Ralph Alessi
“Ralph Alessi has never had a problem with precision or grappled publicly with the mechanics of his art. His trumpet tone conveys a rounded luminescence, like the moon in full phase, and his technique is an astonishment of fluency.”
– Nate Chinen, The New York Times
US-trumpeter Ralph Alessi first came to ECM in 1997 as part of a collaborative trio with his longtime associate pianist Michael Cain and Peter Epstein on saxophone (“this episodic and continually intriguing music is never predictable” – Allmusic). The trumpeter wouldn’t return to the label until his first two ECM albums as a leader – Baida (2013) and Quiver (2016) –, which justly earned him high praise. The New York Times lauded the “elegant precision and power” of Baida, while The Guardian extolled Quiver, pointing to the leader’s “flawless technique and ability [...]
“Ralph Alessi has never had a problem with precision or grappled publicly with the mechanics of his art. His trumpet tone conveys a rounded luminescence, like the moon in full phase, and his technique is an astonishment of fluency.”
– Nate Chinen, The New York Times
US-trumpeter Ralph Alessi first came to ECM in 1997 as part of a collaborative trio with his longtime associate pianist Michael Cain and Peter Epstein on saxophone (“this episodic and continually intriguing music is never predictable” – Allmusic). The trumpeter wouldn’t return to the label until his first two ECM albums as a leader – Baida (2013) and Quiver (2016) –, which justly earned him high praise. The New York Times lauded the “elegant precision and power” of Baida, while The Guardian extolled Quiver, pointing to the leader’s “flawless technique and ability to draw on jazz tradition while avoiding its clichés.”
In 2016 he also made an appearance on the large ensemble album The Distance by Michael Formanek, before lending his idiosyncratic voice to pianist Florian Weber’s 2018 quartet effort Lucent Waters, an album that “draws listeners into a shimmering, introspective, often slow-motion world that bristles with frisson,” according to Downbeat.
After his quartet discs, Alessi’s third ECM album, Imaginary Friends, presented him fronting his longtime working quintet – This Against That – in its first recording since 2010. The Guardian: “His best album yet for ECM, and an elegant balance of poignant, playful original compositions and gracefully probing improv”.
On 2023’s It’s Always Now, Florian Weber returned the favour and became part of Ralph Alessi’s group in a quartet that “balances beauty with friction, as the latter consistently heightens the former” (Downbeat).
A Sun That Never Sets, following in 2026, finds the trumpeter expanding a quartet configuration that includes Mat Mitchell on piano, bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith with his brother Joseph, trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, for a set of eleven new compositions that elaborate on Alessi’s intricate writing with deep thought and a fresh sense of adventure.
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