gary bartz rené marie nicole henry claudio roditi - Hot House Jazz

Exemplifying Samba Meets JazzBy Ken FrancklingRUMPETER CLAUDIO RODITIThas been blending jazz with samba andother rhythms from his native Brazilthroughout his career as a fine bandleader,first-call bebop trumpeter and big bandsection player. He has 17 recordings as aleader and many others as a sideman.Roditi also remains busy as a jazz composerand an educator involved in high schoolandcollege-level clinics and a variety ofworkshops.The Brazilian side of his playing will bein the spotlight at Jazz at Kitano. He willbe featured with three other faculty membersfrom the Samba Meets Jazz workshopthat's held in Bar Harbor ME. One of severalworkshops that grew out of the GuitarIntensives summer program that AliceSchiller began at the College of theAtlantic in 2002, the Samba Meets Jazzworkshop, added an international sessionin Rio de Janeiro and Paraty Brazil threeyears ago.Blending musical fire with deep feelingand precise articulation, Roditi has been amainstay on the New York jazz scene formore than 35 years. Clifford Brown andLee Morgan have been among his strongeststylistic influences.Roditi came to the United States in 1970from his native Rio to study at the BerkleeCollege of Music and launch his career. Inthe earliest years, when based in eitherBoston or the Big Apple, he performed withsome of his trumpet heroes. In Boston hewas able to sit in with Roy Eldridge, ClarkTerry, Howard McGhee and Bobby Hackettwhen they came to town. "The only onethat I regret I never saw live was LeeMorgan. He didn't play Boston that firstyear after I came from Brazil. I never got tosee him before he was killed in 1971."After moving to New York in 1976, hebecame a section player in trumpeter DizzyGillespie's United Nation Orchestra, anexperience he cherishes for opening manydoors for him. "I got to play with FreddieHubbard and Red Rodney. We were thethree trumpets on a Slide Hampton-led bigband tour to Europe to pay tribute to Dizzywhile he was sick," Roditi says. "It was justunbelievable. To be playing alongside Freddie—oneof my greatest idols—was a gas."A two-time Grammy nominee—in 1995for his "Symphonic Bossa Nova" and in2010 as Best Latin Jazz Album forBrazilliance X4—Roditi may be one of thefew common threads between Gillespie,Horace Silver, Herbie Mann, Gary Bartz,Michael Franks and McCoy Tyner. He wasa sideman on recording projects between1987 and 2007 on which they were theleaders. "I have been very fortunate inbeing able to work with straight-aheadjazz, Latin and Brazilian musicians,"Roditi says.The Kitano gig, billed as a Samba MeetsJazz Open House, is a performance andjam session-style party to celebrate the sixyear-oldworkshop. Roditi will performwith Samba Meets Jazz artistic director,bassist Nilson Matta, and faculty colleaguesMatt King and Fernando Sacibefore a jam session with New York-areaworkshop participants.Roditi taught at the Bar Harbor workshopfor the first time this year and hasaccepted an invitation to return in 2014."They are specializing in Brazilian musicbut there's also a little bit of Latin jazz,which involves Cuban and Puerto Ricanmusic. This program is a workshop mostlyfor adults. A lot of people are not professionalmusicians but they want to learnhow to play these different styles of music.They have a lot of curiosity," Roditi says."One of the things that inspires a teacheris to have someone sincerely interested inwhat you have to say and ask you questions.It gives you more ideas, also."Roditi, now 67, says he has been spendinga lot of his time writing new compositions,some of them for his newest brassacquisition, a piccolo trumpet (best knownin Baroque music), to supplement hisflugelhorn and rotary-valve trumpet. "It isanother voice, another color," he says. "Thepiccolo is literally half the size in lengththan the regular trumpet. Consequently, itcontinued on page 3730Roditi photo by Chris Drukker