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 three critically acclaimed albums, including Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz (2019) and I Think I’m Good (2020). His latest project, ANIMALS (2023), 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 New York City jazz scene for over two decades. He has toured and recorded with renowned artists like Geri Allen, Jon Batiste, Gary Bartz, Vijay Iyer, and Steve Coleman, and his production work can be heard on albums by Theo Croker, Arto Lindsay, and Danny Brown.
If you’re trying to understand the future of jazz, turn your attention to Kassa Overall. Revered by living icons and underground tastemakers alike, he began his career behind the drum kit. Raised in Seattle, some of his earliest gigs were at a Starbucks on the corner of 23rd and Jackson—an intersection name-checked in Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Posse’s on Broadway,” just blocks from Jimi Hendrix’s childhood home and down the street from Garfield High School, an alma mater Kassa shares with Seattle’s Black musical pantheon: Jimi, Quincy Jones, and Digable Planets’ Ishmael Butler.
Kassa was raised in the city’s South End by parents he describes as a “Black bohemian father and a white hippie mother.” One favored Ornette Coleman, the other Bob Dylan. They met at a live-in spiritual center, pursuing a path of meditation and prayer. Kassa emerged from the womb at home, accompanied by the sounds of tabla drums.
After drums came rap music. Early inspirations were DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince (“Parents Just Don’t Understand”) and Public Enemy (“Fight the Power”). “Our musical creation was always deeply connected to a bigger purpose and a kind of revolutionary tone,” he says. “It was always tied to saying something.”