Eric Alexander

Saxophonist Eric Alexander sustains straight-ahead modern jazz traditions well into the present era with his warm tonal approach and vigorous lyricism steeped in bop. Drawing from predecessors such as Dexter Gordon and George Coleman, he first drew notice through performances across Chicago during the early 1990s prior to his relocation to New York. Critical praise has followed his propulsive hard bop releases, among them the 1999 album Man with a Horn, the 2006 effort It's All in the Game, and the 2017 recording Song of No Regrets. After extensive tours spanning global stages and jazz festivals, he resurfaced with the 2019 project Leap of Faith, while Eric Alexander and Strings also surfaced that same year. The 2023 release A New Beginning: Alto Saxophone with Strings marked his latest contribution.

Alexander entered the world in 1968 in Galesburg, Illinois, and spent his formative years in Olympia, Washington, raised by parents with musical leanings who fostered his initial piano studies. During elementary school he adopted the clarinet before shifting to alto saxophone at age 12. Beginning as a classical player, he entered Indiana University and encountered the guidance of jazz educator David Baker, which prompted a turn toward jazz improvisation and a subsequent transfer to William Paterson College in New Jersey. There he advanced his jazz training under figures including Joe Lovano, Harold Mabern, and Rufus Reid while immersing himself in the recorded work of saxophone masters Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, George Coleman, and Joe Henderson. After completing his studies he settled in Chicago and cultivated a solid local following through engagements in neighborhood bars and clubs. In 1991 he achieved broader visibility by finishing second to Joshua Redman at the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition. He then transferred to New York the next year and issued his first leader date, New York Calling, on the Criss Cross imprint.

Subsequent to that Criss Cross debut came Straight Up, which Delmark put out in 1992 and which spotlighted pianist Mabern alongside trumpeter Jim Rotondi, bassist John Webber, and drummer George Fludas. Across the remainder of the 1990s Alexander maintained an active recording schedule for both Criss Cross and Delmark, delivering well-regarded projects such as 1994's Full Range, 1995's Stablemates with veteran tenor saxophonist Lin Halliday, and 1998's Mode for Mabes. He additionally participated in Criss Cross's Tenor Triangle date and collaborated with Cecil Payne, Rob Mazurek, and Charles Earland, the last of whom joined him on the 1999 High Note session Alexander the Great.

During those same years he helped establish the jazz supergroup One for All together with trumpeter Rotondi, pianist Hazeltine, bassist Webber, trombonist Steve Davis, and drummer Joe Farnsworth. Functioning as a hard-swinging unit modeled on Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the ensemble tours regularly and has produced numerous albums since the late 1990s, among them Too Soon to Tell, Wide Horizons, and What's Going On? Concurrent with his ongoing commitments to One for All, Alexander has sustained a consistent output of his own recordings. His eleventh album, Man with a Horn, reached audiences in 1999 via the Milestone label, which also issued the follow-up The First Milestone in 2000. A third Milestone session, Summit Meeting, emerged in 2002 and included a guest appearance by trumpeter Nicholas Payton.

Commencing with the 2004 release Dead Center, Alexander rejoined the High Note roster and has remained with the label, generating further titles such as the 2005 live encounter Battle: Live at Smoke alongside alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, 2007's Temple of Olympic Zeus, 2009's Revival of the Fittest, and 2011's Don't Follow the Crowd. In 2012 he reunited with Herring for the concert recording Friendly Fire: Live at Smoke. Two years afterward he saluted his adopted city of Chicago on the album Chicago Fire.

The studio session The Real Thing surfaced in 2015 and presented his longstanding rhythm section of Harold Mabern, Joe Farnsworth, and John Webber. The following year he joined the Bernd Reiter Quintet for a live SteepleChase date and contributed to another guest project, Federico Bonifazi's You'll See, also on SteepleChase. He further rejoined One for All for the 2016 album The Third Decade. Alexander then resumed his own leader work with 2016's Second Impression, which highlighted octogenarian bassist Bob Cranshaw. He issued Song of No Regrets in 2017, a date featuring percussionist Alex Diaz and special guest trumpeter Jon Faddis. In 2019 he delivered both the trio recording Leap of Faith and the orchestral collection Eric Alexander with Strings.

Amid the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the final collaborations with pianist Harold Mabern appeared under the titles Mabern Plays Mabern and Mabern Plays Coltrane. In 2022 Gentle Ballads, Vol. 6 surfaced in Japan, while he took part in the Heavy Hitters self-titled release and appeared on recordings by Michael Weiss (Persistence), Ceasar Frazier (Tenacity), and Judy Niemack (What's Love?). April 2023 brought the issuance of A New Beginning: Alto Saxophone with Strings, a project captured in 2021 that placed the saxophonist alongside drummer Joe Farnsworth, pianist David Hazeltine, and bassist John Webber.