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Thom Rotella

"I remember it like it was yesterday...I'm eight years old and my buddy, Rich and I are looking through the basement window of Mt. Carmel Church (Niagara Falls, NY) where there's a dance going on. I see this multi-headed monster, with arms flailing and all this sound and energy blasting me, and people dancing... it was the first time I saw a live band and I said to myself, man I gotta be a part of this!!!! — Thom Rotella

Now a talented instrumentalist and composer, Thom Rotella has achieved both critical and commercial success. He has produced and recorded 11 CDs as a leader that have garnered listeners throughout the world for many years. He has also had a thriving career writing and playing for television and films, as well as being an in-demand session player.

Rotella has performing and recording credits with a wide variety of world-renowned artists across the musical spectrum, including Norah Jones, D onna Summer, Frank Sinatra, Cher, The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Lionel Richie, Bette Midler, Luciano Pavarotti, Seth MacFarland, David Foster, Stanley Turrentine, Tom Scott, Rick Braun, Gerald Ablright and Gregg Karukas.

Rotella wrote and performed the score for the movie "Altos"; as well as writing for and performing on such TV shows "Ellen DeGeneres"; "Extra"; "Sex and the City"; and "China Beach." He created original music for television commercials for Ford, Cadillac, Goodyear, Chevrolet and Taco Bell. In addition, he also played guitar on "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," "American Dad," "The Tonight Show" and "The Tracey Ullman Show." He has appeared on numerous movie soundtracks, including "Ted," "Ted 2," "Splash," "Same Time Next Year," "The Gods Must Be Crazy," "Rumblefish," and "Mississippi Masala."

Thom Rotella was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., surrounded by a very musical family. When he was six years old he started playing for the fun of it on his grandfather's guitar. He began serious guitar lessons at the age of ten. As a teenager, Rotella played rock 'n roll, but soon discovered jazz through the recordings of Wes Montgomery. He subsequently attended Ithaca College (as a classical guitar major), and while at Berklee College, studied under Gary Burton (1970-1972). Rotella left Berklee to tour with a lounge band, then moved to Los Angeles where he found a mentor in the legendary studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco. He quickly established himself as a top call studio musician. However, after a few years of this work, he began to miss performing live, so in 1980 moved to New York, where although he continued studio work, he also had more opportunities for live performance.

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Album Review

Tom Ranier: This Way

Read "This Way" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Multi-instrumentalist Tom Rainer is a genre-defying artist who has a uniquely accessible style with a cinematic approach to orchestration. The enjoyable This Way is made up of several of his own compositions as well as a few covers, all of which Rainer and his quartet interpret with sophistication and elegance. The funky title track, for instance, features Rainer leading from the piano with a clean and crisp cascade of notes. Overdubbed woodwinds add a soulful touch to the ...

3
Album Review

Tom Ranier: This Way

Read "This Way" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The versatile multi-instrumentalist Tom Ranier has enjoyed a busy career, playing pop styles, electronic music and jazz. Prolific as a collaborator—Terry Gibbs, George Coleman, Placido Domingo—he also boasts a grounding in classical music. This Way features Rainier playing mostly his own compositions on piano, synthesizers, saxophones and clarinets, with some help from his friends, guitarist Thom Rotella, bassist Trey Henry and drummer Ralph Humphrey. On this, his first recording under his own name since Bright Idea (Primrose Lane, ...

3
Album Review

Diane Schuur: Running on Faith

Read "Running on Faith" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Pianist and vocalist Diane “Deedles" Schuur and Wessell “Warmdaddy" Anderson may be the last jazz artists to have musically-anointed monikers, from a genre replete with them (Lester “Prez" Young, Billie “Lady Day" Holiday, Johnny “Rabbit" Hodges, Julian “Cannonball" Adderley and “John Birks “Dizzy" Gillespie). Schuur was named “Deedles" as a child by her mother. The name stuck and proved both inspirational and descriptive for the accomplished singer and pianist, blind from birth, who has performed with the luminaries of jazz. ...

7
Album Review

Silvio Amato: Variations Of Relevance

Read "Variations Of Relevance" reviewed by Jim Worsley


Silvio Amato has a well-established career as a composer, arranger, and film scorer. Amongst other projects, the Italian-born pianist has written soundtracks for major motion pictures, a multitude of pieces for children's television programming, theme songs for a variety of television shows, and has been highly successful with ice ballets. His compositions for Peter Pan, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast have been taken to the ice all over Europe. He has also composed pop music. Coupled with a ...

170
Album Review

Thom Rotella 4-tet: Out of the Blues

Read "Out of the Blues" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Let's hear it for the straight-ahead, blues-drenched, Blue Note circa 1955 blowing session. Sometimes after feasting on the rich duck pate of ECM or the decadent foie gras of Winter & Winter, the listener just craves the black-eyed peas and collards simplicity of the blues. Let's also hear it for a full, round arch top guitar tone, each note audible, each chord distinct. That pretty well defines Thom Rotella and his guitar style.

Another facet of Rotella's guitar ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Variations Of...

Blue Canoe Records
2020

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Running on Faith

Jazzheads
2020

buy

This Way

Self Produced
2020

buy

Out of the Blues

Four Bar Music
2008

buy

Blue Roses

From: Variations Of Relevance
By Thom Rotella

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