Jul 9, 2024 11:35 AM
Trumpeter, Educator Jim Rotondi Dies at 61
Jim Rotondi, a renowned hard-bop trumpeter, composer and educator, died suddenly on July 7 at a hospital in France. He…
With Elastic, Joshua Redman’s Warner Bros. album set for a Sept. 10 release, the saxophonist and composer rises to yet another artistic challenge in his diverse career. Known primarily for playing swing-based jazz with acoustic ensembles, Redman explores the new textures of electric instruments and funk rhythms. “The goal was to break down the boundaries between an open jazz aesthetic and a tight funk aesthetic,” Redman says. “Rather than creating a groove at the expense of spontaneity and interaction, I wanted to make music that has that clarity and assertiveness in the rhythm but is still open, fluid, flexible, elastic.”
For Redman, the essential idea behind Elastic is its jazz soul. Though he, keyboard player Sam Yahel and drummer Brian Blade are locked in a tight groove throughout the record, they maintain the freedom to improvise as they would within swing’s looser rhythmic setting. Recording Elastic was a creatively liberating experience. The trio’s live performances form the core of the record, with tastefully-used effects and overdubbed accents adding exciting layers to the band’s sound. The record’s 11 tracks draws from the improvisational skills of the band and Redman’s prowess as a composer to tell a dramatic musical story. Part of what makes the record remarkable is the way in which the performers express their own spontaneous ideas within a carefully defined song structure, blending the central tenets of jazz with those of soul, funk and blues.
This concept had long been germinating when Redman began jamming in the late 1990’s with Yahel and Blade at New York City club Small’s. Elastic is Redman’s ninth album as a bandleader and follows 2001’s long-form acoustic jazz suite Passage Of Time.
Jim Rotondi was acclaimed for his wide, round trumpet tone, remarkable virtuosity and assured swing.
Jul 9, 2024 11:35 AM
Jim Rotondi, a renowned hard-bop trumpeter, composer and educator, died suddenly on July 7 at a hospital in France. He…
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