Kendra Ross
Encyclopedia
Kendra Ross is an American singer-songwriter
, record producer
, and social activist
. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(though born in Youngstown
, Ohio
) who currently resides in Brooklyn
, New York City
.
She got her start singing in church and performing with the Civic Light Opera
Mini Stars of Pittsburgh. After many years of working in musical theater, Ross went on to work as a vocalist and songwriter with artists such as Quincy Jones
, Kanye West
, Talib Kweli
, Idle Warship
, Omar
, Faith Evans
, Rita Coolidge
, Tamar Kali and many more. She has appeared on NBC
's Today and BET
's 106 & Park
and has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine
. Ross has opened for musicians Babyface and Isaac Hayes
.
Ross' debut album titled New Voice was released in June 2007. The album was co-produced with longtime collaborator/music director Christian Ver Halen and features appearances by Talib Kweli, Eric Roberson
, and more. Many touring and session musicians are also featured on the album, including Teodross Avery (Amy Winehouse
), Maurice Brown (Wynton Marsalis
), Lonnie Plaxico
(Cassandra Wilson
), Chris Rob
(John Legend
), Daniel Sadownick (Matisyahu
), and Skoota Warner
(Santana
). The album has been well received in the U.S. and Japan where it was released by P-Vine Records
in December 2007.
Ross won for New Artist of the Year at the 2007 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards in Detroit on November 16, 2007.
Hip hop
recording artist Talib Kweli wrote in the liner notes of his 2002 album Quality
(on which she wrote and performed): "Kendra's talented, beautiful, and one of a kind."
Ross is also an up-and-coming feminist scholar and cultural anthropologist
who cites Zora Neale Hurston
and Katherine Dunham
as two of her greatest academic influences. She received a Bachelor of Music
from New York University
and a Master of Arts
in Liberal Studies from Brooklyn College
and another in Anthropology from The New School for Social Research in New York City. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Anthropology after releasing and touring with her next album.
Ross is currently writing and recording music for her second album which is set for an early 2012 release.
Kendra Ross Discography/Appearances
Forthcoming
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, and social activist
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
(though born in Youngstown
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
) who currently resides in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
She got her start singing in church and performing with the Civic Light Opera
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera is a nonprofit professional theater company based in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA....
Mini Stars of Pittsburgh. After many years of working in musical theater, Ross went on to work as a vocalist and songwriter with artists such as Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American hip-hop artist and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" ; his in Swahili means "true"...
, Idle Warship
Idle Warship
Idle Warship is a musical duo composed of Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli and Philadelphia singer Res, Res has appeared on each Talib Kweli album since 2000's Train of Thought. They have also toured together, including on the summer 2005 MGD Flavor 2 Savor mini-tour. They released their debut mixtape,...
, Omar
Omar Lye-Fook
Omar Lye-Fook and known as Omar, is an internationally acclaimed British soul singer, songwriter and musician. Omar grew up in Canterbury, Kent. He learned his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano and percussion. Omar also spent two years at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and...
, Faith Evans
Faith Evans
Faith Renée Evans is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, record producer, actress and author. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career with the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B...
, Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American vocalist. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts.-Career:...
, Tamar Kali and many more. She has appeared on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Today and BET
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
's 106 & Park
106 & Park
106 & Park is a Top Ten Hip-Hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that airs weekdays at 6:00 PM on BET . Since its inception, it was the network's #1 rated show...
and has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine
O, The Oprah Magazine
O: The Oprah Magazine, sometimes simply abbreviated to O, is a monthly magazine founded by Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Corporation.-Overview:...
. Ross has opened for musicians Babyface and Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
.
Ross' debut album titled New Voice was released in June 2007. The album was co-produced with longtime collaborator/music director Christian Ver Halen and features appearances by Talib Kweli, Eric Roberson
Eric Roberson
Eric Roberson is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter from Rahway, New Jersey, United States. He is sometimes referred to simply as Erro....
