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Mike Rodriguez
GRAMMY® Award winningTrumpeter/composer, Michael Rodriguez was born on July 14, 1979 in Queens, New York. Michael was inspired to pursue music as a career by his father, drummer Roberto Rodriguez. Michael studied at the New World school of the Arts in Miami, Florida where he grew up and continued his studies at the University of Miami. After completing two years at the University of Miami, he decided to transfer to the New School University in New York where he received his B.A. Michael has performed and toured with Clark Terry, Bobby Watson, Quincy Jones, Joe Lovano, Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra, Pop Icon Jessica Simpson, Chico O’farill Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and the JALC, Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and is a member of Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. Michael has also performed and traveled with Jon Faddis and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Carla Bley Band and Quintet, Kenny Barron’s Quintet, Conrad Herwig Latin Side Projects, Clayton Brothers Quintet, Harry Conick jr., Bob Mintzer, Eddie Palmieri Septet, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and the Spanish Heart Band, Smithsonian Jazz Orchestra amoung others. In December of 2003 Michael recorded on Charlie Haden’s GRAMMY® award winning album featuring Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Joe Lovano entitled ¨Land of the Sun¨. Michael has also recorded on Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra’s latest album entitled “Not in Our Name” and is featured on “America the Beautiful” and Dvojak’s “Going Home”. In 2008, Michael became a member of the Gonzalo Rubalcaba quintet and recorded “Avatar” under the Blue Note Label. In 2019, Michael joined Chick Corea’s Spanish Heart Band and won a GRAMMY® for best Latin Jazz in 2020.
Michael and his brother, pianist/composer Robert Rodriguez, have recorded four albums together “Introducing the Rodriguez Brothers” ,”Conversations”, “Mood Swing” and their most recent album “impromptu” which was nominated for a GRAMMY® or best latin jazz album 2015.
Michael is currently on the faculty at NYU and travels the globe as a clinician. In March of 2013, he released his debut solo recording under the CrissCross label Entitled “Reverence”. His new recording is entitled “Pathways” under the label Rodbrosmusic which is co-owned by both him and his brother Robert Rodriguez.
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Steve Swallow: Winter Songs
by Kevin Poindexter
While it is true that much of the modern jazz landscape thrives on the burning fire of the avant-garde, albums like Steve Swallow's Winter Songs operate on an entirely different frequency. This is a classic ECM Records slow burner--an album that does not flash like lightning, but instead radiates a calm, late-night glow. It evokes the quiet stillness of sitting by a fireplace after the rest of the house has gone to sleep, where the music demands a deep couch, a ...
Continue ReadingSteve Swallow: Winter Songs
by Jack Kenny
To create his first new music since the death of his partner, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow gathered a circle of close friends and longtime collaborators: saxophonist Chris Cheek, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, drummer Adam Nussbaum, guitarist Steve Cardenas, and pianist Gil Goldstein. The result, Winter Songs-- Swallow's first outing as a leader in over a decade was recorded at Sear Sound studio in New York during September 2024. About the music, Swallow wrote: “I was there when this music ...
Continue ReadingHelen Sung Big Band: Oracles
by Katchie Cartwright
"The jazz bandstand is where true democracy lives," the great saxophonist and composer Jimmy Heath told a young Helen Sung. “Everyone must understand their role and come prepared by doing the hard work of study and practice," he said. “Each person will get to say their piece, but it is in the act of integrating as a band that the musicians ultimately create something bigger, richer, and deeper." Oracles launches into a time and place where divisions are deep and ...
Continue ReadingMaria Schneider Orchestra: American Crow
by Dan McClenaghan
Maria Schneider has a thing for birds. Credible sources have reported sightings of the jazz composer frequenting Central Park wearing a floppy hat, a pair of binoculars hanging from her neck. Her 20-plus minute “Cerulean Skies," from her album (one of her masterpieces) Sky Blue (ArtistShare, 2007) speaks to her love for birds; her fascination with their migratory nature and their arduous flights, which span continents and beyond. The composition “Bluebird," from the “Our Natural World"' half of her 2-disc ...
Continue ReadingRemy Le Boeuf: Architecture of Storms
by Jack Bowers
It's hard to become bored or complacent when listening to Architecture of Storms, alto saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf's second album as leader of the twenty-member Assembly of Shadows orchestra. Every song is quite different from the others, and every one has its moments of shapeliness and charm. Le Boeuf arranged every number and composed all but Justin Vernon's “Minnesota, WI" and the album's nameplate, which he co-wrote with poet Sara Pirkle, he asserts, “on a brooding stormy ...
Continue ReadingMichael Davis - Hip-Bone Big Band: Open City
by Jerome Wilson
Michael Davis is an accomplished trombonist who has had a long career of live and studio work accompanying a varied roster of big-name jazz and rock talents such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Mintzer, Buddy Rich, Paul Simon, and Sarah Vaughan. He is also an established solo artist and composer who leads an imposing large ensemble, the Hip-Bone Big Band. The big band's second album is an exuberant affair which reflects the joy of getting back ...
Continue ReadingJeb Patton: Preludes
by Jack Bowers
A jazz quintet performing eight classically-inspired Preludes and Duke Ellington's wistful “Prelude to a Kiss"? How could that possibly work? In the capable hands of pianist Jeb Patton (who wrote the Preludes) and his quintet, quite well, actually. Patton, who grew up in a household where listening to classical music was the norm, never forgot those early years even as he moved toward jazz and found his calling there. When Covid struck in 2020, Patton had time to revisit his ...
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Music
Four
From: Winter SongsBy Mike Rodriguez
Blue and Gold
From: From This Moment ForwardBy Mike Rodriguez
Mike Rodriguez
Instrument: Trumpet
Born: July 14, 1979
