For those not in the know, in his decade-plus residence in New York, compelling drummer and producer Ross Pederson has performed regularly around town and toured the world as a sideman ranging from collaborating with Snarky Puppy and supporting Patti Austin at a Kennedy Center New Year’s Eve extravaganza to today serving as the drummer for the Manhattan Transfer, an international gig since 2016.

He is currently working with Grace Kelly and Shayna Steele, but, he says, his broad musical taste has taken him in many directions. Call him a musical chameleon.

“I have roots in different kinds of music that don’t show up in my sideman gigs,” says Pederson, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, and graduate of the University of Texas Jazz Studies. “So, I was looking for an outlet to express myself as an artist.”

With a stellar band of musicians attuned to a different sonic experience informed by jazz, rock, pop and even full-tilt hip-hop, Pederson makes his solo recording debut with the self-fulfilling title, Identity. The indie release—available August 25th, 2023 on most streaming platforms—opens with a splash and ends with a surprise.

“This is me,” Pederson says. “It’s a sensibility of one foot in the jazz world and one foot in pop. I drum, program, and added in layers of synths and percussion during the Identity production.”

1. Anxiety
2. Now
3. In The Moment
4. Contemplation
5. Strange Things
6. Sagittarius
7. Hope Uplift
8. No Pressure
9. Bedlam
10. Somewhere In The World
11. Bigger Than That

Opening on the electronically-hued, melodic and, at times, gently fervent Anxiety, it continues onward with the dutifully uplifting Now, the veritably ethereal In The Moment, and then come both the smooth Contemplation and Strange Things (a sci-fi groove inspired by the Netflix series Stranger Things).

Up next is one of my own personal favorites from this new recording, the electronica-nourished Sagittarius (Pederson’s birth sign, and a track that finds McCaslin and Pollack conversing together), which is itself backed by the spatially ariose Hope Uplift, the entertaining, almost cinematic ambiance of No Pressure, the impassioned Bedlam (a reflection of the 2020 elections), the album rounding out on the short, but sweet jazz-pop of Somewhere In The World, coming to a close on the left-of-center, cultured and harmonically sculpted hip-hop cut Bigger Than That.

Along for the ride are fellow in-demand beat keeper bassist Sam Minaie and two keyboardists who color the show with a full and at times dense spectrum of electronics — David Cook on piano, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, synths and Hammond B-3; and Julian “J3PO” Pollack on piano, Rhodes, B-3, synths. The group solidifies with tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, who delivers blustery excursions and outstanding harmonies that are signature to his rock-meets jazz intuition.

“Donny is a player who has relentless energy,” Pederson says. “Before and after I moved to New York, I saw him as a key player in my own development. I looked at him as a mentor. He was driven in jazz but also just as heavily by indie rock and electronica. He’s a heavy player who is generous. We became friendly and played some sessions together. Donny was the perfect voice for this music. He stretches here.”

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