Jazz Articles about Eric Alexander

About Eric Alexander

Album Review

Richard Baratta: Another Kind of Bird

Read "Another Kind of Bird" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
June 22, 2026

Charlie Parker's music has withstood every conceivable tribute. It has been copied, analyzed, celebrated, and occasionally embalmed by its own importance. Imagine the surprise at the release of drummer-percussionist Richard Baratta's Another Kind of Bird, which is not another museum-piece salute to Bird. Baratta and pianist-arranger Bill O'Connell treat Parker's compositions as living, breathing works capable of absorbing new colours, rhythms, and fresh perspectives without sacrificing their lineage. Baratta expands his customary sextet into a formidable, horn-driven ensemble ...

Album Review

Richard Baratta: Another Kind of Bird

Read "Another Kind of Bird" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 14, 2026

Even today, more than seventy years after his death at the young age of thirty-four, the legendary alto saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird" Parker remains incomparable, as a player and composer who almost singlehandedly changed the vocabulary of jazz, introducing revisions and concepts that have never worn thin or gone out of style. Simply put, no one had ever heard jazz played the way that Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and a handful of others approached it in the early ...

Album Review

Nat Reeves: Now In Time

Read "Now In Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 17, 2026

As a gift for Nat Reeves' 70th birthday in May 2025, Ken Kitchings, owner of the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut, said he would underwrite a recording for the renowned bassist using whatever musicians Reeves chose to recruit. Having played and recorded with a who's who of jazz luminaries during his 50-plus-year career, Reeves knew exactly where to go and who to contact. Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, a longtime colleague, was an obvious choice, as ...

Album Review

Bernie Senensky: Duos

by Pierre Giroux
April 22, 2026

Duos by Bernie Senensky is a record built on patience, craftsmanship, and the quiet confidence of musicians working together. It is a carefully arranged and well-executed set that highlights one of Canada's most respected pianists performing in a duo, accompanied only by a saxophone voice from a select group of notable North American saxophonists, where any wrong note or discord will be immediately noticeable. Since arriving in Toronto in 1968, Senensky has earned admiration from musicians for his exceptional tact, ...

Album Review

Frode Kjekstad Qrt: Stars Aligned

Read "Stars Aligned" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 11, 2026

Talented Norwegian guitarist Frode Kjekstad discovered jazz in his early teens through the bebop genius of Charlie Parker and the refined touch of Joe Pass. He started formal jazz guitar studies at fifteen and moved to Oslo in 1994, where he immersed himself in the local scene and performed with legends like Johnny Griffin, Frank Foster, and Diane Schuur as part of the acclaimed Sandvika Big Band. Today, he balances freelancing, composing, and teaching, releasing albums that fuse hard bop ...

Album Review

Harold Mabern: Afro Blue (10th Anniversary Edition)

Read "Afro Blue (10th Anniversary Edition)" reviewed by Bridget A. Arnwine

by Bridget A. Arnwine
January 28, 2026

Pianist Harold Mabern (1936-2019) was talented beyond measure. Though he never received the honor and distinction of the prestigious NEA Jazz Master designation, his music and the musicians who knew him tell a different story. That story unfolds beautifully throughout the 10th anniversary reissue of Mabern's 2015 recording, Afro Blue (Smoke Session Records). The newly remixed and remastered recording features performances from some of the most celebrated names in vocal jazz, including Gregory Porter, Norah Jones, Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit, ...

Album Review

Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet: Turn It Up!: Live at the Sidedoor

Read "Turn It Up!: Live at the Sidedoor" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
October 25, 2025

For over twenty-five years, Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet has been a shining example of consistency and authenticity in the organ-jazz scene. The latest double-disc release, Turn It Up!: Live at the Sidedoor, captures the group at two different moments in time: 2024 at the Sidedoor Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and 2004 at Vancouver's Cellar Jazz Club. These two recordings offer an intriguing glimpse into a band that has never aimed to reinvent itself, only to refine its sound, ...