Once upon a time, hard hitting bop trumpet albums were a dime a dozen. The Hub, Sandoval, Tim Hagans, Donald Byrd, Woody Shaw, and then newcomers like Roy Hargrove just put out cooker after cooker. Now, it’s all this limp wrist self examination or just screeching cacophony. Jim Rotondi makes you feel like it’s CTI time again with this burning session with Joe Locke Vib/David Hazeltine/p-key, David Wong/b and Carl Allen/dr.
His tone is airy and warm, and for the softer tunes like “Pure Imagination” and “Our Day Will Come” (Good call, BTW) he feels like a custom made pillow, particularly on a genteel “Monk’s Mood” with sensitively supplied ivories by Hazeltine. OK..that’s out of the way.
Now, for the more uptempo pieces, you’re in for a thrill as Rotondi glides like a windsurfer over Wong’s loping bass and veers through Locke’s vibes on “In Graz,” and while Allen sizzles like morning bacon, Rotondi and Locke jab like middleweights on “BC.” The rhythm team goes modal and Hazeltine hits the Tyner chords on a galloping “Highline” while “Biru Kirusai” has a bluesy bite of a foundation supplied by the top notch groovemeister Allen. He snaps like snow peas throughout, giving Rotundi a spring board for some swan dives as on the strutting “Le Crest” and whitewater “Going to the Sun.” Contrary to Curtis Mayfield, Freddie’s not dead-he’s living in Rotondi’s horn!