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Ralph Lalama

Ralph Lalama grew up in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, graduated from The Dana School of Music of Youngstown State University (Ohio) and was recognized there for his remarkable talent by the legendary Thad Jones, who encouraged him to come to New York. Since that time, Lalama has reached a dignified status as a widely respected master of the tenor through his achievements in the big bands of Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Carla Bley and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra - now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra - with whom he is a featured soloist on Monday nights at New York's Village Vanguard. His experience is vast and varied and includes appearances with Barry Harris, Harold Danko, Mel Torme, Carmen McRae, Tom Harrell and Joe Morello. He has recorded with Joe Morello, the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band (under the direction of Jon Faddis). He appears on two Joe Lovano nonet releases on Blue Note: the 2001 Grammy Award-winning, "52nd Street Themes," and the 2003 release, "On This Day...At The Vanguard."

With a prolific discography and in addition to numerous recordings as a sideman, Lalama has led his own projects for the Dutch label, Criss-Cross Jazz. 1999 saw his fifth, "Ralph Lalama: Music for Grown-Ups," featuring notables Richard Wyands at the piano, Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums. "Lalama is out front booting things along with that cavernous sound of his and a swing and swagger that is infectious." (Chris Hovan, allaboutjazz). "Circle Line" (1997) garnered 4½ stars from Down Beat Magazine and secured him a spot in the magazine's "Top CDs of the Decade" (Dec. 99). "You Know What I Mean" (1995) received wide acclaim and his "Momentum" CD with Kenny Barron placed him at No. 2 on New York's WBGO playlist for that year, just behind tenor giant Joe Henderson.

Lalama's playing reveals an enormous depth of musical heart and knowledge. Combined with his muscular sound, executed in a freewheeling, no-holds-barred approach to music, one understands why he so thoroughly connects with musicians and listeners alike. When not busy touring the world, he dedicates his time to teaching younger players as an adjunct professor at New York University and SUNY Purchase. He has instructed an international collective of students through Manhattan School of Music's Marca Jazz Camp in Venice, Italy. He also offers private instruction. One of his students, Jonathan Lee, received the 2003 National Down Beat Award for Best High School Jazz Soloist.

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Catching Up With

Ralph Lalama: A Disciple, Not a Clone

Read "Ralph Lalama: A Disciple, Not a Clone" reviewed by Lionelle Hamanaka


Ralph Lalama has absorbed the great legacy of the masters while carving his own name on the jazz tree. His distinguished career has seen him play with many jazz greats. The Pennsylvania-born, New York-based tenor saxophonist has found his own sound with an incisive style that reflects the spirit of our times. The son of a steelworker, Lalama was raised in a musical family. His work has gained recognition throughout the jazz world and is living proof that the American ...

2
Live Review

John Richmond with Special Guest Ralph Lalama

Read "John Richmond with Special Guest Ralph Lalama" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


John Richmond with Special Guest Ralph Lalama The Turning Point Cafe Nyack Jazz Week 2021 Piermont, NY July 26, 2021 What's so special about a special guest artist? While stints in name bands or a track record as a leader may be sufficient to get the booking and fill some seats, in the end, credentials and the expectations that accompany them don't mean much when the band hits and the artist faces the ...

Album Review

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer

Read "OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Questo disco ci è giunto con un po' di ritardo ma va assolutamente segnalato. È infatti uno dei migliori dischi dell'anno nonchè un omaggio al genio orchestrale di Bob Brookmeyer. Forse non tutti sanno che lo storico trombonista, partner negli anni cinquanta di Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan e Jimmy Giuffre, è stato uno di massimi orchestratori moderni: nel 1966 partecipò alla fondazione della Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, scrivendo decine di partiture, e nel 1990 ne divenne il direttore, quando la ...

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Live Review

Mark Hagan's Jazz Salon At The Old 76 House

Read "Mark Hagan's Jazz Salon At The Old 76 House" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Mark Hagan's Jazz Salon The Old 76 House Tappan, NY January 7, 2015 While the outside temperature plummeted to single digits and everyone groused about the bitter cold, tenor saxophonist Ralph Lalama--undeterred by the circumstances--calmly suggested “Winter Wonderland." The seasonal favorite was the second selection by an ad hoc group assembled by bassist Mark Hagan, as part of his Wednesday night Jazz Salon series at The Old 76 House in Tappan, NY. A rewarding ...

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Album Review

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer

Read "OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer" reviewed by John Ephland


There's a richness, a depth, a density to his varied charts. And the soloists and ensemble passages inside those charts! Such has always been the case with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, then, and now. For real, gliding from the spirit of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, this edition of the VJO now embraces another one of its own: trombonist/composer/arranger/pianist Bob Brookmeyer, with Over Time: Music Of Bob Brookmeyer. And what different sound comes from this grand aggregate of ...

