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Jim Rotondi
Trumpeter Jim Rotondi was a major figure in the world of jazz for over 30 years, both in New York and on the international scene. His sound, soul, and sense of swing were in demand as leader and sideman all over the world.
A Montana native raised in a musical family, Jim started with the piano at eight years old and switched to trumpet at age twelve. Two years later Jim heard a recording of Clifford Brown and he was on his way. A product of the prestigious music program at the University of North Texas, Jim won first place in the International Trumpet Guild’s Jazz Trumpet Competition in 1984.
After relocating to New York, Jim toured and recorded with a host of jazz luminaries, including the big bands of Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Grammy-winner Toshiko Akiyoshi, Bob Mintzer, and the small groups of Charles Earland, Lou Donaldson, Curtis Fuller and Joe Chambers. Jim currently leads two of his own groups, a quintet featuring vibraphonist Joe Locke in the front line, as well as an electric group, Full House, which also features pianist David Hazeltine. He is also a founding member of the collective sextet One For All, which features a front line of saxophonist Eric Alexander and trombonist Steve Davis, as well as the aforementioned Hazeltine, drummer Joe Farnsworth and bassist John Webber in the rhythm section. This all-star group is featured in the June 2009 issue of Jazztimes magazine.
Jim’s extensive recording experience includes the 2016 release of his first date as a leader for the Smoke Sessions label, titled “Dark Blue”, featuring Joe Locke and David Hazeltine, following a host of successful releases on various labels. “Dark Blue” was very well received in the jazz world, receiving a 4-star review from Downbeat magazine and spending 3 weeks at #1 on the jazzradio.com international radio playlist. Having appeared on some 85 CD’s as a sideman, he can also be heard on several of Charles Earland’s Highnote Records releases, alongside saxophonist Eric Alexander, with whom Jim made his recording debut on Eric’s Delmark release “Straight Up.” Other recordings include saxophonist George Coleman’s Octet, featuring Harold Mabern, as well as drummer Ray Appleton’s Sextet, which features Slide Hampton, Charles McPherson, and John Hicks. The aforementioned One For All, whose Sharp Nine Records releases ”Too Soon To Tell” and “Optimism” received critical acclaim from Cadence and The Detroit Free Press, also have 18 CD’s to their credit.
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One for All: Big George
by Joshua Weiner
Smoke Sessions Records, based out of NYC's Smoke Jazz Club, has a fascinating recording model: artists play a few nights at the club, take a day off, and then go into a studio such as the famous Sear Sound to record their repertoire for release. They been putting out some excellent material, the latest of which is the first album in seven years from the sextet One for All. The title, Big George, reveals what sets this one apart from ...
Continue ReadingJim Rotondi: Finesse
by Jack Bowers
Finesse is trumpeter Jim Rotondi's ninth recording as a leader but his first using a full orchestra including strings. The band and string section are from Austria, where Rotondi presently lives, performs, and teaches, and each one is quite good. As for Rotondi, besides playing superb trumpet--open or muted--he wrote every song on the album save for two brief “introductory" pieces by Jakob Helling who was the arranger on every number. As if that many instruments weren't ...
Continue ReadingOne For All: Blueslike
by C. Andrew Hovan
As the timeworn adage goes, sometimes the best things come from situations where one is asked to function in less than ideal circumstances. When you have little time to analyze things and go with pure instincts, there's an air of veracity and spontaneity to the results that is seldom arrived at by any other means. Although the hard bop collective One For Allhas forged a shared identity through regular gigs and a growing catalog of recordings for several labels, including ...
Continue ReadingOne For All: Live at Smoke Vol.1
by C. Andrew Hovan
Aside from the musical fireworks that make the enclosed sides noteworthy, there are additional factors that mark Live at Smoke as a major event. For one thing, this “on location" recording is one of the rare live dates to grace the Criss Cross catalog. Furthermore, it serves as a perfect summation up to this point of One For All's musical fortunes as heard in the same venue that fostered the ensemble's very formation. Back in the mid-'80s, drummer Joe Farnsworth, ...
Continue ReadingMike DiRubbo: Human Spirit
by C. Andrew Hovan
In an era that seems to more fully embrace the idea of the 'tough young tenor,' alto saxophonist Mike DiRubbo puts forth a singular voice that stands apart from the crowd. With exceptions such as Kenny Garrett, Steve Wilson, and Vincent Herring, DiRubbo is one of the few musicians of this generation to choose the alto horn as his main axe, although his sound and approach seems heavily rooted in the conventions of the tenor and its many historic practitioners. ...
Continue ReadingJim Rotondi: Dark Blue
by C. Andrew Hovan
Back in 1997 when Introducing Jim Rotondi announced that a major new trumpeter star was on the ascent, few could have predicted how important and prolific Rotondi would become to the mainstream landscape. A foremost stylist in the lineage of Freddie Hubbard and Wood Shaw, Rotondi quickly proved he had absorbed the legacy, only to jettison imitation in favor of innovation. Working regularly with his own groups and the hard bop ensemble One For All, Rotondi was a major force ...
Continue ReadingJim Rotondi: 1000 Rainbows
by Bruce Lindsay
1000 Rainbows swings beautifully, drawing together a few original tunes from trumpeter Jim Rotondi and some out-of-the-ordinary classics that are delivered in real style by a classy quintet. The New York-based Rotondi has been in the jazz scene for more than 20 years and has an extensive back catalog of recordings as a leader. This is his third Posi-tone release as leader, following Four Of A Kind (2008) and Blues For Brother Ray (2009). The musicians on ...
