 Jim Rotondi © Andrea Canter
They come to the Green Mill this week-end (September 29th-30th) with a
smoking quintet featuring Alexander on tenor sax, Rotondi on
trumpet, Dan Trude II on piano, Dennis Carroll on bass, and George
Fludas on drums.
A
worthy successor to Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, Jim Rotondi is a
stylist who continues to explore rich harmonies with original and
soulful eloquence. He often performs with vibraphonists and organists,
providing rich overtones and a dense aural carpet with which he weaves
intricate and logical patterns of sound. Whether he is blowing with
fiery fury or a mournful cry, Rotondi never looses the emotional
connection with the audience.
Rotondi was born in Butte, Montana and
began his musical studies at an early age. His mother, a piano teacher,
encouraged Jim to begin playing the piano at age eight. He then took up
the trumpet at the age of twelve. He attended North Texas State
University, where he graduated
with a degree in trumpet performance. While still in Texas, Jim was
awarded first place in the International Trumpet Guild's Jazz trumpet
competition for the year 1984. After college Jim began recording and
touring internationally with the Ray Charles Orchestra. He also tours
with Lionel Hampton and Grammy-winner Toshiko Akiyoshi, as well as with
his own group. He was also a featured soloist at the 1992 Chile
International Jazz Festival in Santiago, along with saxophonist Joe
Lovano and pianist Danilo Perez.
Jim's extensive
recording experience most recently includes the release of his third
date as a leader, titled "Excursions", for the Criss Cross Jazz label
following the successful release of his first two CDs, also on Criss
Cross. 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. Jim is also a member of the
group One For All, whose Sharp Nine Records releases "Too Soon To Tell"
and "Optimism" received critical acclaim from Cadence, JazzTimes, and
The Detroit Free Press.
Jim currently lives and works
in the New York City area, where he maintains a vigorous performing,
recording, composing and teaching schedule. He has recently given
clinics at Emory University in Atlanta, served on the faculty of the
Stanford Jazz Workshop in Palo Alto, California, as well as being an
affiliate faculty member at the State University of New York in
Purchase.  Eric Alexander © Andrea Canter With 17 CD's out under his own name and appearing as sideman on
countless others, Eric Alexander has made his mark on the jazz world
and
documented his progress as a tenor master. He has a rich tone and an
aggressive, driving style that grabs the listener's attention and
doesn't let go. One can hear the influence of Sonny Stitt, Jackie
McLean and George Coleman in his plying.
Eric Alexander started out on piano as a six-year-old, took up
clarinet at nine, switched to alto sax when he was 12, and converted to
tenor when jazz became his obsession during his one year at Indiana University, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson
College in New Jersey he advanced his studies under the tutelage of
Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. "The people I listened to
in college are still the cats that are influencing me today," says
Alexander. "Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins,
Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson--the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop
pioneers, that language and that feel, that's the bread and butter of
everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his
very hip harmonic approach, and I'm still listening all the time to
Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to
late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic
information and find ways to employ them in my own playing."
During the 1990s, after placing second behind Joshua Redman in
the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander
threw himself into the whirlwind life of a professional jazz musician.
He played with organ trios on the South Side of Chicago, made his
recording debut in 1991 with Charles Earland, and cut his first album
as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings for
Delmark, Criss Cross, and Alfa followed, leading to 1997's Man with a
Horn; the 1998 collaborative quartet session with George Mraz, John
Hicks, and Idris Muhammad, Solid!; and, that same year, the first
recording by One For All, Alexander's ongoing band with Jim Rotondi,
Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Dave Hazeltine.
Hear the Eric Alexander/Jim Rotondi Quintet at the Green Mill on
September on 29th and 30th with Dan Trude II on piano, Dennis Carroll
on bass, and George Fludas on drums.
Friday, September 29; 9PM-1AM
Saturday, September 30; 8PM-Midnight
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008
