After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Elliot Ross Memorial Jazz Artists in the Schools program has returned to Northampton High School with five guest musicians teaching four sessions to students in the Jazz and Rock Improvisation Workshop.

“I really care about the vitality and the economy of Northampton. I’m hoping the Northampton Jazz Festival will continue to reaffirm and reinforce the unique entertainment value that Northampton offers.”

It is amazing when one person can have a profound affect on how you view music and the world; I can never repay him for all his great work and the eternal influence he has had on me and the world at large. The measure of a real man, and his legacy, is his ability to leave the world in a much better place than it was before his birth.

One of the first students Paul Kinsman got to work with when he landed a student teaching position at Northampton High School was Elliot Ross. “He was a soft-spoken, kind young man who was looking to play bass guitar,” Kinsman remembered. “As a person, Elliot was funny, intelligent and had a huge soul. As a musician, he was a big collaborator. He had a large community of musicians with whom he was friends and with whom he made music.”