Arthur Rotfeld

An Arthur Rotfeld Timeline

1982 Little Arthur begins playing guitar.

1983 Arthur gets good enough to join some bands.

1984 Begins taking jazz guitar lessons, classical piano, and music theory.

1985 Joins the high school jazz band and records with local rock bands.

1988 Enrolls at the University of Bridgeport and studies guitar with Sal Salvador.

1992 Earns bachelor degrees in jazz studies and music education.

1992 Begins the graduate composition program at SUNY Purchase.

1993 Frequent recitals feature his chamber works, including a string quartet and a song cycle.

1994 Teaches undergraduate solfege.

1995 Earns a M.F.A. in composition.

1995 Begins a 5-year run as educational music editor at Cherry Lane Music.

1997 Begins playing with rock and blues bands again.

1999 Plays on Elyse Spies's Trip album.

2000 Gets off his butt and records a bunch of original tunes. Returns to education as an elementary general music teacher in Sleepy Hollow, NY.

2001 Plans to play more.

2003 Releases his second CD as a leader, Poinciana, and a new website, www.thenewyorkjazzgroup.com.

2004 In addition to his jazz gigs, Arthur performs and records with the Spy Sisters, and with Frank Enea and Palace Laundry.

2005 Continues teaching guitar privately and at SUNY Purchase.

About the Recording Session . . .

This album was recorded over a weekend in March 2000 at Tarquin Recording Studios in Bridgeport CT.

Steve Mansfield and Rich Zurkowski, both of whom I've known for over ten years, played on this album. Rich and I have played regularly ever since I've known him; Steve has wandered in an out, but now seems to be a permanent fixture. They both contributed a lot of time, and even more musicality, to make these tunes come to life.

Just about everything was done live and all the tunes are either a first or second take. (We didn't do third takes.) A couple of tunes have some guitar and percussion overdubs, but I tried to limit these to make sure we have a live and relatively honest sound.

It was especially cool to have Electric Hill come back me up on "Backdoor Moves," they know how to funk it up with the best of 'em. This tune is a long one, and has some tricky parts for the guitars.

I used my '82 Les Paul for the whole session. I foolishly ignored this guitar for about thirteen years, but finally got it refretted and brought it back to life. I played through Boogie and Matchless amps.

About the Songs . . .

"On the Ride" was written on a nice sunny day in August 1999 while I was driving on I-95. It's one of the very few times I actually gave Rich a written bassline, but of course, he made improvements here and there. Hans added some cool conga parts in addition to Steve's percussion track.

"Working Blues" was written on the way to my office job in NYC.

"The End of May" was actually written in June, after the end of May. I think this is Rich's favorite track . . . Joe C.'s too.

"Those Eyes" was written over a weekend in October. I think I was listening to a lot of those Bacharach/Costello songs at the time because it has that kind of vibe. Though it's in three, we've also played it in five and some mixed meter feels, but ended up taking the simple, less pretentious route.

"Five and One" was something I wrote on President's Day. I wasn't feeling particularly patriotic, just happy to have the day off. The solo changes are based on an old bebop tune.

"No Trouble at All" is a tune I get a lot of requests for. I wish I played it better on the album, but that's that! Maybe it was trouble after all.

"Backdoor Moves" was supposed to be my take on a simple Meters-type thing. It ended up being kinda tough for me to play without a hitch. Jason plays the first solo and I go right after him. Rich plays through one of those nice old Ampeg amps. Cool.

About the CD Artwork . . .

Joe C., guitarist extraordinaire, is also handy with the lens, so I enlisted him to take some shots at this great location in Rye, NY. The setting was the foundation and remnants of an old mansion. We ran through a roll of film in about half an hour, and there you go.

My old friend Michael Levy was also cool enough to volunteer his photography skills. Though I ended up not using his shots on the CD, I did use a few on this page.

I did the design . . . I think it took longer than the recording sessions. There's a first and last time for everything.

Originally, I figured that I'd design this website too, but after the CD design, I quickly decided, uh-uh. Lucky for me, my friend Frank D'Angelo, who just started his own design firm, rose to the occasion.