Ralph Alessi (born March 5, 1963) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

trumpeter, composer, and ECM recording artist. Alessi is known as a virtuosic performer whose critically-acclaimed projects include his Baida Quartet, with Jason Moran, Drew Gress, and Nasheet Waits, and This Against That, his quintet with Andy Milne, Gress, Mark Ferber, and Ravi Coltrane. Alessi has also recorded and performed with artists including

Steve Coleman Steve Coleman (born September 20, 1956) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader and music theorist. In 2014, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. Early life Steve Coleman was born and grew up in South Side, Chicago. He started playing ...

Uri Caine Uri Caine (born June 8, 1956) is an American classical music, classical and jazz pianist and composer from Philadelphia. Biography Early years Caine was born on June 8, 1956, in Philadelphia, to Burton Caine (1928–2023), a professor at Temple ...

Fred Hersch Fred Hersch (born October 21, 1955) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and a 17-time Grammy nominée. He was the first person to play weeklong engagements as a solo pianist at the Village Vanguard in New York City. He has recorded more than ...

, and Don Byron. Alessi is known for his work as an educator, and in 2001 he founded the School for Improvisational Music in Brooklyn, New York. He has taught at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

, the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada, United States. It is the state's flagship public university and prim ...

, Siena Jazz University, and University of the Arts Bern.

Early life and career

Alessi was born and raised in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. His parents met as performers at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

: his mother, Maria Leone Alessi, sang in the chorus; his father, Joseph Alessi Sr., was principal trumpet for nearly 15 seasons. His brother, Joseph Alessi, is a trombonist with the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

. Alessi also began as a classical musician, and performed with the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...

and

San Francisco Opera The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...

in his teens. He later attended the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

, studying with

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...

while earning a BFA in jazz trumpet performance and MFA in jazz bass performance. In 1986, he met fellow CalArts student Ravi Coltrane, who became one of his longest-standing collaborators. ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' was an American print magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade ...

'' describes their "musical bond" as "arguably developing into a rapport on par with the highest echelon of trumpet/tenor combinations"; Coltrane once gave an interview with ''NPR'' focused entirely on his favorite song, Alessi's "Who Wants Ice Cream".

Select discography

As leader

* ''Hissy Fit'' (1999, Love Slave) * ''This Against That'' (2002, RKM) * ''Vice & Virtue'' (2002, RKM) * ''Look'' (2007, Between the Lines) * ''Open Season'' (2009, RKM) * ''Cognitive Dissonance'' (2010, CAM Jazz) * ''Wiry Strong'' (2011, Clean Feed) * ''Only Many'' (2013, CAM Jazz) * '' Baida'' with Jason Moran, Drew Gress, Nasheet Waits (2013, ECM) * ''Quiver'' (2016, ECM) * ''Imaginary Friends'' with Ravi Coltrane, Andy Milne, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber (2019, ECM) * ''It's Always Now'' with Florian Weber, Bänz Oester, Gerry Hemingway (2023, ECM)

As sideman

With David Ake * ''Bridges'' (Posi-Tone, 2013) * ''Humanities'' (Posi-Tone, 2018) With Don Byron * ''You are #6'' (Blue Note, 2001) * ''Ivey Divey'' (Blue Note, 2006) With Michael Cain * ''

Circa Circa is a Latin word meaning "around, approximately". Circa or CIRCA may also refer to: * CIRCA (art platform), in London * Circa (band), a progressive rock supergroup * Circa (company), an American skateboard footwear company * Circa (contempora ...

'' (ECM, 1996) With

* '' The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley'' ( Winter & Winter, 1999) * '' Gustav Mahler in Toblach'' (Winter & Winter, 1999) * '' The Goldberg Variations'' (Winter & Winter, 2000) * '' Gustav Mahler: Dark Flame'' (Winter & Winter, 2003) * ''

Shelf-Life Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or no longer on a s ...

