Monty Alexander
Jazz
Fifty-five years after he moved to the US from Kingston, Jamaica, pianist Monty Alexander CD, DLitt is an American classic, touring the world relentlessly, delighting a global audience with his endless melody-making and effervescent grooves. His repertoire spans a broad range of jazz and Jamaican musical expression - the American songbook and the blues, gospel and bebop, calypso and reggae. Alexander is cited as the fifth greatest jazz pianist ever in The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time.
Born on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Alexander grew up absorbed by all the musical flavours that comprise his mature sonic palette, playing for the legendary pianist Eddie Heywood, listening to Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong at Kingston’s Carib Theater. By 14, Alexander made his first recordings, both as leader of a group called Monty and the Cyclones, and as a sideman for such legendary producers as Ken Khouri, Duke Reade, and Clement Coxsone Dodd.
By 1963, he was ensconced in New York City, with a steady gig at Jilly’s, the eponymous West 52nd Street piano bar owned by Frank Sinatra’s close friend Jilly Rizzo. He also held regular gigs at Minton’s and at the Playboy Club, where he met Quincy Jones. During these years, he also met Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson, who recommended Alexander to Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, the proprietor of Germany’s MPS label.
By 1977, when Alexander made the tenth of his twelve sessions for MPS (Estate), he was internationally recognised as an upper-echelon master, deeply influenced by Brown’s “let’s party all night” approach to the piano trio function. 1978 to 1996 mostly presented him in swinging trio context. During these years, he also documented an inspiring solo recital at Maybeck Recital Hall; conversational duo encounters with Ranglin and with Clayton; and an impeccable one-off with bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Grady Tate.
As Alexander’s explorations progressed, he found it ever more complicated to convene a single ensemble in which he could satisfactorily coalesce ‘things that reflect my heritage as an English-speaking Caribbean person’ and his love for hard swinging jazz. Midway through the ’00s, Alexander began to resolve the issue with a project dubbed Harlem-Kingston Express, first documented on the Grammy-nominated 2011 CD, Harlem-Kingston Express: LIVE.
Other highlights include working with Natalie Cole, on her 7-Grammy Award winning tribute album to her father, and performing George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with a full orchestra at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
Monty continues to serve as Artistic Director of the namesake Monty Alexander Jazz Festival in Maryland and in August 2000, the Jamaican government designated Alexander Commander in the Order of Distinction for outstanding services to Jamaica as a worldwide music ambassador. On November 3, 2018 he received an honorary doctorate (DLitt) from the University of the West Indies.