Continue ReadingJim Rotondi (1962-2024)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jim Rotondi, a prolific hard-bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, arranger, educator and conductor whose horn appears on more than 80 recordings as well as 15 leadership albums, died on July 8 in Le Crest, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. He was 61. Born in Butte, Montana, in 1962, Rotondi was the youngest of five siblings. All were given piano lessons by their mother. At 12, he switched to classical trumpet. Since Butte wasn't a major stop for touring jazz musicians, Rotondi picked up ...
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Jim Rotondi: Finesse
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of the first pairings of a jazz soloist with a big band and strings dates back to December 1947, and the event was largely an accident. At the time, Clef Records owner and producer Norman Granz was on a recording tear, trying to wax as much jazz as possible in advance of a threatened January 1, 1948 recording ban by the musicians union. Granz rented out an empty Carnegie Hall to record a batch of top artists, including alto ...
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Jim Rotondi: 'At the Bird's Eye'
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Back in the '70s, soul-jazz albums featuring a tight trumpeter and saxophonist backed by a deep groove organist and persistent drummer. Prestige Records probably turned out more recording of that genre than most other lables—with organists like Don Patterson, Charles Earland, Richard “Groove" Holmes, Brother Jack McDuff and Leon Spencer Jr. The front line often featured saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and trumpter Virgil Jones, with Idris Muhammad behind them on drums. [Pictured at top: Jim Rotondi] On trumpeter and flugelhornist ...
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Jim Rotondi at Tula's This Wednesday
Source:
Seattle Jazz Scene
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2 TULA'S JAZZ CLUB 2214 2nd Ave Seattle 206-443-4221 2 sets starting at 7:30pm, $12.00, All Ages Former New York City trumpeter Jim Rotondi, who recently moved to Graz, Austria, is passing through town on Wednesday, February 2, to perform at Tula's before heading up to The Cellar in Vancouver. The band features Mark Taylor (saxophone), John Hansen (piano), Phil Sparks (bass) and Matt Jorgensen (drums). Reservations are suggested (206-443-4221). ...
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Jim Rotondi - 1000 Rainbows (Positone)
Source:
Master of a Small House
Contextual questions of excessive repertory fealty are largely moot in the music of Jim Rotondi. A trumpeter who's canny style blends Hubbard-like velocity and clarity with a persuasive lyricism, his fixation on a stripes of hard bop steeped in 60s Blue Note decorum is hardly worth getting bent about, though there are those who would likely fault him for it just the same. This set couples his lubricious brass with Joe Locke's vibes and a standard rhythm section for a ...
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Jim Rotondi - 1000 Rainbows (2010)
Source:
Something Else!
By PicoIt must have been quite a journey for a life that started out in the wide open ranges of Montana and ended up in the hustle and bustle of the New York jazz scene, but trumpet player Jim Rotondi got there with an assist from the late, great trumpet player Clifford Brown. Playing at first the piano at age eight and then the trumpet at age twelve, when Rotondi got his first taste of the sweet sounds ...
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Jim Rotondi at Egan's - Thur, Feb 18
Source:
Seattle Jazz Scene
New York trumpeter is passing through town on his way to Vancouver and will be performing at Egans Ballard Jam House on Thursday, February 18 at 9:00pm. The the intimate space of Egans, this promises to be an amazing show.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18 EGANS BALLARD JAM HOUSE 1707 NW Market Street Seattle, WA 98107
Tickets: $10 / All Ages Reservations: 206-789-1621
featuring: JIM ROTONDI - trumpet JOHN HANSEN ...
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Trumpeter Jim Rotondi's Tribute to Ray Charles at Smoke on June 5th & 6th, 2009
Source:
Two for the Show Media
Trumpeter Jim Rotondi will be performing with his Quintet in “Tribute to Ray Charles”- these performances are a celebration for his new Posi-Tone CD release titled Blues for Brother Ray “Rotondi has the passion and focus to find a place for the music in the new millennium.” --The New Yorker “Clearly, Rotondi emerges as one of the best of the post-Hubbard generation" --Chris Hovan, All About Jazz Jim Rotondi's Tribute to Ray Charles Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone) • Jim Rotondi ...
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Trumpeter Jim Rotondi Releases "Four of a Kind" on Posi-Tone
Source:
All About Jazz
The new release, Four of a Kind, on the Posi-Tone label, is a quartet date featuring Jim Rotundi - trumpet, David Hazeltine - piano & rhodes, John Webber - bass, and Joe Farnsworth - drums.
The disc features three Rotundi originals, one original each from Farnsworth and Hazeltine, along with a rendition of Cedar Walton's arrangement of “Manteca", and three standards, two of them arranged by Hazeltine ("What Kind Of Fool Am I?" and “Love For Sale").
The music on ...
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John Swana & Bootsie Barnes Organ Quartet with Special Guest Jim Rotondi
Source:
All About Jazz
The John Swana / Bootsie Barnes Organ Quartet will be joined by special guest trumpeter Jim Rotondi at Chris' Jazz Cafe on September 28, 2007.
JOHN SWANA / BOOTSIE BARNES ORGAN QUARTET WITH SPECIAL GUEST JIM ROTONDI
Jim Rotondi - trumpet John Swana - trumpet Bootsie Barnes - saxophone Lucas Brown - organ Wayne Smith - drums
Sets starting @ 8 & 10 Chris' Jazz Cafe ...
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"Rotondi as a composer and trumpeter has made himself masterful at creating pieces and soundscapes that model and emulate the sonic worlds of the masters and provide the foundation for improvisers to embrace the bountiful tradition of jazz past and present." Jeremy E. Smith, lastrowmusic.com
"When you consider the demands of orchestral form, [Finesse] deserves respect. It’s a titanic undertaking of composition, arrangement, and orchestra direction to achieve such a brilliant result
Tyr Morris
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