Jim Rotondi & Dena DeRose
Biography Jim Rotondi & Dena DeRose
Jim Rotondi
has been a major figure in the world of jazz for over 20 years,
both in New York and on the international scene. His sound, soul, and sense of swing have been in demand as leader and sideman all over the world.
A Montana native raised in a musical family, Jim started with the piano at eight years old and switched to trumpet at age twelve. Two years later Jim heard a recording of Clifford Brown and he was on his way. A product of the prestigious music program at the University of North Texas, Jim won first place in the International Trumpet Guild’s Jazz Trumpet Competition in 1984.
Since relocating to New York, Jim has toured and recorded with a host of jazz luminaries, including the big bands of Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Grammy-winner Toshiko Akiyoshi, Bob Mintzer, and the small groups of Charles Earland, Lou Donaldson, Curtis Fuller and Joe Chambers. Jim currently leads two of his own groups, a quintet featuring vibraphonist Joe Locke in the front line, as well as an electric group, Full House, which also features pianist David Hazeltine. He is also a founding member of the collective sextet One For All, which features a front line of saxophonist Eric Alexander and trombonist Steve Davis, as well as the aforementioned Hazeltine, drummer Joe Farnsworth and bassist John Webber in the rhythm section. This all-star group is featured in the June 2009 issue of Jazztimes magazine.
Jim currently lives and works in the New York City area, where he maintains a vigorous performing, recording, composing and teaching schedule. He has given clinics at Emory University in Atlanta ,the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Camp and served on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Workshop in Palo Alto, California, as well as being Jazz Trumpet Professor at Rutgers University, and an affiliate faculty member at the State University of New York in Purchase.
Dena DeRose
Jazz vocalist and pianist Dena DeRose has 25+ recordings to her credit in her 30+ year career and all have received superior accolades from many well-known Jazz publications. Through the years, each of her recordings received 4 stars in Downbeat Magazine. ‘Ode To The Road’, her previous release on HighNote, was in the HOT BOX of Downbeat Magazine with tremendous reviews (4+)!
Her newest, long awaited fourth release for HighNote Records- ‘Mellow Tones’ -features the incomparable rhythm section with Dena for over 20 years, Martin Wind and Matt Wilson, with special guest trombonist, Ed Neumeister.
DeRose has also honed her skills as a Jazz educator for the past 27+ years and has resided in Graz, Austria for the past 19 years as the Professor of Jazz Voice at the Jazz Institute of the University of Music and Performing Arts.
Dena frequently leads clinics and workshops around the world at such prestigious schools and jazz festivals/workshops such as the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Centrum-Port Townsend, the Dave Brubeck Institute, The Frost School of Music, Monterey Jazz Festival, The Red Sea Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz, City College NYC, (Berkeley, CA) The Jazz School, The Litchfield Summer Jazz Camp, Jazz Camp West, and in Holland at The Prince Claus Conservatoire in Groningen and The Royal Conservatory of Music in Den Haag, among many others.
It’s no small accomplishment to be thought of as “The most creative and compelling singer-pianist since Shirley Horn”, but that’s exactly how Joel Siegel of the Washington City Paper described Dena DeRose. If she comes to your city and you want to catch the show, go early, because the room is going to be packed. She not only awes her audiences and music critics with her facility on the piano and her swinging, soothing vocal style but, as Richard Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury aptly put it, “… she exudes joy … what soul!” DeRose always delivers “…vivid and often exciting demonstrations of how innovative her musical concepts are…” (Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner).
