 Eric Alexander © Andrea Canter In the week leading up to the New Year - Sunday, December 27th through Thursday, December 31st - Smoke Jazz Club in Manhattan will present a hard-bop heaven featuring the Eric Alexander Quartet with Harold Mabern (except for Monday, December 28th, when the Harold Mabern Trio performs). Each night the band will include John Webber on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Sunday through Wednesday sets are at 8:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. and tickets are $30. Smoke is offering a New Year's Eve "All inclusive" package including 3-course Dinner, open bar (wine& beer) with an early seating at 7pm for $125 and a 2nd seating at 9:45pm at $225 per person plus tax & gratuity and this seating will include the midnight toast.
With about two dozen CDs out under his own name and appearing as sideman on countless others, Eric Alexander has made his mark on the jazz world and documented his progress as a tenor master. He has a rich tone and an aggressive, driving style that grabs the listener's attention and doesn't let go. At William Paterson College in New Jersey Eric advanced his studies under the tutelage of Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. "The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today," says Alexander. "Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson--the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that's the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I'm still listening all the time to Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic information and find ways to employ them in my own playing." During the 1990s, after placing second behind Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander threw himself into the whirlwind life of a professional jazz musician. He played with organ trios on the South Side of Chicago, made his recording debut in 1991 with Charles Earland, and cut his first album as leader in 1992. Many recordings followed including his latest recording, Revival Of The Fittest (HighNote, 2009) with Harold Mabern, John Webber, and Joe Farnsworth.
 Harold Mabern
Joe Farnsworth has been living in the New York area since 1990. He studied with the great drummer Art Taylor while attending William Paterson College. While still living at home in Massachusetts, Joe studied with Alan Dawson who was also Tony Williams' teacher. Joe has been playing with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander since the two met while they were students at William Paterson. It has been a very fruitful musical association. Farnsworth and Alexander have been together on too many sessions to list, with Eric as leader or a fellow sideman.
Smoke is located at 2751 Broadway, Manhattan, www.smokejazz.com. Three sets each night at 8, 10 and 11:30 pm. Cover $30 with $20 minimum, (212) 864-6662. |
New York 
Saturday, 20 March 2010
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