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| 4.820 Ft
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| 1. | Blues For All
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| 2. | You Know I Care
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| 3. | Sunday In New York
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| 4. | Where Are You
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| 5. | Twilight In Seville
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| 6. | A Higher Calling
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Jazz
Recorded on October 21st & 22nd, 2009, SMALLS JAZZ CLUB, GREENWICH VILLAGE, NYC.
Jim Rotondi - Trumpet
Eric Alexander - Tenor Saxophone
David Hazeltine - Piano
John Webber - Bass
Joe Farnsworth - Drums
Produced by: SPIKE WILNER
Mixed by: BEN RUBIN at House of Cha Cha
Engineered by: GLEN FORREST
Mastered by: GENE PAUL & JAMIE POLASKI
Cover design & photos: MICHELLE WATT
Jim Rotondi
Trumpeter Jim Rotondi began his musical studies at a very early age. His mother, a piano teacher, encouraged Jim to begin playing the piano at age eight. He took up the trumpet at age twelve.
Born and raised in Butte,Montana, Jim attended North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), where he graduated with a degree in trumpet performance. While 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 . Immediately following this he commenced a six year tenure with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. During this time Jim also became a member of organist Charles Earland's quintet. He currently tours with his own groups, one acoustic and one electric, as well as the collective known as One For All, which features a front line of Eric Alexander and Steve Davis. Jim has also been a member of the Lou Donaldson Quintet and the Joe Chambers Sextet.
Jim's extensive recording experience most recently includes the release of his first date as a leader for the Posi-Tone Label,titled "Four Of A Kind", following two successful previous releases on the Sharp Nine label as well as six CD's on the Criss Cross Jazz label. Having appeared on over 50 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. Jim is also a member of the aforementioned 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.
"Clearly,(Rotondi) emerges as one of the best of the post-Hubbard generation"- Chris Hovan, allaboutjazz.com
"(His) solos are a near-perfect amalgam of power, finesse and logic." - David A. Orthmann,
allaboutjazz.com
"If I had to pick one trumpeter to watch over the next decade, it would be Jim Rotondi."- Don Berryman, www.jazzpolice.com, May,2005
"Rotondi has the passion and focus to find a place for the music in the
new millennium."-The New Yorker, Jan. 2003
"There isn't a better trumpet player in New York City than Jim Rotondi, for whom the word "versatile" is inadequate." - Bob Belden
Jim currently lives and works in the New York City area, where he maintains a vigorous performing, recording, composing and teaching schedule.He has given clinics at Emory University in Atlanta ,the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Camp and 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. Jim is a Selmer artist/clinician.
Eric Alexander
Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. He 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 the University of Indiana, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson College in New Jersey he advanced his studies under the tutelage of Harold 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 on Muse Records, and cut his first album as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings followed for numerous labels, including Milestone and others, 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.
Eric has appeared in many capacities on record, including leader, sideman, producer as well as composing a number of the tunes he records. By now, Alexander has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; he guesses 60 or 70. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition.
In 2004, Eric signed an exclusive contract with the New York-based independent jazz label, HighNote Records where he has amassed a considerable discography of critically-acclaimed recordings. Most recent among them is "Temple of Olympic Zeus" (HCD 7172), "The Battle" with Vincent Herring and Mike LeDonne (HCD 7137) and "It's all in the Game" (HCD 7148) with Harold Mabern.
Eric continues to tour the world over to capacity audiences. Using NYC as his home base he can regularly be seen in the NY clubs including ongoing appearances at Smoke.
David Hazeltine
DAVID HAZELTINE is one of a handful of young pianists who has successfully forged his own distinctive style and musical voice out of the accumulated greatness and weight of a modern piano tradition. David's influences extend from Art Tatum and Bud Powell to such great living masters as Buddy Montgomery, Barry Harris and Cedar Walton.
David made his professional debut at age thirteen in Milwaukee, and later worked extensively in and around Chicago and Minneapolis. In Milwaukee, David served as house pianist at the famed Milwaukee Jazz Gallery, working with such greats as Charles McPherson, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Pepper Adams and Chet Baker. In fact, it was Baker who encouraged David to make his mark in New York City.
