Jim Rotondi, a prolific hard-bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, arranger, educator and conductor, whose horn appears on more than 80 recordings and 15 leadership albums, died on July 8 in Le Crest, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. He was 61. [Photo above of Jim Rotondi]
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 the feel of jazz from albums. The Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet LPs on EmArcy were favorites when he was 14.
For college, Rotondi attended the University of North Texas and performed in the renowned One O'Clock Lab Band in 1984. After his graduation in 1985, he moved to New York, where he began his professional jazz career.
In tribute to Rotondi, here are 10 audio clips:
Here's A Peck a Sec from Introducing Jim Rotondi in 1997, with Jim Rotondi (tp,flhrn), Eric Alexander (ts), Larry Goldings (p), Dwayne Burno (b) and Billy Drummond (d)...
Here's Davis Cup from Reverence in 2000, with Jim Rotondi (tp,flhrn), Mike DiRubbo (as), Anthony Wonsey (p), John Webber (b) and Willie Jones III (d)...
Here's Benny Golson's Park Avenue Petit from Destination Up!, with Jim Rotondi (flhrn), Joe Locke (vib), Mulgrew Miller (p), Peter Washington (b) and Joe Farnsworth (d)...
Here's Neal Hefti's Repetition from Iron Man in 2005, with Jim Rotondi (flhrn), Jimmy Greene (ts), Steve Nelson (vib), Doug Weiss (b) and Bill Stewart (d)...
Here's Lonely Avenue from Blues for Brother Ray in 2008, with Jim Rotondi (tp), Eric Alexander (ts), Mike LeDonne (org), Peter Bernstein (g) and Joe Farnsworth (d)...
Here's 1,000 Rainbows from the album of the same name in 2008, with Jim Rotondi (tp), Joe Locke (vib), Danny Grissett (p), Barak Mori (b) and Bill Stewart (d)...
Here's For Cedar from The Move in 2010, with Jim Rotondi (tp,flhrn), Mike DiRubbo (as), Ralph Bowen (ts), David Hazeltine (p), John Webber (b) and Joe Farnsworth (d)...
Here's Our Day Will Come from Dark Blue in 2015, with Jim Rotondi (tp,flhrn), Joe Locke (vib), David Hazeltine (p), David Wong (b) and Carl Allen (d)...
Here's Jim's Blues from Over Here in 2023, with Jim Rotondi (tp,flhrn), Rick Margitza (ts), Danny Grissett (p), Joshua Ginsburg (b) and Vladimir Kostadinovic (d)...
And here's New Time from my favorite Jim Rotondi album (EP), Bluesbag, released this year, with Jim Rotondi (p,b,org,tp), Vid Jamnik (vib), Danny Ziemann (b) and Vladimir Kostadinovic and Oleg Markov (perc)...
Bonus: Here's Interlude from Finesse, also released this year, with Jim Rotondi (flghn) backed by a huge orchestra in Vienna, Austria in 2021...
And to hear the rest of Bluesbag, go here...
To buy Bluesbag as a digital download, go here.
