UK Jazz News

Mondays with Morgan: Jim Rotondi

New album 'Finesse'

Jim Rotondi. Photo credit: Mario Cionci.

This week’s edition of Mondays with Morgan is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and the superlative trumpeter and composer Jim Rotondi. His new album, Finesse, was released on 9 February.

Jim Rotondi defines the word ‘finesse’ as “attention to every detail,” and that’s why it’s the name of his new record.

A jazz-with-strings album of the first order, Finesse features a consortium of great Viennese classical freelancers, led by concertmaster Joanna Lewis. But given that Rotundi’s legacy in New York stretches back decades, he also enlisted a slice of the Big Apple’s foremost jazz talent – Steve Davis, Dick Oatts and Danny Grisset – as soloists on top of the sumptuous strings.

“It’s really a luxurious way to present the music harmonically,” Rotondi tells LondonJazz. He goes on to mention, not one of the many great strings collaborations in jazz history, but Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet, featuring Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams.

“Those cats could almost be an orchestra, even being three people. Especially Herbie, you know?” Rotondi posits. “But if you get somebody who really knows how to write for a group that size, you have that sound times 40, magnifying the harmonic aspects of whatever composition you might be talking about.”

By the crisp and intricate sound of Finesse’s all-original tunes, like “Ladybug,” “Designated Hitter,” and “Prelude for 14 Strings and Flute,” it’s clear Rotondi lives up to the standard set by the title.

Read on for an interview with the trumpet great about how the ensemble coalesced around his old New York associates, with help from a gorgeous orchestra across the pond, plus the unexpected place he wants to go from here.

UKJazz News: How did Finesse come to be?

Jim Rotondi: This project came about because a student of mine at the university where I teach, in Graz [Austria], had arranged one of my tunes for his own big band, which I’m a member of. His name is Jakob Helling; he’s the guy that did all the arranging and conduction for these sessions.

I said, “Man, that’s really great.” And he said, “Well, you know what? I talked to my wife, and she said, ‘Why don’t you guys just do a whole record?’” I said, “Well, OK, why not?” Because I’ve always – always – dreamed of having strings on a record. There’s a strong and longstanding tradition of that, especially with trumpet players, in the music.

Then, when we talked about producing it, enter my brother, Frank Rotondi, who co-produced this record with me and was instrumental in making it happen. So, that’s how it got started.

UKJN: Can you talk about the jazz-with-strings idiom? While such records can be fairly commercial at times, I feel like it’s a mark of immaturity as a jazz listener to dismiss them out of hand. At some point, you find Charlie Parker with Strings and you’re off the races. It’s a beautiful tradition.

JR: To set the background a little bit, my reference is not only Charlie Parker with Strings, but Clifford Brown with Strings. Donald Byrd did a great record, [2006’s] With Strings. And, of course, much more recently, Roy Hargrove made a beautiful record with strings, called Moment to Moment [from 2000].

UKJN: Can you speak to this particular assemblage of orchestral players?

JR: I don’t know each and every one of them; Jakob Helling, who arranged everything, was in contact with some people in Vienna, which is where we recorded this album. He knew certain key people that could contract the whole project.

But you can imagine that a city like Vienna, that has such a classical music history, has a phenomenal community of freelance orchestral musicians.

Black and white picture. Jim Rotundi plays the trumpet in side profile, against a blurred backdrop of a pretty square filled with people and old buildings. He is wearing a suit and leans against a stone pillar.
Jim Rotondi. Photo credit: Mario Cionci.

UKJN: Tell me about the material on Finesse – the repertoire you’re drawing from.

JR: I’m not sure about this, but this album might be without precedent. Because not only did we do an orchestral recording, but this is the first and only album I’ve ever done with all my own compositions.

I mean, I almost always add some kind of standard material, or rework, or cover some standard material. But every one of these compositions is mine, with the exception of string introductions, which Jakob wrote. That was very thrilling to me in and of itself.

UKJN: How does Finesse reflect where you’re at as a composer?

JR: Interestingly enough, it really spans the entire timeline of my composition, because one of the pieces, entitled “Designated Hitter,” was one of the very first things I ever wrote, in 1986. And then we have tunes that I wrote maybe two years or less before the recording. So it’s hard to say where I was at the point of the compositions, because I was a kid when I started the first one.

One of the compositions on the record, called “Interlude”, I wrote because I was writing music for a ballet company in Dallas, Texas. We had been talking about it, and then some of the financing just didn’t end up happening, so I never ended up writing more. That’s one of the more recent compositions.

UKJN: I’ve interviewed hundreds of jazz musicians. Not sure I’ve spoken to another who wrote for a ballet.

JR: Trumpeter Tom Harrell wrote for one, but it’s not well-known.

UKJN: What precluded you from recording a work of this form and scale before?

JR: I have to be honest, since you asked: I never envisioned doing a record on this scale, of all my own compositions. But when Jakob proposed it to me, I said, “I guess I do have that many compositions.” Of course, it wasn’t only about numbers; it had to be a good program with a variety of material. And I had that too.

UKJN: Can you talk about the importance of Danny, Oatts, and Steve?

JR: Danny lives and works in Vienna; I’ve been working with him a lot, in a variety of contexts. I had made two recordings with Danny before I moved to Europe. I’ve known him for a long, long time. I truly consider him at the very forefront of the piano scene, globally. So does Tom Harrell, and so do a million other people.

Steve Davis and I have been working together for many years, because we’re in a group together called One for All, which is a collective sextet with Eric Alexander, Joe Farnsworth, David Hazeltine, and John Webber. He’s a brother to me.

Dick Oatts is somebody that I’ve got to know more recently than the other two. We did several concerts in Europe over the last two years, with a project that is dedicated to the music of Tadd Dameron. I asked him to play on this record because he’s really a unique voice on his instrument. That’s how all those guys fell into place.

UKJN: Now that you’ve crossed this rubicon, where do you want to go?

JR: I’m going to release some recordings of a much more electric sounding thing that I’ve been doing on and off for many years. I recently got the chance to put an album together and release it through a company in Germany. That’s what I’m doing right now: I’m writing music for that.

I’ve already recorded and mixed and mastered an EP, and we’re going to release it in April, I think. In this case, they’re not only my own compositions, but now I’m playing almost everything on the recordings. I don’t play drums, but I put all the other parts on.

I don’t really play guitar either, although when I was in high school, I used to play in a band. We would play Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and all that. The electric side has actually been something I’ve been into for a long time. But more recently, I’ve made an effort to put a band together, and try to present it.

UKJN: I’m a classic rock nut. What do you take away from rock guitar?

JR: Me too, actually. And what I’ve found so far – I don’t know if this is a takeaway, per se – is that I really love the sound of trumpet and rock, lead-sounding guitar. They really work well together. I write melodies, and given the right kind of melody, it can really work well.

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