Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander - Alexander Bernard Montgomery actually - ( born June 6, 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica ) is a jazz pianist and melodica player.
Life and work
Alexander began playing the piano at the age of four years. From 1950 to 1959 he had systematic instruction. First experience he gained as a teenager in local calypso and rhythm & blues bands and has worked as a studio pianist at the legendary Studio One. After a classical education he soon turned to jazz. In 1962, he returned to Jamaica back and first moved to Miami, then to New York. Here he played for the club owner Jilly Rizzo in the jazz house " Jilly's ". In Rizzo, he learned one evening the bassist Ray Brown know who played with Oscar Peterson. From the 1970s, Alexander played in the Ray Brown / Milt Jackson Band and with Victor Gaskin. His former recordings were by Kunzler still under the influence of Les McCann.
In 1971, there came through the mediation of Oscar Peterson to contact the MPS label, created for numerous record productions, as his albums " We've Only Just Begun " (1974, which was awarded the Grand Prix Mondial des Hot Club de France) and " Live at the Montreux Festival " 1976. at the Montreux Jazz Festival, he also appeared in an all-star lineup with Ray Brown and Milt Jackson. Alexander the merit to have processed one of the few jazz musicians not only Afro-Cuban but also Caribbean, especially Jamaican music elements such as reggae and ska of his personal style. This occurs mainly in albums that he recorded in the 1980s for the label Concord, revealed as "Ivory and Steel" 1980 and "Caribbean Circle " from 1992. Originated in 1999 with musicians such as Steve Turré and Sly Dunbar an album of Bob Marley songs ( " Stir it Up ").
In his appearances Alexander works with changing Trio occupations, mostly with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis and drummers Mickey Roker and Jeff Hamilton. He has also worked as accompanist of Ernestine Anderson, Marshall Royal, Sam Most and Johnny Smith. He also appeared in the Maybeck Recital Series of the Concord label on several occasions as a soloist, he had previously only once, in 1980 with his limited edition of 150,000 copies direct-to - plate Solo, tried.
2012 was awarded to him in Stuttgart, the German Jazz Trophy.
Alexander was married from 1981 to 1984 with the guitarist Emily Remler.