Kane Alexander
Encyclopedia
Kane Alexander is an Australian jazz singer
and classical singer
, while also on occasion been an Australian television actor. He has appeared on such popular programmes as Blue Heelers
, Neighbours
, Stingers
and Good Morning Australia
.
, where he was raised on an isolated farm in the Victoria wheat-belt. At six years old, he discovered a box of old records belonging to his grandparents in an old shed. This included artists such as Louis Armstrong
, Ella Fitzgerald
, Frank Sinatra
and even Slim Dusty
. One of the records was by Mario Lanza
which he states triggered his life long love for operatic anhd classical singing.
He studied and graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in voice and drama, after which he paid his way by working in the jazz clubs of New York. After extensively working the New York jazz scene from 2000 to 2002, he returned to Australia.
's Urinetown
, Claude in Hair
, Willard in Footloose
, Billy Crocker in Anything Goes
, and the Scarecrow in the Sydney season of The Wizard Of Oz
. He's also appeared in the 10th Anniversary production of Les Misérables, South Pacific, Only Heaven Know and Angry Penguins.
Alexander has also toured Australia in concert with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra.
It was in the year 2000 that Kane took his cabaret show to New York. There he appeared at the FireBird Cafe and Algonquin Oak Room. In the 2001 New York Cabaret Awards, he was named "Best New Voice" in the Theatermania Cabaret list, and won both the BISTRO and MAC Awards for "Most Outstanding Debut". Furthermore he became "Critic's Pick" in the New York Post, and "Pick of the Week" in New York's Time Out Magazine for three consecutive weeks. Then in 2002, he was requested to perform alongside Natalie Cole at Rupert Murdoch's 70th birthday party, hosted in New York.
After his return to Australia, he was named a finalist in the Arts section of the 2001 Young Australian of the Year Awards, and nominated for a MO Award for his performance in Footloose. Kane also completed a tour with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, performing The Music of Lerner & Loewe at concert halls around Australia.
Kane Alexander has also made several television appearances, such as Good Morning Australia
, Denise, The Midday Show, In Melbourne Tonight, Carols By Candlelight
and The Good Friday Appeal Gala, along with roles in Late For School, Neighbours, Water Rats
and Stingers. He also appeared as a guest performer on the 18 June 2006 special broadcast of The Footy Show
which was filmed in Rome
in which he performed the song Timeless with Australian icon Tina Arena
. The show was specially broadcast in support of the Australian soccer team for the 2006 world cup.
"I wanted to make an album that moved people, with songs that told a story. I wanted to take the listener on a journey. But I wanted a cinematic sound. I wanted the orchestra to be scored the way a film score would be scored. This had to be an album that I wanted to listen to myself."
According to his myspace page, Kane Alexander has stated that he was happy that Sony BMG allowed him to spend three years capturing his vision for the album. This allowed him to get the right producer and sound for the record. The debut album was recorded in Stockholm and London, with the efforts of producers and songwriters such as Andes Bagge, Quiz & Larossi, Tom Nichols, Tim Baxter and Sigurd Rosnes as well as members of the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra (who appear on every track).
Come Vivrei is an enchanting Italian adaption of Trisha Yearwood
's Grammy award winning song, How Do I Live
, whereas other classics included are the poetic Kiss From A Rose
by Seal
, and Crying by Roy Orbison
, both reworked into baritone adaptions from their original versions. Much loved classics Le Cose Che Sei Per Me, Di Sole E D'Azzuro and Nella Fantasia
are also included. This album also contains the origin of the Tina Arena duet, with a studio version of the song Timeless that they subsequently performed for The Footy Show.
Kane Alexander professes that he never saw himself as a writer, yet contributed his song writing talents to co-writing two songs on the album, opener Escape and epilogue Breathe. These were co-written with Andes Bagge and Tom Nichols.
Vocal jazz
Jazz singing can be defined by the instrumental approach to the voice, where the singer can match the instruments in their stylistic approach to the lyrics, improvised or otherwise, or through scat singing; that is, the use of nonsensical meaningless non-morphemic syllables to imitate the sound of...
and classical singer
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...
