Eric Alexander Jazz Video Guy Live February 26, 2021
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 sixyearold, 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 (198687). 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. Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Hendersonthe legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that s the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I m still listening all the time to Coltrane bec
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