
Finesse (Cellar Music)
Jim Rotondi
Released February 2024
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2024
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kCeuXXU_2YhZkckSbi9DukHeZeL9U7BQo
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About:
“Finesse” weaves together the threads of a brilliant jazz life.
I was with Jim when he played the trumpet for the first time, and discovered Clifford Brown, the launch point. As beginning horn players learn the basics of an instrument, they also start playing with other people. Ensembles. Jim has formed, played in, recorded, toured the world with, and written incredible tunes for every imaginable ensemble form throughout his mainstream bebop career, mostly in small group settings. But the big band form was his first jazz ensemble form, and as it has been for jazz in total, was never very far away in his own career… school, Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Toshiko, later Bob Mintzer, Bill Mobley and others.
When Jim first told me about his dream to record his own music with big band and strings, it made perfect sense. I could tell it would be very special to him. But it took several years. Something was missing.
Then he found it – Jakob Helling. Jakob arranged Jim’s tunes, pulled together the great Notes and Tones Jazz Orchestra and strings, and directed the recording. But there was more. Jakob brought his owns threads, notable among them his influence from Monday nights on Seventh Avenue South, the Vanguard, Thad and Mel, and the amazing writers of their music. Jakob helped turn Jim’s dream into a brilliant reality.
I feel like jazz lovers will be blown away when they listen to Finesse for the first time.
It will take many times through to, well… trace the threads.
Enjoy it.
Thanks Jimbo, Love you.
Frank Rotondi
Track Listing:
1. Ruth (Jim Rotondi) 07:31
2. Dark Blue (Jim Rotondi) 06:47
3. Lady Bug (Jim Rotondi) 08:02
4. Designated Hitter (Jim Rotondi) 04:18
5. Falset (Jim Rotondi) 07:47
6. Before Curtis (Jakob Helling) 00:40
7. For Curtis (Jim Rotondi) 07:09
8. Going to the Sun (Jim Rotondi) 06:25
9. Prelude for 14 Strings and Flute (Jakob Helling) 01:13
10. Interlude (Jim Rotondi) 05:01
11. In Graz (Jim Rotondi) 07:31
12. Happy Feet (Jim Rotondi) 06:03 13. Miller Time (Jim Rotondi) 08:19
Personnel:
Notes and Tones Jazz Orchestra
Mario Gonzi: co-leader, drums (solo on track 4)
Daniel Nösig: co-leader, trumpet, flugelhorn (solo on track 12)
Tobias Weidinger (lead), Markus Pechmann, Simon Plötzeneder: trumpet/flugelhorn
Clemens Hofer, Mario Vavti, Johannes Herrlich, Christina Lachberger: trombones (solo on track 6)
Martin Fuss: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet (solo on track 11)
Fabio Devigili: alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet
Michael Erian: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet
Robert Unterköfler: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Herwig Gradischnig: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet (solo on track 9)
Danny Grissett: piano (solos on tracks 3, 7, 10, 13)
Karol Hodas: bass
Guest soloists
Dick Oatts: soprano saxophone (solo on track 5)
Steve Davis: trombone (solo on track 13)
Orchestra (tracks 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 11)
Concertmaster: Joanna Lewis
Violin 1: Damir Orascanin, Mariya Orininskaya, Balazs Schwartz, Tomas Novak
Violin 2: Anne Harvey-Nagl, Ion Scripcaru, Maximillian Bratt, Amora De Swardt
Viola: Lena Fankhauser, Emily Stewart, Annamaria Kowalsky
Cello: Asja Valcic, Mara Achleitner, Philipp Preimesberger
Bass: Tim Dunin
Flute: Wolfgang Lindenthal
Oboe: Stefan Peindl
Basson: Julia Gutschlhofer
Horn: Melissa Danas
Recorded September 19/20, 2021, at TonZauber studio in Konzerthaus Wien
Engineered, edited and mixed by Reinhard Buchta
Assistant recording engineer: Kristaps Andris Austers
Recording supervisor: Ursula Reicher
Cover photo by Maurizio Righetti
Design and layout by John Sellards
Executive Producers: Frank Rotondi and Cory Weeds
Produced by Jim Rotondi
Co-produced by Jakob Helling
Review:
Jim Rotondi’s first-ever album of big band and orchestral arrangements, 2024’s Finesse features warmly realized production that puts the trumpeter’s post-bop style on full sonic display. Perhaps not surprisingly, the record was initially inspired by classic large-ensemble albums by trumpeters, including 1955’s Clifford Brown with Strings and Miles Davis’ 1959 collaboration with Gil Evans Porgy and Bess. An adroit jazz improviser with a fat warm tone and knack for bold, intuitive harmonic lines, Rotondi is often best showcased in small groups where he can let his lines flow at will. Yet, the larger harmonic palette afforded him on Finesse proves just as freeing. Helping him achieve this is conductor Jakob Helling, who arranged Rotondi’s compositions and who put together the stellar ensemble of European musicians, the Notes and Tones Jazz Orchestra, featured here. Along with the orchestra, Rotondi is joined by several longtime associates, including pianist Danny Grissett, trombonist Steve Davis, and saxophonist Dick Oatts, each of whom adds a layer of improvisational sophistication to the proceedings. Born in Germany, Helling is based in Austria, where Rotondi (a Montana native) has lived and taught since the early 2000s. They became good friends and realized they had a kinship over the kind of orchestral jazz Rotondi was hoping to explore. It’s a vibe they bring to full flower on Finesse and one that certainly brings to mind the albums previously mentioned, but which also recalls the work of the classic Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra of the 1960s. That vibe is particularly evident on the more uptempo songs like “Ladybug” and “Designated Hitter,” crisp, swinging numbers where Rotondi leaps forth from the starting gate like a jazz racing horse, propelled by a swell of charging brass and reeds. Other cuts are more cinematic, like the opening “Ruth” and the evocatively titled “Dark Blue” — moody and romantic ballads where Rotondi’s burnished flügelhorn is framed by a dreamy cloud of strings. With Finesse, Rotondi has crafted an album that balances a deep symphonic sophistication with a lithe, small-group jazz interplay, and it’s one the best of his career.
Matt Collar (AllMusic)