Rich Ruth

Rich Ruth is a Nashville based multi-instrumentalist who mixes his psychedelic fusion jazz with ambient sounds. There are strong electronic and atmospheric elements in his music, along with a spiritual jazz thread that draws from the work of artists like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. This is especially on display in his 2022 album I Survived, It's Over, which interlaces mood setting with improvisations that break out of an ongoing drone. His earlier work still has a jazz angle, but it is more closely aligned with ambient and heavier into the drone aspect in the way he mixes broken beats and floating, drifting tones. Although he is primarily a synth/keyboards and guitars player, the saxophone is featured prominently in his music, adding rougher edges to his otherwise smooth texture.