Montana-native, trumpeter Jim Rotondi began his musical studies at a very early age. His mother, a piano teacher, encouraged Jim to begin playing the piano at age eight. He took up the trumpet at age twelve.
In 1980 Jim graduated from Butte High School in Butte, Montana. After college Jim began recording and touring internationally with the Ray Charles Orchestra. Immediately following this he commenced a six year tenure with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. During this time Jim also became a member of organist Charles Earland's quintet. He currently tours with his own group, as well as with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Grammy-winner Toshiko Akiyoshi and the collective known as One For All, which features a front line of Eric Alexander and Steve Davis.
Wilbur Rehmann performs in the Cathedral of Saint Helena in Helena, Mont. for the #SongsOfComfort project by Yo-Yo Ma. The international call for music is to offer some comfort to a global audience in the midst of a pandemic that has sparked widespread anxiety and pain.
Montana Wilderness Assoc.
Jazz Hike to Kiyo Crag, July 2007 more photos...
Wilbur Rehmann on soprano at Rasselas jazz club in San Francisco, April 2009, with Edo Castro and Eric Smith.
Wilbur Rehmann Quintet at the Archie Bray Foundation, June 2009.
Missouri River Rainbow July 2009
Peter Fox, Mike Shea, Wilbur Rehmann, E. Doc Smith outside of Rasselas
WR Special Edition Quartet at entrance to Rasselas
Concert at Moose Creek Cabin
for Helena National Forest
Wilbur Rehmann playing jazz on Main St. in Kalispell, Montana during the First Night Flathead Celebration, December 31, 2005. The Wilbur Rehmann Quartet performed at the Marshall Noice Gallery celebrating the end of 2005.
Radio Free Helena Jazz Sessions
KROL Radio 88.5 FM
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 4-6pm
The Wilbur Rehmann Quintet, July 2005, at Moonlight Basin in Big Sky for the National Assoc. of Attorneys General Annual Meeting.
Tenor saxophone legend Sonny Rollins and Wilbur Rehmann, Berkeley, California, Zellerbach Hall, November 18, 2000. (Photo by Joe Bryan)
Both Mr. Rollins and Mr. Rehmann share a concern for a clean and healthful environment and urge everyone to work to save our planet from the effects of pollution and global warming.
Please get involved by contacting any of the following citizen groups that are fighting to maintain our unique, wild places and agricultural lands and fighting to protect our air and water.
The Wilbur Rehmann Quartet have brought to us a sense of joy, wonder and solitude with their original jazz interpretations, which explore the interior landscapes of the American West and the meaning of wilderness.
Missoula Independent-- "The swinging, swaying, oscillating, lilting beat of fluidity know as the Wilbur Rehmann Jazz Quartet...brings a highly sophisticated Montana-bred jazz to Sean Kelly's"
Bozeman Daily Chronicle-- "The music is exciting and the musicianship is outstanding..."
Great Falls Tribune-- "By popular demand...music for people who love jazz..."
Billings Gazette-- "...sophisticated rhythms and harmonies of jazz...has created a cult following..."
Lively Times-- "Their album, 'Back Home Jazz' is studded with jazz standards...by four veteran musicians..."
Peter Fox, Mike Shea, Wilbur Rehmann, E. Doc Smith outside of Rasselas
WR Special Edition Quartet at entrance to Rasselas
