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| Alan Rosenthal - Elbow Grease, a mainstream modern jazz collaboration "I found that not only is Rosenthal a terrific pianist, but he is an interesting and accomplished composer. One of the joys of jazz is to discover a new player who captures my ear, and makes me a fan. Alan Rosenthal is one such cat." -Joe Lang, Journal of the New Jersey Jazz Society Alan Rosenthal was born in New York City. As a child he studied classical piano with Nina Lugovoy and composition with Edward Simons. He began playing jazz in high school but continued his classical training at the University of Chicago, majoring in composition under Easley Blackwood and W.T. McKinley. Since moving back to New York, he has performed jazz extensively at a long list of tristate area venues including The Village Gate (where he was rhythm-section pianist for the NYU Sunday afternoon jam sessions), Birdland, Cleopatra's Needle (where he performs regularly with his trio and was house pianist for their vocal open-mic for 3 years), Cornelia Street Café, Smoke, Skipper's (Newark), Trumpets (Montclair) and many others, appearing with Valery Ponomarev, Clark Terry, Fred Hopkins, Jimmy Lovelace, Phillip Johnston, Ron McClure, Jimmy Hill, Cameron Brown, Mike Richmond, Bobby Lavell, Bill Crow, Tony Jefferson, the pop singer Fantasia (whom he accompanied on ABC-TV's "20/20"), Annette St. John, and a number of other noted artists. Rosenthal has also composed the scores for two tap musicals performed by Jane Goldberg's Changing Times Tap Dance Company, and for the modern dance choreographer Victoria Uris of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. He has written articles on both classical music and jazz for The Nation, The New York Times, and Fanfare as well as the introduction to the reprint of his brother David's book Hard Bop (Oxford University Press). His three-movement So Not a Sonata, composed in 2002, was recorded for release on W.T. McKinley's MMC label. TRACKS AND TIMES: 1. (Preface) Another Sky (1:45) 2. Up the Kazoo (6:01) 3. Blue J (6:21) 4. Drop Me Here (6:44) 5. Guitar Knee (5:29) 6. Monk Over Marrakesh (7:15) 7. They Didn't Believe Me (6:54) * 8. Dextrously (6:50) 9. Old-Fashioned Valentine (6:16) *Track 7 by Jerome Kern; all other compositions by Alan Rosenthal PLAYERS & INSTRUMENTS: Alan Rosenthal: piano (all tracks) Track 2: Alan Chaubert - trumpet; Patience Higgins - tenor sax; Scott Reeves - trombone; Bill Ware - vibes; Brian Glassman - bass; Steve Johns – drums Tracks 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 - Brian Glassman - bass; Mike Campenni - drums Tracks 6 and 8: Peter Brainin - soprano (track 6) and tenor write your comments about the article :: © 2019 Jazz News :: home page |