Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer and drummer who melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions, reflecting a panoramic musical background from West Coast G-Funk to the sounds of the New York underground.
In the past two years, Overall has released four critically acclaimed projects: I THINK I’M GOOD (on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings Imprint), GO GET ICE CREAM AND LISTEN TO JAZZ, SHADES OF FLU and SHADES OF FLU 2, gathering support from artistic visionaries including Virgil Abloh and Thom Yorke. Whatever the experiment, Overall remains faithful to the pocket of jazz drums in the tradition of his mentors, Elvin Jones, Billy Higgins, and Billy Hart, with whom he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Overall has been working at the forefront of New York City’s jazz scene for two decades, touring and recording with artists as varied as Geri Allen, Steve Coleman, Francis and the Lights, Yoko Ono, Peter Evans, Carmen Lundy, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Theo Croker, and Gary Bartz. His work as a producer can be heard on albums by Theo Croker (Escape Velocity), Arto Lindsay (Cuidado Madame), and Das Racist (Sit Down, Man).
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Overall attended Garfield High School, the alma mater of Quincy Jones and Jimi Hendrix.
