Eric Alexander is ‘Always Adventurous’

By Dan Ouellette I Feb. 28, 2020

Saxophonist Eric Alexander regards his playing as “well-spoken, with melody at the center.”
(Photo: Steven Sussman)

Based on his concerts and discography, Alexander frequently has been categorized as a muscular flamethrower. But he’s quick to point out that most of his albums include a slow melody or two and that he even recorded a 2013 HighNote album made up of afterglow ballads. “It’s called Touching, but people didn’t touch it,” he quipped. “I could play ballads all night.”

As is the case with many saxophonists’ orchestrated albums, Eric Alexander With Strings was recorded by a leader who’s very familiar with Charlie Parker With Strings. “I was talking with Al Foster once, and he told me if there was one record he could listen to the rest of his life it would be Bird’s With Strings,” Alexander recalled. “I’ve heard that from other people, too. Branford Marsalis and I were talking about finding the ways to listen to jazz to absorb modern music. He said that if you just learn about Bird’s With Strings, you’ve got it for real.”

Another recording that had a big impact on Alexander is Clifford Brown With Strings (1955), arranged by Neal Hefti. “I didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up, so I wasn’t able to amass a huge record collection,” he said. “In college I’d go to the library, pull an album out, stick a cassette in and listen. I listened to Clifford Brown a million times on that cassette.”

Alexander also dived into songbooks with orchestral arrangements, including classics by Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington and Nancy Wilson. “I think of all these great instrumentalists that played all those years with Nelson Riddle,” he said. “It was a great period in American music history. There was a standard of excellence with the material, the talent and the maturity of the players. No overdubs. All live with Frank on a stool while Nelson conducted, and it was a master work in one take.”

With Strings continues a phase of bold career moves by Alexander. In 2019, he released Leap Of Faith through the nonprofit organization Giant Step Arts, founded by photographer and recording engineer Jimmy Katz. In a conversation with Alexander at a music salon years ago, Katz expressed his admiration for the saxophonist, but he also offered a blunt assessment. “I told Eric that he’s recorded 30 albums and they all sound the same,” Katz, a regular contributor to DownBeat, recalled. “Let’s do something different.” His idea was to strip Alexander’s quartet down to a trio of musicians with whom he hadn’t previously played—bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Johnathan Blake.

Alexander balked at first: “I kept saying no for years. One, I was under contract with HighNote, and two, I didn’t necessarily like the idea of doing a record where [the result] would be copies of the CD for me to sell. That didn’t sound appealing to me. My entire experience of recording as a leader was to be taken care of by a label. I’d get paid, and they did the marketing.”

But with the shifting tides of the music industry, the deal with Katz was on. The icing was that all eight tunes in that program were Alexander’s compositions—a first for him. The album was recorded live in 2018 at the Jazz Gallery in New York. “I figured on Leap Of Faith, the material was something I believed in and wouldn’t be faking,” he said. “I dislike playing without a pianist because I prefer hearing chords when I’m playing. So, it was a challenge to play the harmony and manipulate it.”

Alexander pulled out some surprises for the set, including the bass-bowed “Magyar,” based on a reduction from Béla Bartók’s “Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta,” and the hip “Mars,” with the harmonic power borrowed from pop star Bruno Mars’ hit “Finesse.” Alexander was turned on to the song by one of his two sons, and he essentially made a contrafact on the tune. The firebrand tune “Second Impression” (which Alexander said is a bit misleading because a different original with that same title already has been recorded) lasts for 13:28 and is essentially Alexander blowing without stop. The origin of that outburst? “On the last day of the session I decided to bring in a synthesizer player and a guitarist. Jimmy said no because he wanted this to be a trio album,” Alexander said. “We got in a big fight over that, so when I finally launched into that tune, I was pissed off. No one else solos because it was my way of working out my anger.”

Despite that squabble, Alexander credits Katz for taking him out of his comfort zone. “Jimmy did a great job,” he said. “He caught [the trio] in action ... and he [pulled] me out of where I had been.”

Following these two breakthrough albums, Alexander hinted that his next HighNote album, which already has been recorded, also offers a new twist. “I’ve been interested in playing pop tunes, like a tune by Lionel Richie,” he said. “I know the bebop Nazis—which I’m not a member of—will be coming after me for not playing standards. But those were just the pop tunes of the day. The material of today can’t be judged for its relative worth or lack thereof based on the context of where it first appears. So, if you turn on the radio and hear Taylor Swift singing over this insipid beat with a jerky synthesizer groove, that doesn’t mean there’s not a genuine tune in there.”

So, is Alexander selling out? ”I can assure you there are tons of good pop tunes out there,” he asserted with a chuckle. “I can assure you that if I play something in a club—that the younger people in the club know—then you can do whatever you want, because you’ve earned their musical trust.” DB