Eric Alexander - Leap Of Faith

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Eric Alexander's latest, "Leap Of Faith" (Giant Step Arts) was issued May 17th. It's a first for Alexander in that it's a trio recording. Sample here:

I think it's only available directly from the artist at this time:

https://www.ericalexanderjazz.com/leap-of-faith-1/leap-of-faith

[sonnymax]

You're forgetting this trio date:

[Dan Gould]

Mileage and all that but $25 a copy?  I've got enough Eric to not even have to think about that expenditure ...

Has Highnote dropped him? I thought all his domestic releases were on that label.

[John Tapscott]

Thanks for drawing this to our attention. I will listen to the track shortly. 

Actually Eric has recorded in a trio context before. I just listened to this one yesterday. It is excellent.   

 

1 minute ago, Dan Gould said:

Mileage and all that but $25 a copy?  I've got enough Eric to not even have to think about that expenditure ...

Has Highnote dropped him? I thought all his domestic releases were on that label.

I don't know whether or not High Note has dropped him. Perhaps. I'm a big fan but I think Eric went to the well a little too often with the quartet format on High Note. Generally the same personnel. Probably should have changed it up a bit. But that can also be a producer's decision, I guess.   

[felser]

Big fan of his playing, but he has released a LOT of albums, so have not tried to keep up with them all.  Though I probably own about half of them.   Don't see a musical journey in the sense of Miles or Trane, so not sure that additional albums really add that much at the margin, though they each sure make for good to great listening.  I think of him as the Dexter Gordon of this generation.    Saw him live once with Mabern in the group, and it was a wonderful night (Philly Art Museum, 10-15 years ago).

[JSngry]

8 minutes ago, felser said:

...Don't see a musical journey in the sense of Miles or Trane, so not sure that additional albums really add that much at the margin, though they each sure make for good to great listening....

...I think of him as the Dexter Gordon of this generation.   

Maybe it's just me, but those two statements seem to need reconciling?

Dexter had one hell of a journey, musically and personally!

[Dan Gould]

21 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Maybe it's just me, but those two statements seem to need reconciling?

Dexter had one hell of a journey, musically and personally!

Perhaps - I think as he influenced Trane and Rollins, they influenced him to an extent. But is 70s-80s Dex that different from Dex in the 60s? Certainly not the same way that Trane was different, late '50s to mid-late '60s. 

 

[JSngry]

I can very much tell the difference between 70s-80s Dex and 60s Dex. The tone broadened, the time got further and further behind the beat, and the harmonic choices evolved.

If we're going to use Trane and/or Miles as benchmarks for "journeys", there's not going to be very many journeyers. Those guys were on odysseys!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

3 hours ago, sonnymax said:

You're forgetting this trio date:

I did forget that one, which may be because I actually don't own it.

Re-reading the blurb about this release found on the label website: https://www.giantsteparts.org/news/2019/3/5/eric-alexander-leap-of-faith-release where it says, "He has rarely played in, and almost never recorded in, a chordless trio setting. It also marks the first time, in a discography that counts more than 40 releases, that Alexander has recorded an album consisting solely of his own original tunes," I see that I mixed up the parts about "original tunes" with "chordless trio setting". Mea culpa.

I ordered it as I am interested to hear what a Jazz Times reviewer calls a "freer, rawer, more searching, more relentless" Eric Alexander.

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

I can very much tell the difference between 70s-80s Dex and 60s Dex. The tone broadened, the time got further and further behind the beat, and the harmonic choices evolved.

If we're going to use Trane and/or Miles as benchmarks for "journeys", there's not going to be very many journeyers. Those guys were on odysseys!

While that may be true, I can still call a Dex tune in 2 or 3 sax notes, be it from 1962 or 1979. Dex was Dex all the time.

Having said that, Eric Alexander is one of the few modern tenor players where I can usually tell it's him in 4 or 5 notes.

Edited May 28, 2019 by bresna

[Dan Gould]

I think this is where Jim says if you can spot EA in 4-5 notes then you haven't listened to enough George Coleman. Doing that will muddy the waters a bit.

 

[JSngry]

Yeah, you can always tell anybody with their own voice in 4-5 notes. That's, uh...kinda what is meant by having your own voice.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I can certainly hear George Coleman in Alexander's playing but Alexander just sounds different to me. He hits certain notes and I can tell it's him. He seems to glide along the notes more than George, who seems to chop off his notes more abruptly.

[JSngry]

14 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

I think this is where Jim says if you can spot EA in 4-5 notes then you haven't listened to enough George Coleman. Doing that will muddy the waters a bit.

 

Either that and/or if you make it past 4-5 notes, it's your own damn fault.     

4 minutes ago, bresna said:

I can certainly hear George Coleman in Alexander's playing but Alexander just sounds different to me. He hits certain notes and I can tell it's him. He seems to glide along the notes more than George, who seems to chop off his notes more abruptly.

The way I tell them apart is simple - if it's a record that George Coleman's not on but it still sounds like George Coleman, it's Eric Alexander. And if I don't know if George made that record and it still sounds like a younger George Coleman, it's Eric Alexander.

I save a lot of time that way, and in this modern era, that's important!

6 minutes ago, bresna said:

I can certainly hear George Coleman in Alexander's playing but Alexander just sounds different to me. He hits certain notes and I can tell it's him. He seems to glide along the notes more than George, who seems to chop off his notes more abruptly.

It's kinda like David Frye and Richard Nixon.

Kinda.

[felser]

7 hours ago, JSngry said:

Maybe it's just me, but those two statements seem to need reconciling?

