Kassa Overall
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Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated jazz artist, drummer, emcee, singer and producer. He seamlessly blends jazz, hip-hop and avant-garde experimentation into a sound uniquely his own.
Kassa Overall
Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated jazz artist, drummer, emcee, singer and producer. He seamlessly blends jazz, hip-hop and avant-garde experimentation into a sound uniquely his own. His music is both innovative and accessible, pushing the boundaries of genre while remaining deeply engaging. Overall has released six critically acclaimed mixtapes and albums, including I Think I’m Good and Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz. His latest project CREAM pays homage to the twin passions of his youth — hip-hop and jazz drums in the tradition of Elvin Jones. His Warp debut, ANIMALS, explores the complexities of his identity as an artist and a Black man in America, featuring collaborations with an eclectic mix of musicians, from Danny Brown and Lil B to Nick Hakim and Vijay Iyer. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Overall has been a driving force in the jazz world for over two decades. In 2020, he was called “one of modern jazz music’s most audacious futurists” by Pitchfork. He has toured and recorded with renowned artists like Geri Allen, Jon Batiste, Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Gary Bartz, and his production work can be heard on albums by Theo Croker, Arto Lindsay and Danny Brown. A Seattle native, Kassa Overall attended Washington MS and Garfield HS. A child drum prodigy, he taught himself to make beats on an MPC and an ASR 10 he acquired at a Seattle Police Department auction.
“Drummer, producer, and beatmaker Kassa Overall is one of the most interesting figures in jazz at the moment. His embrace of hip-hop impacts every aspect of his work, and he’s making it more explicit than ever on his new album” – Stereogum
“sounds like the John Coltrane Quartet covering Digable Planets. . .There’s a lot going on here. All of it is awesome.” – TIDAL
“He revs up the tempo and adds a tricky skipped beat as he reconnects the song to 1960s modal jazz, with cascading piano chords and roiling saxophones. There’s just enough of the Digable Planets hook to, perhaps, draw some new jazz listeners.” – New York Times
“Coiling, interrelated songs, jazz turned into rap turned back into jazz. . . a fascinating transmutation process happening here” – NPR’s All Songs Considered
“There are those who believe that hip-hop doesn’t belong in the same conversation with jazz. Drummer, composer, producer, rapper Kassa Overall has thrived in both worlds, and his album Cream marks the next episode in the jazz canon. Overall takes some of the most iconic songs in hip-hop and successfully translates them into the jazz idiom, muting the lyrics and exploring their harmonic, melodic and rhythmic treasures, transforming each one into something striking and inventive.” – The New York City Jazz Record