“Rotondi has the passion and focus to find a place for the music in the new millennium.”  The New Yorker. Raised in Butte, Montana, Jim took up the trumpet at age 12.  He attended the esteemed jazz studies program at North Texas State University. If those first jobs out of college are tough to nab, Jim did quite well – recording and touring internationally with the Ray Charles Orchestra.  This post was followed by a six-year tenure with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and prestigious chairs with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Charles Earland Quintet, Toshiko Akiyoshi and others.  Based in NYC, Jim Rotondi has several acclaimed CDs under his own name and is one of jazz's most sought after trumpet players on stage and in the studio.  NYC pianist Rick Germanson has performed and/or recorded with greats like Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis and Marlena Shaw.  “He's blessed by tons of technique, taste and a clarity of right-hand runs, an appreciation for complex rhythms and a love for Latin.”  JazzTimes review of the CD Heights (Feb. 2004).