Results for "Eric Alexander"

Eric Alexander

Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. He started out on piano as a six-year-old, took up clarinet at nine, switched to alto sax when he was 12, and converted to tenor when jazz became his obsession during his one year at the University of Indiana, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson College in New Jersey he advanced his studies under the tutelage of Harold Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. "The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today," says Alexander

With Strings

Label: HighNote Records
Released: 2020
Track listing: Gently; Dreamsville; Some Other Time; Lonely Woman; Slow, Hot Wind; The Thrill Is Gone.

Mabern Plays Mabern

By HAROLD MABERN

Label: Smoke Sessions Records
Released: 2020
Track listing: Mr. Johnson; The Iron Man; Lover Man; The Lyrical Cole-Man; Edward Lee; It's Magic; The Beehive; Rakin' and Scrapin'.

Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn

Label: Sunnyside Records
Released: 2020
Track listing: Johnny Come Lately; Lush Life; Rain Check; Star-Crossed Lovers (Pretty Girl); Isfahan (Elf); Chelsea Bridge; Daydream; Passion Flower; U.M.M.G.; Blood Count; Take The A Train; A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing; Absinthe (Lament For An Orchid); Lotus Blossom.

John DiMartino: Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn

By DR. JUDITH SCHLESINGER

Pianist/composer/arranger/producer John DiMartino is a first-call veteran of the New York City jazz scene. This multi-recorded artist has long been a favorite of singers for his gigantic ears and intuitive, uncluttered playing—rare gifts which also enhance any instrumentalist he accompanies or arranges. All of these talents inform DiMartino's splendid Billy Strayhorn tribute, Passion Flower, where he ...

Chad Taylor Trio: The Daily Biological

By GIUSEPPE SEGALA

Chad Taylor è conosciuto in particolare per essere cofondatore, insieme a Rob Mazurek, del Chicago Underground Duo, con le sue varianti nei diversi ampliamenti degli organici. La sua attività si è dipanata ad ampio raggio negli ultimi trent'anni, facendo fulcro sulla scena di Chicago prima, e di New York poi, collaborando tra l'altro con protagonisti storici, ...

Composer Tributes: Strayhorn, Shorter, Monk and Sam Jones

By JEROME WILSON

There always seem to be albums coming out that pay tribute to accomplished jazz composers. Here are some newer ones, three on very familiar names and one on an often overlooked musician. John Di Martino Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn Sunnyside Records 2020 Pianist John ...

AuB: AuB

By CHRIS MAY

Twin-tenor frontlines are almost as old as jazz itself. Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane's meeting on the title track of Rollins' Tenor Madness (Prestige, 1956) may be the starting point for some listeners, but AAJers do not need reminding that the tradition was popular in live performances as far back the 1920s. Later, with the arrival ...

John di Martino: Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn

By JACK BOWERS

Composer / arranger Billy Strayhorn was barely twenty-three years old when he first met bandleader Duke Ellington, an encounter that would lead to a collaboration that lasted more than half of Strayhorn's life. During that time, Strayhorn wrote some of the Ellington orchestra's most acclaimed and enduring songs including “Lotus Blossom," “Chelsea Bridge," “Isfahan" and, most ...

Keith Oxman: Two Cigarettes In the Dark

By JACK BOWERS

What's a sure way to make a pretty good tenor saxophone-led quartet even better? Simple. Invite a second tenor and make sure his name is Houston Person. That's what Denver-based Keith Oxman has done to further enhance his quartet's splendid new album, Two Cigarettes in the Dark, sharing the front line with Person on six of ...