, and more. Many touring and session musicians are also featured on the album, including Teodross Avery (Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
), Maurice Brown (Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
), Lonnie Plaxico
Lonnie Plaxico
Lonnie Plaxico is an African American jazz bassist.Plaxico was born in Chicago, Illinois into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen...
(Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...
), Chris Rob
Chris Rob
Chris Rob is an American musician, native to Chicago and currently resides in New York City. His twist of jazz and cool funk can be witnessed firsthand on the new Leon Ware release "Moon Ride" with the lead single, 'Smoovin', which Chris produced for the industry heavyweight...
(John Legend
John Legend
John Roger Stephens , better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career...
), Daniel Sadownick (Matisyahu
Matisyahu
Matthew Paul Miller , better known by his Hebrew name and stage name Matisyahu, is an American Hasidic Jewish reggae and alternative rock musician....
), and Skoota Warner
Skoota Warner
Skoota Warner is an American musician and was the former drummer from rock band Ra. Warner is currently working on The Emeril Lagasse Show on The ION Network, Hot Tuna, G.E. Smith, Screaming Headless Torsos, KIF, Patrick Stump, Cyndi Lauper and completing his solo record due to be released early...
(Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
). The album has been well received in the U.S. and Japan where it was released by P-Vine Records
P-Vine Records
P-Vine Records is a record label started by Blues Interactions, Inc., a firm in Tokyo, Japan established in 1975 by Yasufumi Higurashi and Akira Kochi...
in December 2007.
Ross won for New Artist of the Year at the 2007 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards in Detroit on November 16, 2007.
Hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
recording artist Talib Kweli wrote in the liner notes of his 2002 album Quality
Quality (album)
Quality is rapper Talib Kweli's first solo album. It was released on November 19, 2002 under Rawkus Records. It received wide critical acclaim and had some commercial appeal from the song "Get By" produced by Kanye West...
(on which she wrote and performed): "Kendra's talented, beautiful, and one of a kind."
Ross is also an up-and-coming feminist scholar and cultural anthropologist
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
who cites Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance...
and Katherine Dunham
Katherine Dunham
Katherine Mary Dunham was an American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator, and activist...
as two of her greatest academic influences. She received a Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in Liberal Studies from Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
and another in Anthropology from The New School for Social Research in New York City. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Anthropology after releasing and touring with her next album.
Ross is currently writing and recording music for her second album which is set for an early 2012 release.
Kendra Ross Discography/Appearances
- 2000 Train of Thought/Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek) [lead and background vocals]
- 2001 Too Close/A Hundred Birds(Japan)[songwriter; background vocals]
- 2002 Quality/Talib Kweli [songwriting; featured and background vocals]
- 2003 Space Under Sun/Ari Gold [songwriting; featured and background vocals]
- 2004 Beautiful Struggle/Talib Kweli [songwriting]
- 2005 Right About Now/Talib Kweli [background vocals]
- 2005 Rawkus Records Best of Decade I 1995-2005 [vocals]
- 2006 Live Shot/The Rooftop [featured vocals]
- 2007 Kendra Ross/New Voice (debut album) [executive producer, co-producer, arranger, and lead and background vocals]
- 2007 Art of Life/Charon Don [background vocals]
- 2007 Eardrum/Talib Kweli [background vocals]
- 2010 Q: Soul Bossa Nostra/Quincy Jones [featured and background vocals]
- 2010 Sleeping Beauty: You Are the One You've Been Waiting On/Abby Dobson [background vocals]
- 2011 Gutter Rainbows/Talib Kweli [songwriting; featured and background vocals; production coordination]
Forthcoming
- 2011 Habits of the Heart/Idle Warship (Talib Kweli & Res) [songwriting; background vocals]
- 2011 Prisoner of Conscious/Talib Kweli [songwriting]
- 2012 Title TBD/Kendra Ross [songwriting; production; lead and background vocals]