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Jazz Articles about Thom Rotella
Tom Ranier: This Way
by Hrayr Attarian
Multi-instrumentalist Tom Rainer is a genre-defying artist who has a uniquely accessible style with a cinematic approach to orchestration. The enjoyable This Way is made up of several of his own compositions as well as a few covers, all of which Rainer and his quartet interpret with sophistication and elegance. The funky title track, for instance, features Rainer leading from the piano with a clean and crisp cascade of notes. Overdubbed woodwinds add a soulful touch to the ...
read moreTom Ranier: This Way
by Dan McClenaghan
The versatile multi-instrumentalist Tom Ranier has enjoyed a busy career, playing pop styles, electronic music and jazz. Prolific as a collaboratorTerry Gibbs, George Coleman, Placido Domingohe also boasts a grounding in classical music. This Way features Rainier playing mostly his own compositions on piano, synthesizers, saxophones and clarinets, with some help from his friends, guitarist Thom Rotella, bassist Trey Henry and drummer Ralph Humphrey. On this, his first recording under his own name since Bright Idea (Primrose Lane, ...
read moreDiane Schuur: Running on Faith
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist and vocalist Diane Deedles" Schuur and Wessell Warmdaddy" Anderson may be the last jazz artists to have musically-anointed monikers, from a genre replete with them (Lester Prez" Young, Billie Lady Day" Holiday, Johnny Rabbit" Hodges, Julian Cannonball" Adderley and John Birks Dizzy" Gillespie). Schuur was named Deedles" as a child by her mother. The name stuck and proved both inspirational and descriptive for the accomplished singer and pianist, blind from birth, who has performed with the luminaries of jazz. ...
read moreSilvio Amato: Variations Of Relevance
by Jim Worsley
Silvio Amato has a well-established career as a composer, arranger, and film scorer. Amongst other projects, the Italian-born pianist has written soundtracks for major motion pictures, a multitude of pieces for children's television programming, theme songs for a variety of television shows, and has been highly successful with ice ballets. His compositions for Peter Pan, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast have been taken to the ice all over Europe. He has also composed pop music. Coupled with a ...
read moreThom Rotella: Out of the Blues
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il chitarrista americano Thom Rotella è un veterano degli studi di registrazione e ha prestato la sua chitarra elettrica a mille situazioni commerciali che vanno dalla musica da film ai jingle pubblicitari, ma la sua vera anima è da ricercare nei territori del blues jazzistico, dalle parti del leggendario Wes Montgomery, una influenza assolutamente evidente e certamente mai negata. Sin dai due brani iniziali il quartetto di Rotella ha modo di dimostrare una buona intesa e marcia come un trenino ...
read moreThom Rotella 4-tet: Out of the Blues
by C. Michael Bailey
Let's hear it for the straight-ahead, blues-drenched, Blue Note circa 1955 blowing session. Sometimes after feasting on the rich duck pate of ECM or the decadent foie gras of Winter & Winter, the listener just craves the black-eyed peas and collards simplicity of the blues. Let's also hear it for a full, round arch top guitar tone, each note audible, each chord distinct. That pretty well defines Thom Rotella and his guitar style.
Another facet of Rotella's guitar ...
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