Jason Carroll and the Smooth Jazz Symphony

Wichita, Kansas native Jason Carroll was born into music. At the young age of only two years old, he began playing drums on his father's drum set. Seeing his interest in the drums, his father Jimmy began to work with him, providing drum lessons and opportunities to play at various churches. He watched and mirrored great drummers such as Dennis Chambers, Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta and Dave Weckl. As a result, he is a phenomenal drummer. He later developed an interest in keyboards and was given lessons by his mother, Barbara at the age of 10 in order to teach him the basics. At 16, he developed a strong ear for bass. After receiving a few lessons from his uncle Don Davis, he began studying and watching extraordinary bass players such as Marcus Miller, Brian Bromberg, and Victor Wooten. During his younger years, Jason grew up idolizing smooth jazz artists such as Norman Brown, George Benson, Chris Botti, Kenny G., and David Sanborn just to name a few. As a result, he began developing an ear for instruments such as the guitar, saxophone, trumpet, and flute. Realizing that it would take nearly a lifetime to learn every instrument up to his standards, he explored the craft of performing these instruments on the keyboard. He soon acquired the ability to emulate the sound of nearly any live instrument. Many people are misled by his compositions, believing that there is a live band playing when it is astonishingly only Jason by himself. For this reason, some people have identified him as the “Prince” of smooth jazz. Because of his passion for music, Jason spent countless hours playing drums, bass and keyboards, developing his own unique style of jazzy-funk. He is a producer at heart, yet smooth jazz has been his lifelong love. Now only 21 years old, he produces and plays all of the instruments sequenced and recorded on his smooth jazz, demonstrated on his debut cd entitled "COOL". He is indeed a musical prodigy with great ability to not only play but to compose and produce his own musical works. Upon listening to COOL, smooth jazz fans around the world will marvel at Jason's ability to blend smooth, cool, and refreshing melodies with powerful and funky bass lines along with his keen sense of rhythm. Many people have contributed to his growing ability which we see today. He would like to thank God and everyone that has been and still is a part of his unique gift and his musical journey. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.