{"id":3983,"date":"2026-07-07T19:09:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3983"},"modified":"2026-07-07T19:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:09:56","slug":"nick-rossi-jazzopaters-ready-to-deal-the-ellingtonia-in-stanford-s-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3983","title":{"rendered":"Nick Rossi, Jazzopaters ready to deal the Ellingtonia in Stanford, S.F."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>Nick Rossi knows that building a world requires paying close attention to the smallest details.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3981\">Theories of a Taylor Swift wedding documentary debunked<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A jazz guitarist, historian educator and leader of the only group on the West Coast devoted exclusively to Ellingtonia, he\u2019s shining a light on a brilliant but oft-overlooked corner of classic American music. His nine-piece Jazzopaters play a sold-out Stanford Jazz Festival concert July 10 and two shows on July 12 at Mr. Tipple\u2019s in San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazzopaters\u2019 repertoire extends beyond the prolific pen of Duke Ellington to encompass Billy Strayhorn\u2019s compositions and arrangements for small group sessions\u00a0designed to showcase the orchestra\u2019s primary soloists, including alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, trumpeter Cootie Williams, and baritone saxophonist Harry Carny.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Strayhorn\u2019s arrival in 1939 his first job for Duke was overseeing these small group recordings,\u201d Rossi said, while noting that the Jazzopaters mission is to focus with creative reverence \u201con the spirit of the material. At the same time we\u2019re bringing our own voices and approach to the music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In showcasing a stellar cast of\u00a0exuberantly idiosyncratic musicians he\u2019s embracing the Ellingtonian imperative.\u00a0Anchoring the reeds and holding\u00a0down the\u00a0baritone sax\u00a0chair defined with soulful panache by Harry Carney\u00a0for nearly five decades is Kamrin Ortiz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarney was such a force of nature and was so important to those small group sessions, and Kamrin is one of the strongest saxophonists I know,\u201d Rossi said.<\/p>\n<p>Trumpeter James Dunning provides a wide expressive palette as an expert with various mutes, and, as Rossi notes, \u201cthe texture of these small group recordings rely on mutes.<\/p>\n<p>Clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Nathan Tokunaga, 19, was a junior at Belmont\u2019s Carlmont High when he became a founding Jazzopater, a position he\u2019s reclaimed while on summer break from studying jazz at the New School in New York. He sits next to veteran reed expert\u00a0Patrick Wolff, the first musician Rossi approached when he decided to launch the Jazzopaters two years ago. They\u2019d worked together extensively in a variety of bands, including bassist Marcus Shelby\u2019s orchestra playing Ellington programs.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>One reason the Jazzopaters idea appealed to Wolff is that many of the Ellington small group sessions were intended for juke boxes,\u00a0\u201cand most of it is danceable and very riff-based, much more so than in Duke\u2019s big band,\u201d Wolff said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done dance shows and sit-down concerts, and we\u00a0always\u00a0play very acoustic, with as little sound reinforcement as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3979\">Commercial real estate woes weigh on Santa Clara County property values<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When he\u2019s not leading the Jazzopaters, Rossi can often be found playing for dancers, like a July 16 date at Specs\u2019 in North Beach with\u00a0Nick Rossi\u2019s Swing Club. He\u2019s back at the Mark Hopkins Hotel\u2019s Top of the Mark with his Swing Four on Aug. 1, a monthly residency he\u2019s held for several years. And on Aug. 28, Rossi\u2019s Swing Six plays Lindy in the Park\u2019s 30th anniversary dinner dance at San Francisco\u2019s Verdi Club.<\/p>\n<p>His expertise in pre-World War II jazz has also found expression on the printed page. He\u2019s written liner notes for a number of acclaimed reissue projects, like an anthology collecting early recording by Chicago piano star Dorothy Donegan. He\u2019s focused his research on overlooked guitarists, like an essay on guitarist Oscar Moore in the booklet for \u201cNat King Cole Hittin\u2019 The Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Rossi the past isn\u2019t so much a foreign country as an enticing, dangerous realm where a different set of rules prevailed. When film historian and Noir City Film Festival founder Eddie Muller was looking for a music director, Rossi was a natural choice.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cNick\u2019s value has been spectacular,\u201d said Muller, who noted that the first wave of film noir in the 1940s featured orchestral scores in the grand European tradition. When jazz was portrayed on screen it was often \u201ca symbol of the underworld, played by Black musicians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that all started to change in the \u201850s with inventive and progressive film makers using scores by Elmer Bernstein, Alex North, and Duke Ellington, a very interesting cultural shift that Nick understands more than anybody we know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s played an increasingly visible role in the Noir City Festival, booking more than a dozen performances at last January\u2019s 23rd\u00a0edition. His archival skills have come into play too, like a talk he gave for a screening of the forgotten 1945 B film \u201cThe Crimson Canary,\u201d which happens to feature nightclub scenes with tenor sax titan Coleman Hawkins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNick knew the whole story of how it was made, where Hawkins was playing in LA at the time,\u201d Muller said. \u201cAs a guy who researches and writes about film, it was impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Andrew Gilbert at\u00a0jazzscribe@aol.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK ROSSI\u2019S JAZZOPATERS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>When &amp; where:<\/strong> 7:30 p.m. July 10 at Campbell Recital Hall in Stanford University; $47; stanfordjazz.org; 6 and 7:45 p.m. July 12 at Mr. Tipple\u2019s, San Francisco; $15-$30; mrtipplessf.com<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3976\">Seeds of change: Inside the pioneering history of the Davis Farmers Market<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bay Area jazz guitarist has emerged as a go-to performer and interpreter of Duke Ellington&#8217;s catalogue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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