When Allan “AJ” Ross talks about creative media, he isn”™t only talking about his advertising, marketing and design company that bears his name. He is also talking about those nights in his past and present when he plays horns on stage with some of New York”™s top acts.
Ross is president of AJRoss Creative Media in Chester, but is a musician skilled enough that he still blows sax for the O”™Jays when they play venues in the Big Apple.
Now 60 years old, married for 34 years to Linda Ross, and father of a 25-year-old son, Ross says, “I feel like a much younger man.”
The arc of his careers and passions has been driven by music, he says, and has led to a lifetime of rewards and even a gold record.
“I started playing music when I was 8 years old in Mount Vernon,” Ross said. “I was always very, very good at it, always the best wherever I played except when I came back to New York City in 1974. That was culture shock. There were people there that were just ridiculous.”
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Ross tells of sitting in the Bottom Line in 1974 and hearing saxophonist Michael Brecker for the first time. “I was sitting there thinking, Oh”¦ My”¦ God! As good as I thought I was, I wasn”™t even close.”
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He said New York was so full of talented musicians he drove a cab for a year until he started getting steady gigs and eventually proved accomplished enough to do dates with Diana Ross and play on a gold record recorded by the Spinners and, yes, sit in with Michael Brecker.
“I was in the music business from 1972 until 1995 in New York City,” Ross said, playing saxophone flute and clarinet, in studios and at live gigs. In 1981, he started a company to create jingles and in 1986 moved to Monroe and with the contacts and experience garnered through the jingle business, he started Creative Media, eventually moving it to Chester in 1991.
A key to success in modern advertising and marketing, he said, is using tried and true techniques but also accessing cutting edge media. Thus, Ross said, he employs copywriters who have 30 years experience in the business and also hires 20-somethings who are expert in new social media such as Facebook and Twitter. He cites the Hudson Valley-based medical services company Elant as a client, but says his business has clients around the country. Â
“The business is high end,” said Ross. “When I worked in the city in music they were the best in the world and when we work and do business with this company, we only use the most creative and accomplished people around. We are a New York City agency in Orange County.”
Ross still retains his love for music and still plays some gigs with the O”™Jays due to his friendship and partnership with Dennis Williams, the O”™Jays musical director and arranger whom Ross worked with over the years. Williams is now a Hudson Valley resident and the two stay in touch and one day Ross said, “Why don”™t you let me play horn section when they come to New York?”
Williams readily agreed, but it is not as easy as Ross made it sound. He said he gets several weeks warning of an impending gig, enough to let him devote about three hours a day to intense practicing to get his chops back. He said it”™s worth the effort.
“The O”™Jays are the only group I play with and I play saxophone for them,” said Ross. “And whenever you sit in with them, you are sitting with some of the best players in the world. It”™s very cool.”
