Richie Vitale

Richie Vitale is a New York trumpeter whose quintet is a fixture of the city's straight-ahead jazz scene, playing in the bebop and hard bop tradition. Born in Rochester, New York in 1954, he was performing with Miles Davis' drummer Philly Joe Jones by the age of sixteen. His work has spanned small groups and big bands: he performed with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Buddy Rich, James Taylor and Sting, and appeared as a featured soloist with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band. In 2010 he held the jazz trumpet chair in the Broadway production Come Fly Away, a 19-piece big band playing Sinatra's music for Twyla Tharp's dance company. He has recorded as a leader on Live at Smalls (1996), Vitalogy, Full Circle and Slow Groove, has led his quintet on tours of Europe, Japan, Korea and the Middle East, and has taught trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music and New Jersey City University.