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Eric Alexander: The Second Milestone
by Jack Bowers
Let’s be honest; no Jazz reviewer can ever be completely objective because each of us has his or her favorite players, those musicians who, in our eyes, can do no wrong and whose next venture we look forward eagerly to hearing. When I was a young man (yes, I can remember that, albeit vaguely) Zoot Sims was, for me, such a paragon. In my opinion Zoot was the man, and no one (except perhaps Stan Getz) even came close. Irrational, ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: The Second Milestone
by C. Andrew Hovan
If you insist on your jazz being loud and of the avant variety, then this disc will not be for you. If you’ve convinced yourself that the young guys are just revisiting the past, then this disc won’t be for you either. But, if you’re interested in serious mainstream jazz performed by some of the greatest artists of current vintage, not to mention by one of today’s leading young tenor saxophonists, you are sure to find a lot to keep ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: The First Milestone
by Jack Bowers
Eric Alexander, the most fearsome young lion of them all, even looks the part on his “official” debut recording for Milestone Records — pensive, unsmiling, saxophone case in hand, primed and ready for another day of jungle warfare whose chief purpose is not so much to vanquish his musical peers as to earn their respect, something the hard–working tenor has been accomplishing with relative ease since he placed second nearly a decade ago in the Thelonious Monk Institute’s saxophone competition. ...
Continue ReadingJim Rotondi: Excursions
by C. Andrew Hovan
One of the next major talents yet to be discovered by the jazz public at large, trumpeter Jim Rotondi is a dynamo full of the kind of bristling trumpet fire that distinguished such predecessors as Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw. Over the course of his first two Criss Cross dates, Introducing Jim Rotondi and Jim’s Bop Rotondi proved that he was a capable mainstream player with great promise in terms of developing his own voice. Now with Excursions he goes ...
Continue ReadingA Chat With Eric Alexander
by C. Andrew Hovan
One of the few “young lions" who is more influenced by Dexter Gordon and George Coleman than by John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has come very far with his career in a short period of time. Following his first year of studying classical music at Indiana University as an alto player, Alexander picked up the tenor, made the switch to jazz, and the following year transferred to William Patterson College in New Jersey. In 1991 Alexander ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: The First Milestone
by C. Andrew Hovan
For all intents and purposes, you might like to think of Eric Alexander as being a modern-day equivalent of Tina Brooks, a very neglected tenor man from the ‘60s who just happened to be around when such mega stars as Johnny Griffin, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins also happened to be walking on the planet. Alexander certainly has his own competition to consider, with Joe Lovano and Chris Potter taking a lot of the attention these days in terms of ...
Continue ReadingJim Rotondi: Excursions
by David A. Orthmann
During the course of Excursions, his third disc as a leader for the Criss Cross imprint, Jim Rotondi continually finds ways of breathing new life into the straight-ahead, three horns and rhythm format. Rotondi has written and chosen a variety of tunes ranging from up and medium tempo swingers (“Angel Eyes,” “Shortcake,” “Little Karin”) to a bossa nova (“Excursions”), to ballads (“Little B’s Poem,” “What Is There To Say”). Further, he writes and utilizes arrangements by the band members that ...
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