For those unaware, Adonis Rose is a New Orleans drummer, composer, producer, and educator whose career has developed through sustained engagement with the city’s jazz tradition and the musicians carrying it forward.

Across more than fifty recordings as a leader and collaborator, he has worked with artists including Terence Blanchard, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Harry Connick Jr., Wynton Marsalis, and longtime collaborator Nicholas Payton.

Rose’s work has taken him from New Orleans to stages and festivals throughout the United States and abroad, but his career has consistently joined performance with a broader commitment to ensemble building, education, and artistic development.

In 2010, he earned a GRAMMY Award with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. He later became the orchestra’s Artistic Director, a role that expanded his involvement in concert development, educational programming, community engagement, and artistic partnerships.

As a producer, Rose has continued to develop projects centered on New Orleans artists and repertoire. In 2019, he produced the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint for Storyville Records, bringing together his interests in repertoire, ensemble identity, and the continuing evolution of New Orleans music.

That same commitment increasingly extends beyond the city itself. Rose has worked to create sustained international opportunities for New Orleans musicians while keeping the music rooted in the community and relationships that shaped it. That perspective provides an important context for Live at JazzAscona: The Music of Gregg Hill (via Cold Plunge Records), a project that brings a New Orleans ensemble into an international setting while leaving space for the individual and collective musical voices at its center.

On Live at JazzAscona: The Music of Gregg Hill, drummer and producer Adonis Rose brings a seven-piece New Orleans ensemble into a live setting built around the compositions of Gregg Hill.

1. “First Impulse” [8:12]
2. “Tone Colors” [9:04]
3. “Bop Be” [6:43]
4. “Cat’s Cradle” [8:52]
5. “Melissa’s Tune” [6:37]
6. “Lush Life” [8:15]

Recorded during the 42nd edition of JazzAscona in Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland, in July 2025, they open on the euphorically charged, Phillip Manuel vocalized “First Impulse” and the resplendently vocal “Tone Colors” and then comes the scat-fueled, bitty-bop flow of Keith Jarrett’s “Bop Be” and the decadently-hued, gently vocalized “Cat’s Cradle,” the new recording rounding out on the smoothly silk-laced “Melissa’s Tune,” coming to a close on the elegantly vocalized gem Billy Strayhorn’s exquisite “Lush Life.”

For Rose, the album belongs to a broad continuum. His liner notes describe an ongoing effort to connect New Orleans musicians with international audiences while preserving the culture and relationships from which the music grows. Through the developing relationship among JazzAscona, Cold Plunge Records, and New Orleans artists, Live at JazzAscona: The Music of Gregg Hill extends that work through a recording in which musical collaboration—not institutional partnership—remains the central expression of the exchange.

PLAYERS/INSTRUMENTS:
Adonis Rose — drums
Phillip Manuel — vocals
Rex Gregory — alto saxophone, arrangements
Ashlin Parker — trumpet
Miles Berry — tenor saxophone
Seth Finch — piano
Max Moran — acoustic bass

www.iamadonisrose.com

www.gregghilljazz.com