Jim Robitaille

Guitarist and award winning composer, Jim Robitaille, has performed and or recorded and shared the bill with Dave Liebman, Karl Berger, Bob Moses, Joe Beck, Gerry Gibbs, Santi Debriano, Julian Lage, Esperanza Spalding, Oscar Stagnaro, Kate McGarry, the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars, and has appeared on over 20 recordings as a leader and sideman.

His television and live performances include: The BET Jazz Channel, The Time Warner Music Choice Jazz Channel, PBS Television, The Baird Auditorium at the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C, The Bearsville Theatre, Woodstock, N.Y, The Wang Center, Boston, MA, The Knitting Factory and Smoke in New York, and performances in the U.S, Canada, and the West Indies. Jim has appeared on over twenty recordings and film documentaries with his own groups and with other artists.

The Jim Robitaille Group's debut recording entitled "To Music" featuring saxophonist Dave Liebman, received international critical acclaim winning three international composition awards for three original compositions from the recording. The CD was number five in the top ten list of 2004 by the Daily Ipirotikos Agon and the Apopsy in Greece and was the publishers pick for All About Jazz and the Boston Herald. The recording received international airplay and was #1 chart-bound on the Jazz Week Jazz chart.

Awards include The 9th Annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers Competition sponsored by BMI, The 2002 Great American Song Contest First Place Instrumental Category, and The 2002 Great American Song Contest Outstanding Achievement in Songwriting Award. Other accolades include The 2011 Assets For Artists Grant, The Julius Hemphill Jazz Composers Alliance Competition, The International Songwriting Contest, and numerous performance grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council For the Arts.

Jim has studied guitar and improvisation with jazz guitarist Jon Damian at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA, and improvisation with Charlie Banacos. Robitaille has performed concerts and taught classes, and master-classes in Quebec Canada, The West Indies, and in the U.S. at Westfield State College, Berklee College of Music, Brandeis University, Holyoke Community College, The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Cape Cod Community College, Connecticut College, Western New England College, Bristol Community College, Falmouth Academy, and Tabor Academy. He is an applied jazz guitar lecturer, ensemble director, and founder and director of the Performance Jam Session Series on the Jazz Faculty at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

D'Addario Strings / Planet Waves Artist