Best-known for founding the New York Nonet, Manhattan resident Jim Cifelli is a post-bop/hard bop trumpeter and flügelhornist who has considerable skills as an arranger, composer, bandleader, and producer. Cifelli's New York Nonet is what veteran hard bop alto saxophonist Phil Woods would describe as a "little big band"; in other words, it is a medium-sized unit -- not a full-fledged orchestra or a true big band, but larger than the quartets and quintets that typically dominate straight-ahead bop and post-bop. As an arranger, Cifelli has cited Oliver Nelson, Gil Evans, and Thad Jones as major influences, and his work also recalls Art Blakey's hard-swinging Jazz Messengers (which usually had five or six members but had a way of sounding like a larger band).