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1 CD
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€ 19.95
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| Label Criss Cross |
UPC 8712474141722 |
Catalogue number CRISS 1417 |
Release date 29 September 2023 |
By titling his eighth Criss Cross album Over Here!, trumpeter Jim Rotondi picks up on the sentiments he signified with The Move, his seventh for the label. “It doesn’t necessarily mean moving somewhere else, but rather returning home, playing tunes with a lot of straight-ahead swing and interesting chord sequences with guys I’m comfortable with,” Rotondi stated in the liner notes I wrote for that kinetic 2009 recital.
That’s an effective description of what transpires on Rotondi’s latest swinging affair. But although he wasn’t misdirecting, he wasn’t telling the whole story. As it turned out, The Move indeed foreshadowed Rotondi’s decision in 2010 to leave New York for Austria for a position as Professor of Trumpet at the University of Graz. As indicated by the current title (which references George M. Cohan’s 1917 flagwaver “Over There” and Rotondi’s father’s service in Europe during World War 2), Rotondi is ensconced on the Continent thirteen years later, augmenting pedagogical responsibilities with several trips a year to New York and other U.S. waystations, and also touring the jazz clubs of central Europe, Italy, France, Spain and the U.K.
In fact,
Over Here! stems from a ten-day sojourn by a band of four New York-trained masters that opened with a jazz cellar gig in the Viennese suburb Bruck an der Leitha, proceeded to Neuberg, Germany, doubled back to Vienna’s prestigious Porgy and Bess club, continued with a drive to tenor saxophone maestro Piero Odorici’s club in Bologna, and then transitioned to Udine for the recording session.
Trumpeter Jim Rotondi has been 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 have been 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 most recently 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 80 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.
Jim currently resides in Graz, Austria, where he is Professor of Jazz Trumpet at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts, after having been active professionally in the New York City area for 25 years. He has given clinics at Emory University in Atlanta, the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop and served on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Workshop in Palo Alto, California, Seminari Jazz Internazionali in Orsara, Italy, as well as having been Jazz Trumpet Professor at Rutgers University, and an affiliate faculty member at the State University of New York in Purchase.
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