Jamison Ross, a 24-year-old drummer from Jacksonville in Florida, has won the 25th annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. He scored the first place at the finals in Washington, DC on Sunday, September 23, 2012.
Jamison impressed the judging panel of drum eminents Carl Allen, Brian Blade, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jimmy Cobb, Peter Erskine and Ben Riley, and earned a $25,000 scholarship plus a recording contract with Concord Music Group.
Open to musicians under age 30 from across the globe, this year's competition shined the spotlight on the drums.
With his victory, Jamison became just the second kit drummer to win the Monk competition. The contest focuses on a different instrument every year, and the only other time it spotlighted drummers was in 1992.
On Saturday, September 22nd Jamison Ross - who plays with Carmen Lundy's and Wessell Anderson's bands - beat eleven other drummers in the semifinals: Justin Brown from Richmond, California; Dor Herskovits from Tel Aviv, Israel; Noam Israeli from Haifa, Israel; Dustin Kaufman from Houston, Texas; Kristijan Krajncan from Kranj, Slovenia; Martin Krümmling from Gotha, Germany; Julian Külpmann from Hanover, Germany; Abe Lagrimas, Jr. from Waipahu, Hawaii; Kyle Poole from Los Angeles, California; Colin Stranahan from Denver, Colorado; and Oscar Suchanek from Waltham, Massachusetts.
