Jim Gailloreto is an accomplished jazz saxophonist, arranger and composer. He has a Bachelors in Music Composition from De Paul University and a Masters in Music Composition from Northwestern University. In 1997, he embarked on a new project called Jazz String Quintet. It is an integration of both jazz and classical music written for string quartet and soprano saxophone. Inspired by sources as diverse as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel to Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Gailloreto offers a perfect blend of classical music and jazz; structure and spontaneity. The compositions interweave his own soprano saxophone with skilled modernist writing for string quartet. "No composer has shaped the structures and layered the phrases of the string quartet to so successfully accommodate full-tilt improvisation," writes jazz authority Neil Tesser. He has performed with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Chicago Chamber Musicians and the new music group Fulcrum Point. He also records and performs with Blue Note artist Patricia Barber, guitarist John Mc Lean, pianist Jeremy Kahn, vocalist Grazyna Auguscik and composer/pianist Fred Hersch. His string quartet arrangements can be heard on Kurt Elling's CD "Dedicated To You". He recently performed a Chicago premier of Marc Anthony Turnage's "Scorched" with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and John Scofield. Jim is a recipient of the New Works: Creation & Presentation Program Grant from Chamber Music America. Through this grant he has created an intricate four movement work entitled "American Complex." In the broadest sense, Jazz String Quintet pays homage to America's greatest jazz legends. And within this new CD exists a timely and brilliant collaboration with vocalist and composer Patricia Barber, exploring something innovative; the jazz side of classical music art songs.