Mike Rodriguez – Trumpet

Nicole Glover – Sax

Gary Versace – Piano

TBD – Bass

Ele Howell – Drums

Mike Rodriguez is one of the most in-demand trumpeters in jazz today — a Queens-born musician whose career has taken him to the very top of the music. A Grammy Award winner as part of Chick Corea’s Spanish Heart Band, he has performed and recorded alongside Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Joe Lovano, Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Maria Schneider, Kenny Barron, Carla Bley, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He is currently a member of the internationally acclaimed SFJazz Collective and serves on the faculty at NYU and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Rodriguez’s playing is rooted in the hard bop tradition but reaches comfortably across the full spectrum of jazz — from straight-ahead to Latin, from chamber settings to large ensembles. His recordings as a leader, Reverence (Criss Cross) and Pathways (2021), showcase a mature voice that is at once lyrical, searching, and deeply swinging. Alongside his brother, pianist Robert Rodriguez, he has recorded five albums as the Rodriguez Brothers — a long-running creative partnership that has earned Grammy nominations and international acclaim.

At The Side Door, Rodriguez brings his own quintet — an intimate format that puts his voice front and center in a room built for exactly this kind of music.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn restaurant prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.