Lincoln Ross

Lincoln Ross began in the music business at age 15 in the high school band as a trombonist in his hometown of Washington, D.C. Nine years later, he was playing trombone with the Count Basie Orchestra, traveling through Europe with Basie, Oscar Peterson and Norman Granz. In 1975 he recorded the album “Vibes of Truth” on Fantasy Records with his group The 3 Pieces. The project came about through Ross’ association with jazz legend Donald Byrd, whom he met as a student at Howard University while earning a Bachelor’s degree in music. Byrd’s R&B group, The Blackbyrds, also recorded Ross’ original instrumental “Gut Level”, which charted in the Top 40 in 1974.

Ross continued appearing on hit recordings, playing trombone on“Bustin’ Loose” by Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers and second trombone on Universal Records’ recent release of the 1973 recording of Marvin Gaye performing “What’s Going On” live at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In addition, Bill Pinkney and the Original Drifters recorded his song “The Same Candlelight”, which has been released on the Repete and World Wide Gospel labels.

As a self-taught keyboardist, Ross accompanied Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes in the 70’s and Wilson Pickett in the mid-80’s. He has accompanied renowned artists on trombone including Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Sammy Davis Jr., Nancy Wilson, Gladys Knight, Joe Williams, Johnny Taylor, Millie Jackson and DJ Kool. For many years, he played in horn sections for the O’Jays when they performed in the Baltimore-Washington area.

In the 90’s, Ross performed his song, “Sha-Na-Na”, on a recording that was executive produced by Harry Coombs of the hitmaker label, Philadelphia International (Billy Paul, Phyllis Hyman). Ross later served as producer for the novelty blues song “Sexy Senior Citizen” recorded by Eddie & Denise and the Good Time Band, which received extensive radio airplay. He also produced, arranged, and predominantly wrote songs for “Only Human”, a critically acclaimed album by jazz vocalist, Changamiré.

For television, film and theater, Ross wrote and performed “Come to Washington” for the 2005 WJLA (ABC) show, Metropolitan Edition. The Washington Post Express afterwards dubbed him “Mr. Washing-tune” and he performed the song at Adrian Fenty’s Mayoral Inaugural Ball in 2007 for a crowd of 10,000. For the theater, he wrote the bluesy theme song for the play “Greens” by Louise Gray. And for film and TV, his song “Backed Up Against the Wall” from the “Vibes of Truth” album was requested for the 2018 independent film “Wheels” and performed by The Roots in 2019 as the walk-on song for J Balvin on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The 3 Pieces “Vibes of Truth” album is a cult classic that DJs across the world — like DJ Pari and DJ Amir — marvel. UK label Rogue Cat Resounds issued a remix of their song “Wishcan William” that led to an in-depth interview by Ban Ban Ton Ton.

Although Ross considers performing and associating with acclaimed artists a privilege and an honor, his mainstay has come from a host of families and social groups in the Washington D.C. area. Engagements at weddings, birthday parties, retirement parties, anniversaries and for social clubs, sororities and fraternities enable him to be a full time musician. Aside from performing, Lincoln Ross is constantly writing new material and tweaking recordings from his extensive and eclectic catalog of songs.

“I am truly grateful that our Creator has allowed me to pursue the path of an artist by blessing me with a wonderfully supportive family, faithful friends and loyal fans,” says Ross. Fellow artists call him a great musician but he says, “ I’m not great just grateful.”