Sundog Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 I've been hearing a fair amount of Eric's music lately on a local jazz station. I have to say, I'm fairly impressed with his playing. My curiosity is peaked and I'm looking for recommendations. Thanks in advance.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom in RI Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 Alexander is pretty well represented by many recordings under his own name, with One For All, and on various sideman dates. I do not have a comprehensive cross section of his work. However, I do have The First Milestone which I can recommend. Also, as a sideman, with Jimmy Cobb on Cobb's Groove, another disc that I enjoy quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 Ask Sangrey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 I really like the work he did on two cds by bassist Tom Brigandi, "Late Night New York" and "After Hours." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sal Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 The One For All discs on Criss Cross are really good ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tapscott Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 The Classic Jazz Trio (David Hazeltine) Meets Eric Alexander. I have perhaps 8 discs with Alexander as leader or sideman, and this one just flat-out roars from the opening bar. Almost too intense at times. I'm not sure that Alexander and Louis Hayes are the best matched tenor/drums partnership, but it's interesting to hear. There was definitely something in the air that day. Probably the fact that it was recorded 2 weeks after 9/11. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tapscott Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Eric's Delmark CD's are worth checking out as well, esp. Mode for Mabes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted May 18, 2004 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 The Classic Jazz Trio (David Hazeltine) Meets Eric Alexander. I have perhaps 8 discs with Alexander as leader or sideman, and this one just flat-out roars from the opening bar. Almost too intense at times. I'm not sure that Alexander and Louis Hayes are the best matched tenor/drums partnership, but it's interesting to hear. There was definitely something in the air that day. Probably the fact that it was recorded 2 weeks after 9/11. That sounds interesting. Anybody have the album Summit Meeting? I heard A House Is Not A Home off that one and was favorably impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tapscott Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 That sounds interesting. Anybody have the album Summit Meeting? I heard A House Is Not A Home off that one and was favorably impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 He did a very nice cd with Junior Mance that was in Dan Gould's Blindfold Test that got Jim S all riled up (too much sounding like George Coleman, he said). It's called Groovin Blues and only available in Japan. Hiroshi could get it if you're interested. Another good one is one he did with the Jimmy Cobb Mob that came out last year on Milestone. I give it a big . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 I'm not really an Alexander fan, but he appears on this KILLER album: Cookin' With the Mighty Burner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robviti Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 (edited) eric's a very consistent player. here's one of my favorites: Edited May 18, 2004 by jazzshrink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Lightning Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 I like the Alexander-Mabern collaboration. Besides that, here's another rarely discussed fine hardbop CD that Alexander shines in, imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyJazz Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 The pianist Michael Weiss is a good friend of mine, we having met when we resided in the same apartment building in Park Slope, Brooklyn, some 20+ years ago. Although Michael has been a sideman with some great musicians over the years, e.g., Johnny Griffin, Lou Donaldson, Art Farmer, to this date he has been the leader on just four sessions. As Michael has a website and has always informed me when one of his rare dates is being issued, he turned me on to Eric Alexander especially as the latter appears on Michael's 3rd CD: It's a terrific album, a quartet session, which according to Michael's website can be obtained from Amazon and Cadence. Check out Michael's website here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 He did a very nice cd with Junior Mance that was in Dan Gould's Blindfold Test that got Jim S all riled up (too much sounding like George Coleman, he said). It wasn't just that, I also didn't dig how he mangled the blues vernacular on that one cut. It just didn't sit well with me. HAving said that, I've been hearing Alexander on some as yet unidentifed new releases on KNTU, and he sounds as if the stick is finally coming out of his ass, albeit incrementally. He still sounds like "your father's jazz", but he also sounds like he's loosening up and realizing that a lot of things have happened since 1965 or so. BTW - I've always had the highest respect for his saxophonistical abilities, and the sincerity with which he employs them. The fact that I've mostly found him to be a big bore emotionally is a purely personal matter on my part, nothing more. The cat can play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robviti Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Not to hijack the thread, but this is another nice one from Michael Weiss: Available from CD Baby and discerning retailers like Sally's Place in Westport CT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete C Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 eric's a very consistent player. Is that a compliment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Since we seem to be going back & forth here, I'll add my 2 cents worth & say that I enjoy his playing very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyJazz Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Not to hijack the thread, but this is another nice one from Michael Weiss: Available from CD Baby and discerning retailers like Sally's Place in Westport CT. Since you already "hijacked" the thread, just want to say that on a visit to NYC last November for a family affair, I got to see Michael and a septet perform at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. The group performed every tune from the recent album you cite, Dan, as well as a few from the previous date with Eric Alexander. Ryan Kisor was present from the Sintra CD, however Adam Kolker (ts) and Jim Snidero (as) replaced the 2 Steves on the CD, Wilson and Davis. Group really cooked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdd Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 Eric is a solid player but he definitely owes George Coleman some money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Bresnahan Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 I have a lot of Eric Alexander in my stash of frequently played CDs but work is crazy right now and I couldn't do justice in the short period of time I'm taking to type this. I will say that one of One For All's latest efforts, a tribute to Art Blakey on the Venus label called "No Problem", is one of my favorite new CDs in years. It just flat-out smokes! Joe Farnsworth has really become a monster on the drums when he's playing with One For All. I think this band is one of the few that can do justice to Bu's Jazz Messengers legacy. BTW, the mispell Blakey's name on this CD! Funny as heck. The first track is titled, "Our Father Who Art Blaky". Later, Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montg Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 I have three Alexander CDs that represent three different settings. I like them all very much--I find his playing to be really interesting... power and swing. Like Kevin, these are highly played in my collection too...anyway, I'd recommend any of the following, depending on which setting appeals most: The Second Milestone (Milestone) (a quartet w/ Mabern. Jim Rotondi's on a few cuts). One For All (Criss Cross)--"Wide Horizons"...A sextet in the Messengers vein ALexander the Great (HIgh Note)--with Charles Earland (along with Peter Bernstein, Rotondi, and Joe Farnsworth). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Based on the only Eric Alexander I've heard -- his work as a sideman with Joe Magnerelli on "Why Not" (Criss Cross, rec. 12/94) -- I'm in Jim S.'s camp. One more-or-less shopworn (albeit "swinging") phrase after another, stapled together like pieces of cardboard, little or no sense of organic language-understanding or personal emotional involvement -- the latter all the more annoying because so many of the Dexter-ish gestures he throws around are brimful of emotion in the hands of their originator and sound rather ghastly (to me) when the sense of personal presence has been sucked out of them and/or been tossed aside. (That's what I mean by lack of "organic language-understanding," which may jibe with what Jim S. was reacting to.) Damn it, jazz is NOT a game and/or an athletic contest -- not in this style and at the level Alexander apparently aspires to. It isn't a game for Magnerelli, for one, whose Dorham roots are readily apparent but who is (or so it seems to me) making a good deal of personal contact with the material in the flowing moment. He's testing/being himself. Alexander, by contrast, is jumping over hurdles while modeling for a poster. Makes me want to scream. I know, you'll tell me he's grown a lot by now, but I'll trust that only if someone can tell me that they hear something of what I hear in late-'94 vintage Alexander and can say where and how all that athletic cheesiness evolved into something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted May 19, 2004 Report Share Posted May 19, 2004 Larry, interesting analysis. What do you think of Scott Hamilton? I haven't heard that much of his other than a cd I picked up recently that he did with Eddie Higgins for Venus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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