Knox-Rootabaga Jazz Festival - Knox College News

Jim Rotondi, Eric Alexander, Ashanti, March 2-4

February 14, 2006

The 26th annual Knox-Rootabaga Jazz Festival features concerts and clinics on March 2, 3 and 4, with trumpeter Jim Rotondi, saxophonist Eric Alexander, the Latin jazz group Ashanti, and several Knox jazz bands. Tickets are available at the door at each event, or in advance by calling 309-341-7265. Festival tickets covering all events are available for $25.

The Knox Jazz Ensemble opens the headliner concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4 in the Orpheum Theatre, 57 S. Kellogg, Galesburg. The second set features Rotondi and Alexander's jazz quintet. Tickets for the Saturday night concert are $12 and $16 at the door.

Rotondi is a former colleague in the Ray Charles Orchestra with Knox Jazz Band director Dave Hoffman. Rotondi also has performed with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Charles Earland Quintet, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Grammy-winner Toshiko Akiyoshi. Alexander, a native of Galesburg, regularly performs with Rotondi in the group One For All.

The Knox Faculty and Friends Combo performs at 8 p.m. Thursday in McGillacuddy's, 58 S. Cherry St. Tickets are $7 at the door.

The Knox Alumni Big Band, directed by former Knox professor Scott Garlock, performs at 8 p.m., Friday in Pookies Coffee Bar, 72 S. Cherry St. Ashanti, performs at 10 p.m. in McGillacuddy's. Tickets are $10 at the door, covering both Friday night events.

On Saturday, high school jazz bands from the area will perform in a non-competitive clinic at the Orpheum Theatre. Also on Saturday, Knox's Cherry Street Combo will perform at 12 noon, and Rotondi and Alexander will conduct a master class at 3 p.m. at the Orpheum. The Saturday morning and afternoon events are free and open to the public.

Founded in 1980, the Knox-Rootabaga Jazz Festival has brought top jazz artists to Galesburg for performances and workshops with student jazz bands. Past headliners have included Kurt Elling, Benny Green, Matt Wilson, Frank Mantooth, Greg Osby, Curtis Fuller, Mose Allison, and the Hornheads.

More about the 2006 Featured Artists:

After graduating from North Texas State University in 1984, Jim Rotondi began his professional career in the trumpet section of the Ray Charles Orchestra, where Knox jazz band director Dave Hoffman also played trumpet and wrote arrangements. Rotondi has recorded five albums, the latest of which is "Destination Up" on the Sharp Nine label. The jazz web site allaboutjazz.com wrote that Rotondi's solos "are a near-perfect amalgam of power, finesse and logic," while The New Yorker wrote in 2003 that "Rotondi has the passion and focus to find a place for the music in the new millennium."

A Galesburg native, Eric Alexander attended Indiana University and received his bachelor's degree at William Paterson College in New Jersey. In 1991 he placed second, behind Joshua Redman, in the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. He has played on more than 60 albums -- his most recent is Nightlife in Tokyo, for Milestone Records, which featured jazz bass legend Ron Carter.

Ashanti is based in Pella, Iowa, where founding member Gabriel Espinosa teaches at Central College. The group was founded at the Berklee College of Music in Boston by students from Mexico, Switzerland, Chile, Japan, and Connecticut. Ashanti performed from 1984 to 1992 in hotels and clubs in Cancun, Mexico. Their latest CD, the group's fourth, is "Dyos Bo'otik."