Multi-Award Winning Ross McHenry Set To Release New Exposé-Style Album

The insanely talented, multi-award winning composer, producer and bass player, Ross McHenry delivers his newest body of work, The Outsiders; a carefully considered jazz journey set for an Australian release on November 10.

Initially conceived in New York City mid-2015 and recorded across two years, The Outsiders is an eight-track exposé delving into Australia’s rich sense of borrowed cultural heritage, political misgivings, and innate persona. Examining identity in our time of unprecedented connectivity, The Outsiders explores what it means to belong in the modern world.

Accompanied on The Outsiders by esteemed New Zealand drummer Myele Manzanza, and the Adelaide born, US based pianist and composer Matthew Sheens, the trio initially set the project in motion when they were fortuitously together as part of WOMADelaide 2015; where they descended upon Adelaide’s Chapel Lane Studios without pre-conceived limitations or a prerequisite to what was to be musically explored. What evolved was The Outsiders, a new sense of freedom and discovery for McHenry

“It was instantly fulfilling and I loved rediscovering the freedom of the trio format; it wasn’t a format I’d played in for years but I knew immediately that I needed to pursue it further.” Said McHenry

“This album is the first album where I have actively written with a sense of cultural identity in mind. I didn’t intend to create this trio with people who inherently understand the themes I was trying to achieve with this project, in fact the group came together almost by chance. Luckily for me it turned out that when we all got in a room together to record music, I found that Sheens and Manzanza understood and felt acutely what I was talking about.”

Recently awarded the Marten Bequest Scholarship, 2017 Art Music Awards finalist and shortlisted for the 2017 Freedman Jazz Award; Ross McHenry has become synonymous with the international creative improvised music movement. As a musician and composer McHenry has been leader for the genres Australian movement, as he develops its discourse, its history and its future.