Since moving to New York City in 1992, David has made a name for himself as a "musician's musician." In addition to his working trio (with drum legend Louis Hayes and bassist Peter Washington), David is in constant demand as a sideman. Recent credits include work with Freddie Hubbard, James Moody, the Faddis-Hampton-Heath Sextet, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Louis Hayes Quintet, and Marlena Shaw, for whom he serves as pianist, arranger, and musical director. Recently David was spotlighted on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" radio program. David is also a member of the band "One For All" which features rising tenor star Eric Alexander.
John Webber
For generations, the Midwest has been a fertile ground for producing talented jazz bass players. St. Louis native Jimmy Blanton revolutionized the role of the bass during his years with the Ellington band in the 1930s. Oklahoman Oscar Pettiford co-led the first bebop group (with Dizzy Gillespie) to play on New York City's famed 52nd St. And Ron Carter, born in Michigan, redefined the role of the bass in small group jazz during his tenure with the great Miles Davis Quintet of the 1960s.
And while Bebop Generations bass player John Webber would modestly assert that he doesn't belong in the same league with legends such as Blanton, Pettiford and Carter, he is a prime example of the continuing stream of jazz musicians from the Midwest who have migrated to the jazz scene in New York -- and who help keep it going strong as the center for jazz activity in the world.
"I was actually born in St. Louis," states Webber during a conversation from his New York City apartment. "But when I was three, my parents moved to Wheaton, just outside of Chicago. That's pretty much where I grew up and first got into music."
By the time he was 10, Webber was taking lessons on bass -- but like most beginning students on the instrument, he started out on the electric bass rather than the large bulky upright. But that didn't mean he wasn't listening to jazz acoustic bass players. In fact, two legendary jazz bassists -- Ray Brown and Paul Chambers were his primary inspirations.
"The sound that ray Brown could get out of the bass was just amazing to me," recalls Webber. "And he was so solid in his technique. And Paul Chambers had that great walking bass style, and was so great playing with Miles and Coltrane."
By the age of 15, Webber had switched to playing the upright bass. After graduating from high school, he began serving his musical apprenticeship on the Chicago jazz scene -- working his way up to performing with top local musicians such as sax players Von Freeman and Lin Halliday and pianist Jodie Christian.
"That was where I really learned how to play jazz professionally," states Webber. "There were a lot of fine musicians playing in Chicago, and it was a competitive scene, because at that time there weren't a whole ton of places to play. So you definitely had to be good to play with the top musicians."
By 1986, Webber decided it was time to make the move to the competitive New York City jazz scene. He had built a solid reputation as one of the top bass players in Chicago, and had built up some solid contacts through jobs backing touring musicians coming through Chicago.
"It worked out pretty well for me," he recalls. "I moved to New York at the end of '86, and within a few months I was working with musicians like Jimmy Scott, Lou Donaldson, Bill Hardman and Junior Cook. And I was also playing regularly with groups led by Peter Bernstein and Christopher Hollyday."
It turned out that Webber's connections with trumpeter Hardman and sax player Cook would have the most lasting impact on his career -- and the formation of Bebop Generations. Hardman, who was out of the harp bop tradition and had worked with Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, Art Blakey and Horace Silver, hosted freewheeling jam sessions at his house every week. Webber was a regular participant, and it was at one of those jams that he met drummer Joe Farnsworth and sax player Eric Alexander.
"When Joe got the leader's job at Augie's on weekends," recalls Webber, "he started asking me to play with his groups, and cecil Payne was a regular too. Eric had gone back to Chicago for awhile, but when he came back to New York, he started playing there. So that was really the roots of Bebop Generations."
Although Webber has established himself as a regular bass player with Johnny Griffin's group and records with Horace Silver and other musicians, playing with Bebop Generations -- and musicians such as Payne and Alexander -- has a special appeal.
