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Alexa Tarantino

Alexa Tarantino is an award-winning, vibrant, young jazz saxophonist, woodwind doubler, composer, and educator. Alexa’s “lovely, ardent way of improvising,” and “sharply plotted but gracefully unencumbered straight-ahead jazz [compositions]” (Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times) establish her individual voice which shines through as a dynamic performer and educator. Tarantino was recently named one of the “Top 5 Alto Saxophonists of 2019” by the JazzTimes Critics’ Poll. Her debut album, Winds of Change, peaked at #15 on the JazzWeek Charts and landed at #79 for JazzWeek’s Top 100 records of 2019.

Tarantino’s performance highlights include prestigious venues such as Jazz in Marciac Festival (with Wynton Marsalis and the Young Stars of Jazz), Umbria Jazz Festival (with Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project), the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Hollywood Bowl (with Sherrie Maricle & the DIVA Jazz Orchestra), the Rockport Jazz Festival (Alexa Tarantino Quintet), Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), and the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival (with LSAT, Earth, Wind & Fire and others). She has performed regularly as a leader and sidewoman in a wide variety of ensembles and genres including the Alexa Tarantino Quartet, Cecile McLorin Salvant Quintet, Cecile McLorin Salvant’s OGRESSE Ensemble, Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Generation Y, LSAT (quintet co-led with baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian), Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Sherrie Maricle & the DIVA Jazz Orchestra.

Tarantino leads her own quartet, which was featured at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland Jazz Theater, Jazz Standard, and Times Square. Tarantino is an artist on the Posi-Tone Records label. She recently released her second bandleader record with Posi-Tone Records, Clarity, featuring Steven Feifke (piano), Rudy Royston (drums), and Joe Martin (bass). Her debut quartet record on Posi-Tone, Winds of Change, released late-May 2019 featuring Christian Sands (piano), Joe Martin (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums), with Nick Finzer (trombone). Tarantino’s other recent projects include her quintet that she co-leads with baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian called “LSAT.” LSAT was selected as the winners of the Made in New York Jazz Competition, where they performed with Randy Brecker, John Patitucci, and more. The two award- winning saxophonists have fused with a dynamic rhythm section that propels their music to new heights. LSAT presents original compositions highlighting the unique combination of baritone and alto saxophone, as well as their own interpretations of favorites from the jazz repertoire. LSAT recently headlined at the Jazz Educators Network Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA.

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Album Review

Artemis: In Real Time

Read "In Real Time" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


For drummer Allison Miller, a key feature of In Real Time is that this second Blue Note release captures the unique ensemble sound of Artemis. She stresses a palpable sonic integrity that she attributes to trust and chemistry. Renee Rosnes emphasizes the singularity of each player in the equation, underscoring “a striking juxtaposition between the stylistic approaches of the two saxophonists," Nicole Glover and Alexa Tarantino; “each illuminates the other." She adds, “ Nobody sounds like Ingrid," which is certainly ...

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Album Review

Artemis: In Real Time

Read "In Real Time" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Artemis double down on their fiery yet regal 2020 self-titled, Blue Note debut with a punchy, calligraphic flare (thanks in part to their younger contemporaries, in demand multi-reedist Alexa Tarantino and hellfire saxophonist Nicole Glover), catch fire, and watch it spread. An early, sure-fire contender for the tops-of-twenty-three list barrage, In Real Time is really very hard to resist, even when it falls out of step. “Balance of Time," though intoxicating in texture, seems out of sequence just ...

Album Review

Steven Feifke: The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra

Read "The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Metti assieme un talentoso giovane orchestratore come Steven Feifke, un trombettista di prima grandezza come Bijon Watson e una big band con grandi nomi e prestigiosi ospiti e il risultato è scontato. Il debutto della Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra è stato propiziato dalla collaborazione col Jazz Education Network ed ha assunto le vesti di un album includendo in organico ospiti di rilievo come Kurt Elling, Sean Jones e Chad Lefkowitz Brown. Il principale riferimento è la tradizione ...

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Album Review

Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra: The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra

Read "The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, co-led by pianist/composer Steven Feifke and trumpeter par excellence Bijon Watson, is a seventeen-member ensemble comprising seasoned players paired with young lions who are poised to capture pride of place. Nowhere do the leaders say who is in which group, and it would be impolitic to name them here. Suffice to say that some of the names may be more familiar than others--as, for example, trombonist John Fedchock who cut his teeth with one of ...

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Album Review

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: Swings Broadway

Read "Swings Broadway" reviewed by Jack Bowers


At the ripe old age of thirty (closer to a hundred in big-band years), the superlative New York-based, all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra remains as frisky as a newborn colt, swinging up, down and around Broadway with abandon on its thirteenth album, a brisk and colorful tribute to the Great White Way that shines brightly from start to finish. The album opens and closes in a mid-1950s vein, raising the curtain with Steven Feifke's breezy, well-grooved arrangement of ...

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Radio & Podcasts

New Albums From Posi-Tone, 577 Records, And Circum-Disc

Read "New Albums From Posi-Tone, 577 Records, And Circum-Disc" reviewed by Bob Osborne


Mostly new albums this time around with new featured releases from Posi-Tone, the prolific 577 Records, and French imprint Circum-Disc. There's a variety of jazz forms included with some fascinating new approaches to the music.Playlist Alexa Tarantino “Rootless Ruthlessness" from Firefly (Positone) 00:00 Banausoi “Aeneas Tacticus" from Imagines (circum-disc) 07:46 Dom Minasi “Sucker's Paradise" from Eight Hands One Mind (Unseen Rain) 17:22 L'abime “L'abime" from L'abime (Multiple Chord Music) 23:01 Rachel Musson “Slimpets" from Dreamsing (577 Records) Ayumi ...

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Album Review

Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band: Soul Conversations

Read "Soul Conversations" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.'s Big Band comes out swinging on its debut recording, Soul Conversations, thundering through Michael Dease's incendiary arrangement of the Dizzy Gillespie/John Lewis flame-thrower, “Two Bass Hit." For more such heat, however, the listener must move forward to Track 5, John Coltrane's impulsive “Giant Steps," thence to Track 9 for Charles Turner III's earnest homage to “Harlem Harlem Harlem," on which he doubles as vocalist. That's not to say that everything in between is ...

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“It is time we stop referring to saxophonist Alexa Tarantino as one of the “on the rise” young starts in jazz. She has arrived, and by the sounds of things, she is here to stay. [...] While the pieces are well-crafted, and the playing exquisite, the most memorable melodies are more contained within the probing, image conjuring solos provided by Tarantino.” • All About Jazz on Winds of Change • Paul Rauch • June 10, 2019

“Coming at her music with an impressive embrace of style and tradition, and blending a natural youthful inquisitiveness and confidence to make the music her own, saxophonist-flautist and full- of-flair composer Alexa Tarantino (...) makes big strides towards the limelight on her Posi-Tone Records debut as leader with the restorative and percolating Winds of Change.” • All About Jazz • Mike Jurkovic • August 8, 2019

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, alto

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

In Real Time

Blue Note Records
2023

buy

Electric Miles 2

Summit/Mama
2023

buy

Swings Broadway

Diva Records
2022

buy

Ghost Song

Nonesuch Records
2022

buy

The Generation Gap...

Cellar Records
2022

buy

Kinetic

Outside in Music
2021

buy

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