Gyasi Ross Music

In Pasadena California, in a smoke filled room with high school gangsters, musicians and poets, I idolized my brother and his friends as they created music in circle, they called it a cipher. I was a fly on the wall in the 7th grade and desperately wanted to participate. At the time I didn’t understand how. My voice didn’t move or sound the way theirs did and I nearly gave up. In high school I was tricked into joining the marching band by a friend who asked, “Hey can you come up to school and hold some instruments?” I went to a predominantly African-American school and most students didn’t play music so the band director did all he could to make the marching band look full. I wasn’t going to fake play anything, so I started taking Jazz Trumpet lessons from Nolan Shaeed, an amazing trumpet player who’s was the musical director for Marvin Gaye. From there, I transitioned to guitar in my junior year of high school and never put it down sense. Before College, I took lessons from Gary Bell, an old guitar player from the tonight show. I now have a degree in Jazz Guitar and World Music from San Francisco State University. Even though I’m far from the smoky room where my humble beginnings started, that music still lives with me. I am a Singer/Songwriter and I play Acoustic-Hip Hop. I am releasing my first solo acoustic album, “By Any Means”. It features the struggle and the love of getting to this point in Music. I’ve played with a number of notable musicians in the bay area including The Park, Denizen Kane of the Typical Cats, and Bret Dennen who was the opener for John Mayer. I’ve been influenced by John legend, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, The Roots(Black Thought), Dashboard Confessionals, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Pass, john Coltrane. I love to create music and share it, these songs are my therapy. I am a Singer/Songwriter and I play Acoustic-Hip Hop. I love to create, these songs are my therapy.