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Rafael Rosa

Rafael has been performing and teaching for the past 12 years in New York City. He is currently part of the Faculty at LIU's ROCNATION, and has taught at other colleges like NYU, CUNY, Saint John’s University, The Brooklyn Music School, Stevens Cooperative and his private studio:  The Brooklyn Rock Academy, helping students graduate to colleges like Berklee College of Music, Wells College, Indiana University, etc. He regularly performs  in NYC as a sideman and as a leader so be sure  to check the calendar. He is currently putting the finishing touches on his second album and first LP as a leader titled “Axiomatic: Music For The People” . Released in March 14, 2022.

Awards

"The Hand That Draws Another Hand" Official Selection: Vancouver Independent Movie Festival New York Movie Awards Paris Movie Awards Berlin Short Film Awards

Gear

Dava Picks Tyler Amps Henriksen Amps


Tags

1
Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: A Thousand Pebbles

Read "A Thousand Pebbles" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Ben Rosenblum's Nebula Project is a group which incorporates sounds from all over the world. Gospel, Brazilian rhythms, European folk dances, and other kinds of music all mix freely with jazz in this exciting and unpredictable set. The horn players, trumpeter Wayne Tucker and reed players Jasper Dutz and Xavier Del Castillo, all do excellent work in realizing the leader's freewheeling concepts. “Bulgares" has Tucker's trumpet and Dutz's bass clarinet darting out in a whirling Bulgarian rhythm over ...

32
Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: A Thousand Pebbles

Read "A Thousand Pebbles" reviewed by Jack Bowers


This is music for the open-minded. On A Thousand Pebbles, his fourth album as leader, New York-based pianist & accordionist Ben Rosenblum's seven-member Nebula Project traverses a number of musical landscapes, from Bulgaria to Brazil, Ireland to Israel, and realms beyond, offering a pleasurable smorgasbord of contemporary jazz that is always engaging and never shopworn. Rosenblum the composer wrote all of the album's eleven numbers save one, Antonio Carlos Jobim & Chico Baurque's melodious “Song of the ...

Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: A Thousand Pebbles

Read "A Thousand Pebbles" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Il giovane pianista e fisarmonicista (qui più la seconda della prima pelle, diremmo, almeno come incidenza sul sound d'insieme) newyorchese Ben Rosenblum firma con questo A Thousand Pebbles il quarto album a suo nome e il secondo alla testa del Nebula Project, sestetto (qui rinforzato da Xavier Del Castillo) versatile e capace di generare un clima solare e spesso festoso, intriso di umori latini e comunque popolari in senso lato (Rosenblum, che non di rado si sovrappone su entrambi i ...

Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Si parte con un episodio che potremmo definire post-bop, “Cedar Place," uno dei sette a firma di Ben Rosenblum, integrati da “Somewhere" di Leonard Bernstein, “Philadelphia" di Neil Young e un tradizionale bulgaro, ma in fondo è una falsa rivelazione, perché a seguire questa che è l'opera prima del giovane pianista e fisarmonicista newyorchese si sdipana su toni decisamente variegati, in cui il grande ceppo jazzistico è certo perfettamente avvertibile, ma i vari episodi sono più compositi, qua e là ...

4
Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Ben Rosenblum uses a lot of different instrumental elements on this release. For starters, he himself plays both piano and accordion, and his sextet also features trumpet, reeds and guitar. In addition, vibraphone and trombone show up on some tracks. That creates a blend of various textures and sounds which bring variety to this program of bright jazz compositions. Rosenblum's accordion flows together nicely with the sounds of Wayne Tucker's trumpet, and Jasper Dutz's bass clarinet on the ...

3
Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Expectations are necessarily guarded when preparing to appraise a recording by the Nebula Project whose leader plays accordion. Be that as it may, any such uneasiness is quickly erased by Ben Rosenblum and his doughty ensemble whose music is decidedly colorful, melodic and accessible—which is not meant to undervalue diversity, another of its discernible points. Rosenblum, who wrote seven of the album's ten numbers, draws on influences as varied as klezmer jazz, Bulgarian folk music and even Johannes Brahms to ...

14
Extended Analysis

Rafael Rosa: Portrait

Read "Rafael Rosa: Portrait" reviewed by Ian Patterson


In jazz terms Puerto Rico has certainly punched above its weight, producing Juan Tizol--a mainstay of Duke Ellington's bands in the 1930s and 1940s, Eddie Gomez and Manolo Badrena--who came to prominence in the 1960s/1970s through their respective associations with pianist Bill Evans and Weather Report--and latterly David Sanchez. Lesser known--though perhaps that's soon to change--is guitarist Rafael Rosa, whose enticing debut reveals a composer and technician of some sophistication. Carlos Maldonado's barril--a lower pitched Afro-Puerto Rican cousin ...

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“Rafael is a virtuoso composer and guitarist that can play any kind of music with authority. He is part of a new seed of artists of this present time, compromise with the listener in mind. Producing songs for this CD, performing with him and his friends has been a real enjoyable experience.” - John Benitez, Grammy Award Winning Bassist/Composer/Educator/Producer “Rafael has a beautiful sound, heart, ideas, sensibility and will to develop his language and expand his musical world. I have no doubt he is going to surprise us and I look forward to hearing more of his thrilling music.” – Jean Michel Pilc, 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship Award Winner Master Pianist/Composer/Educator/Author “Rafael is a musician with a huge heart

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Primary Instrument

Guitar

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

Professor @ LIU's ROCNATION Audio Engineer Composition Arranging Guitar

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

A Thousand Pebbles

Self Produced
2023

buy

Kites and Strings

One Trick Dog Records
2020

buy

Rafael Rosa: Portrait

Self Produced
2014

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Portrait

Self Produced
0

buy

Implicit Attitude

From: A Thousand Pebbles
By Rafael Rosa

Izpoved

From: Kites and Strings
By Rafael Rosa

New Recruit

From: Portrait
By Rafael Rosa

Videos

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