Michael Ross
By and large, bass players don’t get as much love as they deserve, so it’s high time we honor Ross. He’s been a fixture on the Tampa Bay jazz scene since 1977, when he arrived from Pennsylvania as a freshman music student at USF. He’s provided rhythmically agile, harmonically savvy bass work—not to mention stirring solos—for an array of bands, most notably Liquid Bebop, which he led in the 1980s. Ross willingly schleps his big, shapely, wooden instrument from gig to gig and plays his ass off—and for that we owe him a debt of gratitude. He hasn’t owned an electric bass since 1978. The acoustic bassist has lived in Sarasota for quite some time, but still performs intermittently north of the Skyway. Keep an eye out for his duo shows with vocalist Fred Johnson. They’re something to behold. michaelrossbass.com
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 7, 2021.
