Jazz Articles about Ralph Alessi
About Ralph Alessi
Instrument: Trumpet
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsRalph Alessi: Imaginary Friends
by Mike Jurkovic
Ever leading the avant-garde, trumpeter Ralph Alessi has never been pressed for future-forward ideas or the time to express them in whatever setting best suits the music. Not counting his prodigious work alongside such leading figures as Fred Hersch, Don Byron, and Steve Coleman, in this tumultuous century alone Alessi has led and released such challenging works as This Against That (RKM, 2002), the blazing Cognitive Dissonance (Cam Jazz, 2010) with Jason Moran, his ECM debut Badia (2013), and the ...
read moreRalph Alessi & This Against That featuring Ravi Coltrane Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam
by BIMHUIS
For the first installment of BIMHUIS Radio on All About Jazz we present the full recording of the recent concert by Ralph Alessi & This Against That featuring Ravi Coltrane held at BIMHUIS on 18 May 2018. Describing Ralph Alessi's trumpet playing is like describing his compositions: clear of sound and structure and simultaneously full of ingenuity and expertise. This gives him room for adventure and innovation and that's what This Against That is all about. In this ...
read moreRalph Alessi: Quiver
by Mark Sullivan
Quiver finds trumpeter Ralph Alessi and his quartet in a lyrical, reflective mood. Alessi describes the atmosphere in the recording studio as “pensive," a quality that imbues this music. The group includes most of the players from Alessi's acclaimed ECM leader debut Baida (2013). Drew Gress (double-bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) return, with Gary Versace taking the piano chair in place of Jason Moran. Tempting to ascribe the differences between the two sessions to the pianists, but I think it ...
read moreRalph Alessi: Baida
by John Kelman
With 2013 heading into fall, it's a good time to take stock of a label that has all too often been (falsely) accused of minimizing the country where jazz began. Excluding reissues, this year's ECM regular series releases represent about thirty percent American leadership; given jazz's increasingly global nature, hardly a bad number--and better still, when considering ECM's qualitative consistency. From Chris Potter's impressive label debut as a leader, The Sirens, to Craig Taborn's boundary-stretching Chants, and Steve Swallow's career-defining ...
read moreRalph Alessi and This Against That: Wiry Strong
by Mark Corroto
Born out of the jazz laboratory of Brooklyn's M-Base experiments of the 1990s, trumpeter Ralph Alessi has always seemed to be a farouche player. Never hankering for the spotlight, he always seems satisfied to turn in solid deliberate efforts that don't court flattery. Maybe it is his subtle nature, but what some might have missed has always been picked up by his fellow musicians. He has been called upon by the likes of Fred Hersch, Uri Caine, Jason Moran, Don ...
read moreRalph Alessi: Cognitive Dissonance
by Glenn Astarita
The jazz community welcomes trumpeter Ralph Alessi's keen compositional and superior technical skills. As a solo artist and first-call session ace, Alessi is adept at fusing disparate jazz-related styles into a singular voice. With his Cam Jazz debut, the trumpeter executes a diverse, polytonal environ, featuring laudable and like-minded jazz instrumentalists--a band that spins a symmetrical panorama, touched with rhythmic complexities and memorable hooks.“Duel" is underpinned with a loping funk-rock groove, augmented by Alessi's off-kilter and, at times, ...
read moreRalph Alessi: Cognitive Dissonance
by John Kelman
For his Cam Jazz debut, trumpeter Ralph Alessi recruits two key players from his sadly overlooked Look (Between the Lines, 2007). But while ubiquitous bassist Drew Gress (Marc Copland, Claudia Quintet) is a mainstay of Cognitive Dissonance, pianist Andy Milne only guests on the knottily themed but swinging “Sir" and a quirkily, near-unrecognizable version of Stevie Wonder's “Same Old Story." The rest of the album's fifteen tracks--eleven by Alessi, in addition to a free-spirited yet surprisingly lyrical version of Sam ...
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