaping a collective crescendo rather than chasing individual display. This pattern, opening, gathering, and balancing, recurs throughout the record. Each piece feels aware of its placement within the whole.

The driving passages of “Hostile” introduce sharper angular lines with forward-leaning rhythmic articulation. The head-and-solo format remains disciplined; improvisation unfolds within clear structural boundaries. The intensity serves the arc rather than interrupting it.

If the first half of Gospel Music establishes architecture through instrumental interplay, the middle of the record refines its sense of proportion. “The Shadowlands” embraces minor tonalities, sustained tones, and long decays. Silence becomes an active participant. “Nevertheless” and “Word for Word” offer warmth and buoyancy without abandoning deliberation. Blues inflections surface, but they are integrated into the ensemble blend rather than foregrounded as stylistic statements.

“A Little Love Goes a Long Way” operates as a brief interlude, compact and uncluttered. Its placement is crucial. It functions as a breath within the larger sequence, recalibrating the listener before the introduction of voice.

Texture is expanded when the vocals arrive. Laura Bibbs on “Praise To You, Lord Jesus Christ,” Ekep Nkwelle on “Calvary,” and Andy Louis on “The Giver.” The texture shifts, but the ethos does not. The ensemble surrounds each voice with luminous harmonic support and measured dynamic contour. There is no dramatic swell meant to overwhelm. The vocal entries feel like a deepening as the liturgy acquires language, with the architecture remaining steady.

“To The Throne (The Mercy Seat),” “Be Patient” and “The New Man” have a unifying phrasing that expands gradually as the music comes together for the album’s ending. The selections condense its ideas into contemporary modern jazz, colored by cohesion. And in the closing “Now & Forevermore,” the timbral palette broadens with harp, electronics, and mellotron textures. The record ends with expansion. The sequence that began in shimmer concludes in breadth.

Throughout Gospel Music, the ensemble listens and balances density and sequence. The spiritual character of the album is thus enacted in practice. Faith is not announced; it is structured. In the Black American musical tradition from which this work draws, communal sound has long functioned as testimony. Here, that testimony resides in design: in the unfolding of sequence, in a shared space, and in the ensemble’s refusal to mistake intensity for volume.

 

Artist: Joel Ross
Album: Gospel Music
Label: Blue Note Records

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Release Date: January 30, 2026