Dexter had one hell of a journey, musically and personally!

Understood. I meant as far as mature style, beautiful tone, being able to tell a story in a solo, etc.   At the Art Museum, I heard him warming up, by himself, in a closed cafeteria, and even that sounded gorgeous.    Alexander seems to have a healthier lifestyle than Gordon,

[JSngry]

I don't get any of that from him (other than his excellence on his instrument), but if that's what works for you, enjoy it! I don't at all care to lsiten to him, but I have the highest respect for his ability.

Just...comparisons to Dexter Gordon in any fashion seem patently absurd to me, insulting, actually. Gordon was a real giant of the instrument and the music in general. Alexander is a highly qualified placeholder. No Dexter Gordon, no jazz quite as we know it. No Eric Alexander, no records with Eric Alexander on them.  Period.

Nothing wrong with that, but Eric Alexander is in no way "the Dexter Gordon of our time".

Let Eric Alexander be the Eric Alexander of our time, that's enough, no? That seems to be what he wants, it's not at all a bad thing to want, let him have it.

[felser]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Let Eric Alexander be the Eric Alexander of our time, that's enough, no? That seems to be what he wants, it's not at all a bad thing to want, let him have it.

It is a good thing.  I think exceedingly highly of Alexander, especially give the present era.

[BFrank]

Looking forward to seeing Eric and his quartet at SFJAZZ in a few weeks. Not a huge fan, but I generally like his work and he's playing in the tiny Joe Henderson Lab. Mabern was supposed to be with him, but it was announced a while ago that because of "health reasons" (? - he seems to be gigging around the East), Eric Reed will be on piano.

[BillF]

3 hours ago, BFrank said:

Looking forward to seeing Eric and his quartet at SFJAZZ in a few weeks. Not a huge fan, but I generally like his work and he's playing in the tiny Joe Henderson Lab. Mabern was supposed to be with him, but it was announced a while ago that because of "health reasons" (? - he seems to be gigging around the East), Eric Reed will be on piano.

Well, Harold is 83.

[EKE BBB]

Dex and Eric Alexander in the same thread... I was sure this would immediately light up the fire in this board... 

Just my two (spontaneous and uninformed) cents: I like Eric's playing but could live without him, whereas I could not live without Dex! 

[felser]

Ok, let's turn it into a parlor game.  Who comes closest to being the heir to Dexter Gordon of Gen X, those born 1965-1979?

[JSngry]

You mean somebody who can bring the life experience of playing with Lionel Hampton & Louis Armstrong & Wardell Gray in all those clubs in all those hoods in all those various states of highness in to every second on and off the bandstand? Somebody with that intense personal magnetism used to all kinds of ends? Somebody who can lean back and dig in and put all of that out there all the time, no matter how tore down he might have been, not as a reference but as a natural fact of life? Born 1965 or later?

And this is a serious question? I got to see Dexter Gordon live, once, but that was enough to leave a mark.

Props to evolved Rickey Ford (too old, I know) and occasional James Carter (b. 1979) for at least getting it, but really, heir? An heir to Dexter Gordon? A truly organic heir?

Those guys are all either dead or very soon enough about to be.

 

[JSngry]

I really don't understand this need to "glorify" a very competent, excellent musician like Eric Alexander in relation to a truly iconic socio/musico titan like Dexter Gordon. The only way I can begin to understand it is in terms of somebody needing to feel justified or something, and I very seriously doubt that Eric Alexander feels the need to be justified as an heir to Dexter Gordon. I mean, he knows what he's doing and why he's doing it and he continues to do it with full conviction. Lining him up with anybody who really built this music cheapens his efforts and trivializes theirs.

Beside, time/music moves on. Eric Alexander is not solving any life/music riddles or solving for any X other than playing changes the best he can in a way that he can live with. That's a helluva task right there, and if he bores me doing it, I sure as hell don't see anything trivial about a life's devotion to hard work and personal development in pursuit of a very specific (and difficult!) craft.

I don't feel even the slightest obligation to like anything for the sake of it's craftsmanship. Nothing. But I sure as hell feel an obligation to respect it. Those are tow totally different things, and it's out of respect to both Dexter Gordon and Eric Alexander that I say just leave them the fuck out of the same breath!

[Chuck Nessa]

Exactly what Jim said.

[jlhoots]

Yeah - I agree with most of that - BUT that band One For All that he was in was pretty good.

I like The Cookers too (nothing to do with Alexander), even though they're mostly old guys.

[felser]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

I really don't understand this need to "glorify" a very competent, excellent musician like Eric Alexander in relation to a truly iconic socio/musico titan like Dexter Gordon. The only way I can begin to understand it is in terms of somebody needing to feel justified or something, and I very seriously doubt that Eric Alexander feels the need to be justified as an heir to Dexter Gordon. I mean, he knows what he's doing and why he's doing it and he continues to do it with full conviction. Lining him up with anybody who really built this music cheapens his efforts and trivializes theirs.

Beside, time/music moves on. Eric Alexander is not solving any life/music riddles or solving for any X other than playing changes the best he can in a way that he can live with. That's a helluva task right there, and if he bores me doing it, I sure as hell don't see anything trivial about a life's devotion to hard work and personal development in pursuit of a very specific (and difficult!) craft.

I don't feel even the slightest obligation to like anything for the sake of it's craftsmanship. Nothing. But I sure as hell feel an obligation to respect it. Those are tow totally different things, and it's out of respect to both Dexter Gordon and Eric Alexander that I say just leave them the fuck out of the same breath!