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Johnny Alegre

Jazz-world-fusion guitarist-composer Johnny Alegre, from the Philippines.

About Me

Guitarist-composer Johnny Alegre is a jazz journeyman and innovative recording artist from the Philippines. His albums are available on Candid Records and MCA Music. His pioneering musical projects defy barriers of genre, demographics and cultural stereotypes.

Alegre’s involvement in the Manila scene encompasses scores of bands and recordings, spanning more than three decades of history and discography. From his seminal “pinoy rock” origins, his early production sorties in classic OPM (Original Philippine Music), and his epiphany into jazz are legendary. In various capacities as a composer-arranger, record producer and performing musician, Alegre's protean roles have been none short of groundbreaking.

Johnny Alegre delivers an emergent Southeast Asian and particularly Philippine milieu to the attention of musical audiences local and foreign. In 2002, he formed what effectively became Manila’s premier jazz initiative, the “Johnny Alegre AFFINITY” that initiated a series of musical chairs that continue until the present in formats of quintets, quartets and trios. Their first recorded work, “Stones Of Intramuros”, written by Alegre, was included in a limited edition Philippine jazz anthology CD, Adobo Jazz Vol.1, that caught the attention of the London-based jazz specialty label, Candid Records.

The subsequent eponymous first album, “Johnny Alegre AFFINITY” was released in the Philippines in mid-2005, described by the local press as “a blend of musical, technical and communal creativity between the composer and his allies”. The opus was subsequently re-released in the U.K. as “Jazzhound”, with notices in British jazz publications, and capped by sold-out engagements in London’s PizzaExpress Jazz Club. In 2007, Alegre unfolded “Eastern Skies”, an orchestral album. It was his response to the clamor for even more innovative music from “Manila’s jazz superband”. That year, Alegre’s introduction to an American audience in Hollywood’s Catalina Bar earned him a favorable mention in the Los Angeles Times.

In pursuit of these encouragements, “Johnny Alegre 3” was released in 2009; his third outing: a trio recording of the guitarist-composer joined by Billy Hart (drums) and Ron McClure (bass). “3” (also called “the New York album”) was the follow through to what became a breakthrough effort for the Philippine jazz artist to work with iconic American jazz musicians. It also marked Alegre’s migration to a new record label, MCA MUSIC (Philippines) of the Universal Music Group.

On the collaborative front, Johnny Alegre delivered his composition, a world-music suite entitled “Humanfolk”, with ensuing recordings and the subsequent concept band that he undertook with percussionists Susie Ibarra and Roberto Juan Rodriguez; along with Philippine-based musical artists, Cynthia Alexander, Malek Lopez and Abby Clutario. The world music opus, HUMANFOLK, was released by MCA Music in mid-2011, which was awarded “Best World Music Recording” in 2012 by the Philippine Association of the Recording Industry.

Juan Bautista H. Alegre (III) attended the University of the Philippines College of Music in the latter 1970s, and was a founding member of the U.P. Jazz Ensemble. Under the tutelage of jazz educator Dr. Joseph Howard and pianist Fred Robles, he was involved in creative workshops by visiting professors such as musicologist-composer Dr. Erhard Karkoschka from the Stuttgart Musikschule, British guitarist Ike Isaacs and composer-scholar Chou Wen-chung from Columbia University. He was awarded in 1982 by the Philippine Ministry of Tourism as Foremost Exponent of Jazz. In 2013, the Philippine International Jazz and Arts Foundation presented Johnny Alegre with the Icon Award. Also in 2013, the Kansai Music Conference (Osaka, Japan) also bestowed Alegre with the Performer of the Year Award.