Alex Chadsey Musician - All About Jazz

Updated: June 2, 2025

Born: August 7, 1980

Alex Chadsey is a professional improvisational pianist with over 20 years of experience as a performer, composer, arranger, and producer. With three albums of original music and credit on a GRAMMY award-winning record, Alex has harnessed his lifelong passion for music to grow a successful international career in the music industry.

Alex holds degrees from the Universities of Michigan and Washington, where he graduated with a Masters in 2020. In all musical endeavors, he draws from a wide range of knowledge and traditions, informed as much by formal academic training as by apprenticing with master musicians the world over—from Cuba, Mexico Puerto Rico, NYC, LA, and elsewhere. Notable works include recording with the legendary Reggae artist Clinton Fearon, as well as touring and recording with the award-winning, East LA-based Chicano band Quetzal.

Alex sees music as an intuitive source of knowledge and wisdom—one that is critically needed in the present to confront the challenges we collectively face as a species. Music is an expression of the multifaceted intelligence of the human spirit, and a powerful catalyst for connecting with others—and with ourselves.

Awards

Credit on a GRAMMY award winning record. 3-time Earshot Jazz Golden Ear recipient including winner of “Northwest Acoustic Jazz Ensemble of the Year” in 2025. 2-time Earshot Jazz "Album of the Year" recipient.

Gear

Yamaha or Steinway Pianos

Fender Rhodes

Duende Libre: The Dance She Spoke

Read "The Dance She Spoke" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
August 9, 2020

It has often been said that art is all about risk, and there certainly is a lot of truth to that statement. There is no greater forum in modern art for risk than jazz music, the degree of that factor being multiplied exponentially when linking or fusing it with other musical styles. In the case of the Seattle based band Duende Libre, that leap of faith takes them to exploring world music forms through the lens of modern jazz. On ...

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

Seattle

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

Raised by a schoolteacher, Alex is a lifelong learner by blood. There are few things that bring him greater satisfaction than helping students progress steadily and sustainably on their musical journeys.

In his work as an adjunct professor and as a community organizer, Alex seeks to empower musical communication on individual and communal levels. In 2013 and 2015, he co-organized Sounds Beyond Barriers, a collective songwriting process learned from Zapatista communities in southern Mexico. ACM embodies an educational approach that emphasizes an interplay of introspection, communal exchange, critical thinking, and self-expression.