Ross Valory Launches New Video Performance Series
(SRO) Ross Valory has just debuted a performance video series-via the original Journey bassist and songwriter's YouTube channel-with a cover of Jimmy Smith's "Root Down."
The series was filmed at ROSS' Northern California studio and features VALORY, bass; Bobby Strickland, sax; Paul Spina, drums; Eric Levy, keyboards; and Vernon "Ice" Black, guitar, vocals. This initial video will be followed by new ones every Thursday for the next three weeks. "Until I play out, I'm Playing In!" Ross says when asked if he'll be doing live shows.
Earlier this year, VALORY released his debut solo album ALL OF THE ABOVE (OID Music). Produced by VALORY and co-produced by Eric Levy and Jacob Stowe, the nine tracks on the album represent the full maturity of VALORY's musical gifts, cutting a broad swath through the instrumental territory the music travels. He plays keyboards, guitar, and, of course, many basses in a display of cultivated virtuosity across a palette far broader than could be found in his work with Journey.
He is stepping out from behind his bass and, for the first time in his more than half-century as a professional musician, representing his vision and his compositions. The album has been accompanied by five videos so far, all directed by Michael Cotton: "Tomland" (the album's hypnotic first single), "Wild Kingdom (with its Latin-fired intensity), and "Windmill" (defined by its Brazilian flair), his interpretation of War's classic cruising anthem "Low Rider" and "Nightflower" (a pastoral ribbon of music featuring Journey founding member George Tickner and Steve Roseman of Cold Blood).
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