Ralph Alessi

Alessi was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.{{cite web |last1=Collar |first1=Matt |title=Ralph Alessi: Biography |url=https://www.bluenote.com/artist/ralph-alessi/ |website=Blue Note |access-date=26 August 2021}} His parents met as performers at the Metropolitan Opera: his mother, Maria Leone Alessi, sang in the chorus; his father, Joseph Alessi Sr., was principal trumpet for nearly 15 seasons.{{cite web |last1=Currie |first1=Barbara Jöstlein |title=Q&A With Joseph Alessi |url=http://journal.juilliard.edu/journal/1412/alessis-and-metropolitan-opera |website=The Juilliard Journal |access-date=26 August 2021 |date=January 2015}} His brother, Joseph Alessi, is a trombonist with the New York Philharmonic.

Alessi also began as a classical musician, and performed with the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera in his teens.{{cite web |title=Listen: Ralph Alessi – "Near Cry" |url=https://www.jazzspeaks.org/listen-ralph-alessi-near-cry/ |website=Jazz Speaks |publisher=The Jazz Gallery |access-date=26 August 2021}} He later attended the California Institute of the Arts, studying with Charlie Haden while earning a BFA in jazz trumpet performance and MFA in jazz bass performance. In 1986, he met fellow CalArts student Ravi Coltrane, who became one of his longest-standing collaborators. JazzTimes describes their "musical bond" as "arguably developing into a rapport on par with the highest echelon of trumpet/tenor combinations"; Coltrane once gave an interview with NPR focused entirely on his favorite song, Alessi's "Who Wants Ice Cream".{{cite web |last1=Pellegrinelli |first1=Lara |title=Ravi Coltrane's Favorite 'Ice Cream' Flavor |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2013/09/30/227940260/ravi-coltranes-favorite-ice-cream-flavor |website=NPR |access-date=26 August 2021 |date=1 October 2013}}

• Hissy Fit (1999, Love Slave)
• This Against That (2002, RKM)
• Vice & Virtue (2002, RKM)
• Look (2007, Between the Lines)
• Open Season (2009, RKM)
• Cognitive Dissonance (2010, CAM Jazz)
• Wiry Strong (2011, Clean Feed)
• Only Many (2013, CAM Jazz)
• Baida with Jason Moran, Drew Gress, Nasheet Waits (2013, ECM)
• Quiver (2016, ECM)
• Imaginary Friends with Ravi Coltrane, Andy Milne, Drew Gress, Mark Ferber (2019, ECM)
• It's Always Now with Florian Weber, Bänz Oester, Gerry Hemingway (2023, ECM)

With David Ake

• Bridges (Posi-Tone, 2013)
• Humanities (Posi-Tone, 2018)

With Don Byron

• You are #6 (Blue Note, 2001)
• Ivey Divey (Blue Note, 2006)

With Michael Cain

• Circa (ECM, 1996)

With Uri Caine

• The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley (Winter & Winter, 1999)
• Gustav Mahler in Toblach (Winter & Winter, 1999)
• The Goldberg Variations (Winter & Winter, 2000)
• Gustav Mahler: Dark Flame (Winter & Winter, 2003)
• Shelf-Life (Winter & Winter, 2005)
• Uri Caine Ensemble Plays Mozart (Winter & Winter, 2006)
• The Othello Syndrome (Winter & Winter, 2009)
• Rhapsody in Blue (Winter & Winter, 2013)

With James Carney

• Fables from the Aqueduct (1994, Jacaranda)
• Offset Rhapsody (1997, Jacaranda)
• Ways & Means (2009, Songlines)

With Steve Coleman

• A Tale of 3 Cities (Novus/BMG, 1994)
• Myths, Modes, and Means (Novus/BMG, 1995)
• The Way of the Cipher (Novus/BMG, 1995)
• The Sign and the Seal (BMG, 1996)
• Genesis (BMG, 1997)
• The Sonic Language of Myth (BMG, 1999)
• Lucidarium (Label Bleu, 2003)

With Ravi Coltrane

• Moving Pictures (RCA/BMG, 1998)
• From the Round Box (RCA, 2000)
• Spirit Fiction (Blue Note, 2012)

With Scott Colley

• Architect of the Silent Moment (CAM Jazz, 2005 [2007])
• Empire (CAM Jazz, 2010)

With David Gilmore

• Ritualism (2000, Kashka)

With Drew Gress

• 7 Black Butterflies (Premonition, Koch, 2005)
• The Irrational Numbers (Premonition, 2007)
• The Sky Inside (Pirouet, 2013)

With Fred Hersch

• Leaves of Grass (2005, Palmetto)
• Live from the Jazz Standard/ Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra (2009, Palmetto)
• Trio plus 2 (Palmetto)
• Songs Without Words (2009, Nonesuch)

With Jason Moran

• Artist in Residence (Blue Note, 2006)

With Enrico Pieranunzi

• Proximity (2015, CamJazz)

With Lonnie Plaxico

• With All My Heart (1994, Muse)
• Emergence (2000, Savoy)

With Sam Rivers

• Inspiration (1999, RCA)
• Culmination (1999, BMG France/RCA)

With Yelena Eckemoff

• Better Than Gold and Silver (2018, L&H)
• I Am a Stranger in This World (2022, L&H)

With Others

• Peter Epstein, Polarities (2014)
• Tomas Fujiwara Trio, Variable Bets (Relative Pitch, 2014){{cite web |title=AMN Reviews: Tomas Fujiwara Trio – Variable Bets (2014; Relative Pitch Records) |url=https://avantmusicnews.com/2014/10/24/amn-reviews-tomas-fujiwara-trio-variable-bets-2014-relative-pitch/ |website=Avant Music News |access-date=26 August 2021 |date=24 October 2014}}
• Florian Weber, Lucent Waters (ECM, 2018){{cite web |last1=de Barros |first1=Paul |title=Florian Weber: Lucent Waters |url=https://downbeat.com/reviews/detail/lucent-waters |website=DownBeat |access-date=26 August 2021 |date=February 2019}}

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Category:Jazz trumpeters

Category:Composers from San Francisco

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Category:1963 births

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Category:21st-century American male musicians