'' (Winter & Winter, 2005) * '' Uri Caine Ensemble Plays Mozart'' (Winter & Winter, 2006) * '' The Othello Syndrome'' (Winter & Winter, 2009) * ''

Rhapsody in Blue ''Rhapsody in Blue'' is a 1924 musical composition for solo piano and jazz band by George Gershwin. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the work combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects and premiered in a concer ...

'' (Winter & Winter, 2013) With James Carney * ''Fables from the Aqueduct'' (1994, Jacaranda) * ''Offset Rhapsody'' (1997, Jacaranda) * ''Ways & Means'' (2009, Songlines) With

* ''A Tale of 3 Cities'' (Novus/BMG, 1994) * ''Myths, Modes, and Means'' (Novus/BMG, 1995) * ''The Way of the Cipher'' (Novus/BMG, 1995) * ''The Sign and the Seal'' (BMG, 1996) * ''Genesis'' (BMG, 1997) * ''The Sonic Language of Myth'' (BMG, 1999) * ''Lucidarium'' (Label Bleu, 2003) With Ravi Coltrane *'' Moving Pictures'' (RCA/BMG, 1998) *'' From the Round Box'' (RCA, 2000) *'' Spirit Fiction'' (Blue Note, 2012) With Scott Colley *'' Architect of the Silent Moment'' (CAM Jazz, 2005

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

*''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' (CAM Jazz, 2010) With David Gilmore * ''Ritualism'' (2000, Kashka) With Drew Gress * ''7 Black Butterflies'' (Premonition, Koch, 2005) * ''The Irrational Numbers'' (Premonition, 2007) * ''The Sky Inside'' (Pirouet, 2013) With

* ''Leaves of Grass'' (2005, Palmetto) * ''Live from the Jazz Standard/ Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra'' (2009, Palmetto) * ''Trio plus 2'' (Palmetto) * ''Songs Without Words'' (2009, Nonesuch) With Jason Moran *''

Artist in Residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

'' (

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

, 2006) With

Enrico Pieranunzi Enrico Pieranunzi (born 5 December 1949) is an Italian jazz pianist. He combines classical technique with jazz. Biography The son of Renata Brillantini and Alvaro Pieranunzi, Enrico Pieranunzi was encouraged to study music at a young age. Hi ...

* Proximity (2015, CamJazz) With

Lonnie Plaxico Lonnie Plaxico (born September 4, 1960) is an American jazz double bassist. Biography Plaxico was born in Chicago, into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen (playing both double ba ...

* ''With All My Heart'' (1994,

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

) * ''Emergence'' (2000,

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

) With Sam Rivers * '' Inspiration'' (1999,

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

) * ''

Culmination In observational astronomy, culmination is the passage of a celestial object (such as the Sun, the Moon, a planet, a star, constellation or a deep-sky object) across the observer's local meridian. These events are also known as meridian tran ...

'' (1999, BMG France/RCA) With

Yelena Eckemoff Yelena Eckemoff is a Russian-born pianist, composer, poet, and visual artist. Her compositions blend classical music with jazz, and feature exploration and improvisation. Music career Eckemoff was born in Moscow, Russia, in the Soviet Union. He ...

* ''Better Than Gold and Silver'' (2018, L&H) * ''I Am a Stranger in This World'' (2022, L&H) With Others * Peter Epstein, ''Polarities'' (2014) * Tomas Fujiwara Trio, ''Variable Bets'' (

Relative Pitch Relative pitch is the ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note by comparing it to a reference note and identifying the interval between those two notes. For example, if the notes ''Do'' and ''Fa'' are played on a piano, a ...

, 2014) * Florian Weber, ''Lucent Waters'' (ECM, 2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alessi, Ralph Jazz trumpeters Composers from San Francisco Living people Avant-garde jazz trumpeters 1963 births American male trumpeters American jazz composers American male jazz composers Jazz musicians from San Francisco 21st-century American trumpeters 21st-century American male musicians