Eric Alexander is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 saxophonist, known for his sophisticated hard bop

Hard bop

Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...

 and post-bop

Post-bop

Post-bop is a term for a form of small-combo jazz music that evolved in the early-to-mid sixties. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...

 style.

Alexander began as a classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

ian, studying alto saxophone

Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

 at Indiana University

Indiana University Bloomington

Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...

 with Eugene Rousseau

Eugene Rousseau (saxophonist)

Eugene Rousseau is an American classical saxophonist. He plays mainly the alto and soprano saxophones....

 in 1986. He soon switched to jazz and the tenor saxophone

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

, however, and transferred to William Paterson University

William Paterson University

William Paterson University is a comprehensive public institution located in Wayne, New Jersey serving nearly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students through five colleges: , , , , and ....

, where he studied with Harold Mabern

Harold Mabern

Harold Mabern is a hard bop and soul jazz pianist.Early in his career, Mabern played in Chicago with Walter Perkins' MJT + 3 in the late 1950s before moving to New York in 1959. Mabern has worked with Jimmy Forrest, Lionel Hampton, the Jazztet , Donald Byrd, Miles Davis , J. J...

, Rufus Reid

Rufus Reid

Rufus Reid is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer. He lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.-Personal history:...

, Joe Lovano

Joe Lovano

Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...

, Gary Smulyan

Gary Smulyan

Gary Smulyan is a jazz musician who plays baritone saxophone. He studied at SUNY before working with Woody Herman...

, Ralph LaLama, Norman Simmons

Norman Simmons (musician)

Norman Simmons is an American arranger, composer, educator, and most prominently a pianist who has worked extensively with Helen Humes, Carmen McRae, and Sarah Vaughan, Anita O'Day, and Joe Williams among others.-Biography:...

, Steve Turre

Steve Turre

Steve Turre is a trombonist, recording artist, arranger, and educator. In 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006 he won the Down Beat Reader's Poll for best trombonist....

 and others.

Alexander first achieved fame by finishing second (behind Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...

 and ahead of Chris Potter

Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)

Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...

) at the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. He was quickly signed and began recording albums.

Influenced primarily by Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt

Edward "Sonny" Stitt was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime...

, Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon

Dexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...

 and George Coleman

George Coleman

George Edward Coleman is an American hard bop saxophonist, bandleader, and composer, known chiefly for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s.-Biography:...

, Alexander has worked with many notable jazz musicians, including Chicago pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Ron Carter

Ron Carter

Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

 and drummer Joseph Farnsworth. He has also recorded and toured extensively with the sextet One for All

One for All (band)

One for All is a New York City-based hard bop sextet, featuring Eric Alexander , Jim Rotondi , Steve Davis , David Hazeltine , John Webber and Joe Farnsworth . The style of the group has been likened to 1960s-era Blue Note jazz and has been described as being reminiscent of Art Blakey's Jazz...

. His technique and style continue to mature.

Discography

• New York Calling (1992)
• Straight Up (1992)
• Up, Over & Out (1993)
• Full Range (1994)
• Eric Alexander in Europe (1995)
• Stablemates (1995) with Lin Halliday
  Lin Halliday
  Lin Halliday was an American saxophonist.Lin Halliday was born in De Queen, Arkansas and was raised in Little Rock, where he played the saxophone and clarinet in school. After he moved to Los Angeles in his teens to begin playing professionally, he began performing with saxophonist Joe Maini...
  
  
• Two of a Kind (1996)
• Heavy Hitters (1997)
• Mode for Mabes (1998)
• Extra Innings (1998)
• Solid! (1998)
• Man with a Horn (1999)
• Alexander the Great (1999)
• Live at the Keynote (1999) (Japanese import)
• The First Milestone (2000)
• The Second Milestone (2001)
• Summit Meeting (2002)
• Nightlife in Tokyo (2003)
• Gentle Ballads (2004)
• Dead Center (2004)
• Sunday in New York (2005)
• Gentle Ballads II (2006)
• It’s All in the Game (2006)
• Gentle Ballads III (2007)
• Temple of Olympic Zeus (2007)
• Prime Time (2008)
• My Favorite Things (2009)
• Revival of the Fittest (2009)
• Gentle Ballads IV (2009)
• Chim Chim Cheree (2010)

As a Co-leader:

• The Tenor Triangle: Tell it Like it Is (1993) (with Ralph Lalama & Tad Shull)
• One for All: Too Soon to Tell (1997)
• One for All: Optimism (1998)
• The Tenor Triangle: Aztec Blues (1998) (with Ralph Lalama & Tad Shull)
• The Anniversary Quartet: You'll See! Live at the Cellar (1993) (with Peter Bernstein, Mike LeDonne, & Joe Farnsworth)
• One for All: Upward & Onward (1999)
• One for All: The Long Haul (2000)
• One for All: Live at Smoke: Vol. 1 (2001)
• One for All: End of a Love Affair (2001)
• One for All: Wide Horizons (2003)
• One for All: No Problem (2004)
• One for All: Blueslike (2004)
• The Battle: Live at Smoke (2005) (with Vincent Herring)
• Reeds & Deeds: Wailin (2005) (with Grant Stewart)
• Reeds & Deeds: Cookin (2006) (with Grant Stewart)
• One for All: The Lineup (2006)
• One for All: Killer Joe (2006)
• One for All: What's Going On? (2007)
• One for All: Return of the Lineup (2009)
• Meeting Point: Quintessence (2009)
• "Reeds & Deeds: Tenor Time" (2011) (with Grant Stewart)

External links

• JazzPolice.com review of Eric Alexander's “It’s All in the Game”