"Cecil always comes up with some surprises whenever you play with him, plus he often plays things humorously," says Webber. "And Eric works you hard. He definitely plays with a lot of intensity. It's definitely a great band, and I want to keep working with these guys for as long as possible."
Joe Farnsworth
Joe Farnsworth is already regarded as one of the top jazz drummers in the world, but as far as he is concerned, he is just getting started. He is dedicated to the great tradition of jazz drumming as conceived by men like Max Roach, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Billy Higgins and Arthur Taylor and it keeps him in the practice room trying to continue and extend it.
Joe was born on February 21, 1968 in South Hadley, Massachusetts into an unusually musical family. His father was a renowned music teacher who immersed his five sons, and it became clear early on that, Joe as the youngest would choose a career in music and would ultimately be a great success. His eldest brother, John, a renowned trombone and saxophone player, exposed him at the age of 12, to the music of Count Basie, John Coltrain, Charlie Parker and the drumming of Tony Williams which led Joe to seek lessons with Alan Dawson out of Boston.
Ultimately enrolling in William Patterson College in New Jersey, he met and befriended Harold Mabern who introduced him to tenor saxophonist George Coleman. Both Harold and George became major influences on Farnsworth's playing. During this time, Joe also sought out and studied with Art Taylor and became friends with saxophonist Eric Alexander.
After moving to New York City with brother James, a saxophonist for Ray Charles (1992-1999) when he unexpectedly passed away, Joe became the leader on Friday and Saturday nights as the infamous jazz club Augie's (now Smoke) where he would meet and play with Junior Cook, Cecil Payne, John Ore, Big John Patton, Harold Mabern, Eddie Henderson and John Jenkins. Joe's undeniable talent and hard work ethic started to pay off. He began working with Jon Hendriks in 1992 and then with Diana Krall off and on until he became a full member for a year and half from 1999-2000.
Joe Farnsworth is now known as one of the most recorded drummers on the scene, with over 70 cd's behind him, for musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, Cedar Walton, Pharoah Sanders, Eric Alexander and Benny Golson. His first recording as a leader, "Beautiful Friendship" (Crisscross Records) featured pianist Cedar Walton and trumpeteer Eddie Henderson while his second, "It's Prime Time" (88 Records) included special guest artists Ron Carter, Curtis Fuller, Benny Golson and Harold Mabern, Jr.
At 38, Joe has already performed on most of the greatest American and international stages. He appears regularly at New York City clubs like The Village Vanguard (Wynton Marsalis, Cedar Walton), Blue Note (Johnny Griffin, Horace Silver), Birdland (Lou Donaldson), Iridium (George Coleman, Pharoah Sanders) and Jazz at Lincoln Center (Wynton Marsalis). In any given year he is likely to be found backing major artists at the leading jazz clubs and festivals all over the world.
Farnsworth, also a regular on the Jazz Festival scene, has played with Benny Green, Diana Krall (Montreal Jazz Festival), Curtis Fuller and Barry Harris (Northsea Jazz Festival), Pori Jazz Festival, Red Sea Festival and Umbria just to name a few.
As a straight-ahead jazz musician, Joe has been compared to his idol "...not unlike Max Roach in his ability to combine furious playing with structural cogency, Farnsworth audaciously travels around the set, establishing unifying ideas without interrupting the barrage of strokes..."*
Orthman goes on to describe Joe's career including "...venerable leaders ranging from George Coleman to Benny Golson to Cedar Walton, who frequently call on him to light a fire under their bands. The ability to set all kinds of material in motion, minus fuss and clutter, has also placed him in a coterie of younger, tradition-minded musicians like Eric Alexander (a college classmate during the late 80's), Steve Davis, David Hazeltine and Jim Rotundi, a group of young players that are regulars at Smoke a jazz club in NYC.
In 2006, Japanese label, Commodore Records, will release Farnsworth's third cd, "Drumspeak". which is sure to change the flavor of drums in jazz today. "Drumspeak" is touted as a festival of musical language incorporating traditional jazz with percussions, drums and various instruments from Japan, Latin-America, Africa and the U.S. Commodore Records will release "Drumspeak" later this year. |
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