, while also on occasion been an Australian television actor. He has appeared on such popular programmes as Blue Heelers
Blue Heelers
Blue Heelers is an Australian police drama series which depicted the lives of police officers stationed at the fictional Mount Thomas police station in a small town in Victoria.- Overview :...
, Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...
, Stingers
Stingers
Stingers was an Australian police drama television series. It ran for eight seasons on the Nine Network before it was canceled in late 2004 due to declining ratings and the late timeslot Channel Nine gave the program...
and Good Morning Australia
Good Morning Australia
Good Morning Australia from Network Ten was the name of two different programs. This article is for Bert Newton's morning program, not to be confused with the breakfast news program of the same name....
.
Early life
Kane Alexander grew up in country VictoriaVictoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, where he was raised on an isolated farm in the Victoria wheat-belt. At six years old, he discovered a box of old records belonging to his grandparents in an old shed. This included artists such as Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and even Slim Dusty
Slim Dusty
David Gordon "Slim Dusty " Kirkpatrick AO, MBE was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and producer, with a career spanning nearly eight decades. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australian poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson that represented the Australian Bush...
. One of the records was by Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
which he states triggered his life long love for operatic anhd classical singing.
He studied and graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in voice and drama, after which he paid his way by working in the jazz clubs of New York. After extensively working the New York jazz scene from 2000 to 2002, he returned to Australia.
Professional career
Alexander is considered to be best known for his lead roles that he ha s performed on Australian stage. Some of his well known roles include Bobby Strong in Melbourne Theatre CompanyMelbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
's Urinetown
Urinetown
Urinetown: The Musical is a satirical comedy musical, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, and municipal politics...
, Claude in Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
, Willard in Footloose
Footloose (musical)
Footloose is a 1998 musical based on the 1984 film of the same name. The music is by Tom Snow , the lyrics by Dean Pitchford , and the book by Pitchford and Walter Bobbie.-Act 1:...
, Billy Crocker in Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...
, and the Scarecrow in the Sydney season of The Wizard Of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (adaptations)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, which has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland...
. He's also appeared in the 10th Anniversary production of Les Misérables, South Pacific, Only Heaven Know and Angry Penguins.
Alexander has also toured Australia in concert with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra.
It was in the year 2000 that Kane took his cabaret show to New York. There he appeared at the FireBird Cafe and Algonquin Oak Room. In the 2001 New York Cabaret Awards, he was named "Best New Voice" in the Theatermania Cabaret list, and won both the BISTRO and MAC Awards for "Most Outstanding Debut". Furthermore he became "Critic's Pick" in the New York Post, and "Pick of the Week" in New York's Time Out Magazine for three consecutive weeks. Then in 2002, he was requested to perform alongside Natalie Cole at Rupert Murdoch's 70th birthday party, hosted in New York.
After his return to Australia, he was named a finalist in the Arts section of the 2001 Young Australian of the Year Awards, and nominated for a MO Award for his performance in Footloose. Kane also completed a tour with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, performing The Music of Lerner & Loewe at concert halls around Australia.
Kane Alexander has also made several television appearances, such as Good Morning Australia
Good Morning Australia
Good Morning Australia from Network Ten was the name of two different programs. This article is for Bert Newton's morning program, not to be confused with the breakfast news program of the same name....
, Denise, The Midday Show, In Melbourne Tonight, Carols By Candlelight
Carols by Candlelight
Carols by Candlelight is an Australian Christmas tradition that originated in southeastern Australia in the 19th century and was popularised in Melbourne in the 1930s. The tradition has since spread around the world. It involves people gathering, usually outdoors in a park, to sing carols by...
and The Good Friday Appeal Gala, along with roles in Late For School, Neighbours, Water Rats
Water Rats (TV series)
Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001. The series was based around the men and women of the Sydney Water Police who fight crime across Sydney Harbour and surrounding locales. The show was set on and around Goat Island in Sydney...
and Stingers. He also appeared as a guest performer on the 18 June 2006 special broadcast of The Footy Show
The AFL Footy Show
The Footy Show is a Logie Award winning Australian sports television program, shown on the Nine Network and its affiliates.This show, which is dedicated to the AFL and Australian rules football, made its debut on 24 March 1994 at the same time as the other version which relates to the NRL and rugby...
which was filmed in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in which he performed the song Timeless with Australian icon Tina Arena
Tina Arena
Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. She has won several awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world's best selling Australian artist...
