April 15 at All Souls at Sundown:

Eric Alexander, saxophone
Aaron Goldberg, piano • John Webber, bass

“A young tenor saxophonist with a beautiful sound, centering in the Coltrane-ish lower-middle register; if he is a little unabashedly entranced by a particular area of jazz's past, around 1955 to 1965, he does well by it.”

— Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander brings a seasoned veteran's proficiency and poise to his latest recording, Nightlife in Tokyo, following tight on the heels of 2002's Summit Meeting (with trumpeter Nicholas Payton).

Alexander played the sax from the age of 12, and jazz became his obsession during his one year at the University of Indiana, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson College in New Jersey he advanced his studies under the tutelage of Harold Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others.

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 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings for Delmark, Criss Cross, and Alfa followed, leading to 1997's Man with a Horn; the 1998 collaborative quartet session with George Mraz, John Hicks, and Idris Muhammad, Solid!; and, that same year, the first recording by One For All, Alexander's ongoing band with Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Dave Hazeltine.

Featuring The Poetry of W.H. Auden

This evening features the poetry of W.H Auden in the centennial year of his birth. An accomplished playwright, librettist, editor, and essayist, Auden is considered by many to be the greatest English poet of the twentieth century.