5
Album Review

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer

Read "OverTime: Music of Bob Brookmeyer" reviewed by Jack Bowers


While it may be hard to believe, the reality is that the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is nearing the end of its first half-century together. Formed in 1966 as the Thad Jones -Mel Lewis Orchestra, it continued on after Jones' departure as the Mel Lewis Orchestra, then as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra after Lewis' death in February 1990. During many of those years, the ensemble was enriched by the compositions and arrangements of the renowned Bob Brookmeyer (1929-2011), a master craftsman ...

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Extended Analysis

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music Of Bob Brookmeyer

Read "The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: OverTime: Music Of Bob Brookmeyer" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer extraordinaire Mel Lewis may have given birth to the band that's now known as The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, but the late Bob Brookmeyer gave the group artistic independence at a time when it was sorely needed. When Jones left the fold and departed for Europe at the tail end of the '70s, things could've gone a very different way for this storied outfit: it could've simply carried on as a pretty good ...

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145

Interview

Veteran Saxophonist Ralph Lalama Interviewed at AAJ

Veteran Saxophonist Ralph Lalama Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Ralph Lalama's rich tenor saxophone voice has been heard for years on the New York City scene, perhaps most notably with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and its predecessors, first led by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and later by just Lewis. He's a guy who grew up when rock music was fully bursting on the American scene, but maintains that not much of that music touched him. He came from a family that listened to jazz and the American Popular ...

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Recording

"The Audience," New CD by Saxophonist Ralph Lalama, Due Jan. 26 from Mighty Quinn Productions

"The Audience," New CD by Saxophonist Ralph Lalama, Due Jan. 26 from Mighty Quinn Productions

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Ever since arriving on the New York scene in the mid-1970s, tenor saxophonist Ralph Lalama has been widely recognized as a Most Valuable Player. He's been a key soloist with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra for more than 25 years, and a member of Joe Lovano's Grammy-winning Nonet since its inception in 1999. But it was only in 2008 that Lalama made his first U.S. recording as a leader, the well-received Energy Fields for Mighty Quinn Productions. Now he's produced a ...

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Interview

Mad About Thad...Thad Jones and Ralph Lalama

Mad About Thad...Thad Jones and Ralph Lalama

Source: From Riches to Ragtime: Peter Cobb

Jazz is a story of continuity, that of one generation passing on its knowledge to the next. Like the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," one can trace the lineage of one great player to another, whether through direct artistic influence or simple opportunities for exposure. Some great musicians take it upon themselves to actively mentor other young players so as to preserve and extend the future of the music. There are well-publicized examples, like that of Art Blakey and his ...

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Recording

Ralph Lalama Quartet Releases "Energy Fields"

Ralph Lalama Quartet Releases "Energy Fields"

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

New York, NY When a group of similar minded musicians gets together and can relate to each other on a fundamental level about their influences, everything seems to fall into place. In the case of The Ralph Lalama Quartet, those quintessential synergies are apparent on their new release Energy Fields. All four men are well-known veterans in jazz circles and have played on numerous recordings over the years with well-known performers. The leader Ralph Lalama, a tenor sax legend in ...

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Performance / Tour

Jon Faddis, Ralph Lalama & NY Improv Collective to Perform with Jazz Students at New York's Town Hall

Jon Faddis, Ralph Lalama & NY Improv Collective to Perform with Jazz Students at New York's Town Hall

Source: All About Jazz

Alongside jazz headliners Jon Faddis, Ralph Lalama, and New York Improv Collective, Central Connecticut State University Jazz Ensemble (Carl W. Knox, director) and California's Vanguard University Jazz Ensemble (Kenneth R. Foerch, director) will perform at New York's Town Hall on Wednesday, April 23, 2008, at 8 p.m. “Jazz at Town Hall," a new series presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York, will open with an all-Thelonious Monk program titled “Monk in the 21st Century: The Next Generation." Central Connecticut State ...

Lalama is a grand, modern-minded storyteller who knows bebop, and other stuff, too. He has his own sound, husky with a bit of sparkle, going from fat, low-end belches to whispery high tones. His melodies are authoritative and warmly melodic, his time drummer-sure. In other words, a first-class jazz soloist." --Zan Stewart, Down Beat

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Erie Avenue

Self Produced
2014

buy

OverTime: Music of...

Planet Arts Records
2014

buy

The Audience

Mighty Quinn Productions
2010

buy

Energy Fields

Mighty Quinn Productions
2008

buy

Music For Grown-Ups

Criss Cross
1999

buy

Snake Eyes

Palmetto Records
1998

buy

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