| Jazz Trumpet and Composition Faculty |
NYU Jazz trumpet faculty member Ralph Alessi began studying the trumpet at the age of six with his father, Joseph Alessi. In 1990, Ralph moved to New York and soon became an active New York sideman performing and recording with Sam Rivers, Ravi Coltrane, Michael Cain, Fred Hersch, Mark Helias, David Gilmore, Bobby Previte, Muhal Richard Abrams, Jane Ira Bloom and Lonnie Plaxico. Since 1994 he has periodically performed and recorded with Steve Coleman, with whom he has made 8 records. He is also a member of Uri Caine’s "Mahler Revisited" and "Goldberg Variations" bands as well as Don Byron’s Symphony Space Adventurers Orchestra. As a leader, Ralph recently released his 2nd and 3rd CDs entitled Vice and Virtue and This Against That (a quintet record featuring Don Byron and Jason Moran) on RKMmusic.