Ralph Alessi

Ralph Alessi is an American jazz trumpeter and composer and a longtime ECM recording artist. Born in San Rafael, California in 1963 into a musical family, he studied at the California Institute of the Arts with bassist Charlie Haden, earning degrees in both jazz trumpet and jazz bass. He leads several acclaimed groups, among them the Baida Quartet and the quintet This Against That, and his ECM albums as a leader include Baida and Quiver. A dedicated educator, he founded the School for Improvisational Music in Brooklyn in 2001 and has taught at the New England Conservatory and NYU.