Jazz trumpeter Jim Rotondi certainly isn’t the first person to hear a recording of the legendary Clifford Brown and be profoundly moved by the experience. But he was most assuredly the only one to win first place in the International Trumpet Guild’s 1984 Jazz Trumpet Competition as a result.
In 1987, Rotondi headed for New York to become an in-demand session and touring player and teacher (he’s Rutgers University’s Jazz Trumpet Professor and an affiliate faculty member at the State University of New York). He’s played with a veritable Hall of Fame collection of players — including Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Charles Earland, Lou Donaldson and Curtis Fuller among them — and has played on more than 70 albums over the past two decades, as well as a dozen CDs by All For One, the Hard Bop sextet he co-founded in 1996.
The Jim Rotondi Quintet will play at Blue Wisp Jazz Club Friday and Saturday nights. Go here to read Brian Baker’s full story.
This article appears in Jun 23-29, 2010.