. The show was specially broadcast in support of the Australian soccer team for the 2006 world cup.
Kane Alexander (debut album)
The concept for the album emerged from Kane's passion for pop, opera and the sweeping orchestration of the most memorable movie themes."I wanted to make an album that moved people, with songs that told a story. I wanted to take the listener on a journey. But I wanted a cinematic sound. I wanted the orchestra to be scored the way a film score would be scored. This had to be an album that I wanted to listen to myself."
According to his myspace page, Kane Alexander has stated that he was happy that Sony BMG allowed him to spend three years capturing his vision for the album. This allowed him to get the right producer and sound for the record. The debut album was recorded in Stockholm and London, with the efforts of producers and songwriters such as Andes Bagge, Quiz & Larossi, Tom Nichols, Tim Baxter and Sigurd Rosnes as well as members of the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra (who appear on every track).
Come Vivrei is an enchanting Italian adaption of Trisha Yearwood
Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood , is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."Trisha Yearwood signed with MCA...
's Grammy award winning song, How Do I Live
How Do I Live
"How Do I Live" is the title of a song written by Diane Warren. It was originally recorded by LeAnn Rimes in 1997 and shortly afterward by Trisha Yearwood...
, whereas other classics included are the poetic Kiss From A Rose
Kiss from a Rose
"Kiss from a Rose" is a song from Seal's second eponymous album Seal . The song was first released as a single in July 1994. Re-released in 1995, it was included on the Batman Forever film soundtrack, helping it top the charts in the U.S. and Australia. It took the 1996 Grammy Awards for both...
by Seal
Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...
, and Crying by Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
, both reworked into baritone adaptions from their original versions. Much loved classics Le Cose Che Sei Per Me, Di Sole E D'Azzuro and Nella Fantasia
Nella Fantasia
"Nella Fantasia" is an Italian song based on the theme "Gabriel's Oboe" from the film The Mission . With music by famed composer Ennio Morricone and lyrics by Chiara Ferraù, "Nella Fantasia" is popular among classical crossover singers, and was originally sung by Sarah Brightman...
are also included. This album also contains the origin of the Tina Arena duet, with a studio version of the song Timeless that they subsequently performed for The Footy Show.
Kane Alexander professes that he never saw himself as a writer, yet contributed his song writing talents to co-writing two songs on the album, opener Escape and epilogue Breathe. These were co-written with Andes Bagge and Tom Nichols.
- "Escape"
- "Come Vivrei (How Do I LiveHow Do I Live"How Do I Live" is the title of a song written by Diane Warren. It was originally recorded by LeAnn Rimes in 1997 and shortly afterward by Trisha Yearwood...
)" - "Timeless" (Duet with Tina Arena)
- "Di Sole E D'Azzuro"
- "Nella FantasiaNella Fantasia"Nella Fantasia" is an Italian song based on the theme "Gabriel's Oboe" from the film The Mission . With music by famed composer Ennio Morricone and lyrics by Chiara Ferraù, "Nella Fantasia" is popular among classical crossover singers, and was originally sung by Sarah Brightman...
" - "Everything That I am"
- "Le Cose Che Sei Per Me (The Things You Are To Me)"
- "Crying"
- "Kiss from a RoseKiss from a Rose"Kiss from a Rose" is a song from Seal's second eponymous album Seal . The song was first released as a single in July 1994. Re-released in 1995, it was included on the Batman Forever film soundtrack, helping it top the charts in the U.S. and Australia. It took the 1996 Grammy Awards for both...
" - "Let It Rain"
- "Breathe"
External links / References
- http://www.icmi.com.au/Entertainer/After_Dinner_Entertainment/Kane_Alexander/Biography
- http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=87546864
- http://www.allegromusic.com.au/index.php?option=directory&task=profile&lid=117