Drummer Robert Jospé visited HHS on Thursday, January 29th with his jazz band: Inner Rhythm. He spoke to ELT participants about the history of jazz and played multiple arrangements from Jazz legends, including Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. 

Jospé was born in Manhattan in 1950 and took up drumming at the age of fourteen. Jospé continued his education at the Berklee College of Music during the summer, while simultaneously attending the Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, Massachusetts. Following graduation, he moved to New York City to become a student of New York University and active proponent of the NYC jazz scene.

Following his participation in New York City bands D and Fire and Ice, Jospé travelled to Charlottesville, Virginia, to play with a local band, Cosmology. Eventually, he rented a house in Greene County, VA, to continue his involvement with the band.

He went on to found Inner Rhythm in 1990. The band is a scholarly crew, consisting of Jospé himself on drums, University of Virginia faculty Jeff Decker on saxophones, JMU professor of music Bon Hallahan on keyboard, and Virginia Commonwealth University faculty Randall Pharr on strings. Since the band’s beginnings, it has received critical acclaim from the Washington Post.

Inner Rhythm has four albums, each available for online purchase.

Today, Jospé teaches Jazz drumming at UVA. He has been featured on the PBS series “Charlottesville Inside Out,” and the radio show “The Jazz Session with Jason Crane.” In 2012, he received the “2012 Artist and Educator of the Year” from the Charlottesville Jazz Society