FULL MONTY - Monty Alexander to celebrate 50 years

BY HOWARD CAMPBELL Observer senior writer

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

ON Sunday, Monty Alexander plans to be in the audience at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the annual Grammy Awards. The world-famous jazz pianist's album, Harlem Kingston-Express Live!, is one of five nominees in the Best Reggae Album category.

The following week, Alexander kicks off 'The Full Monty Experience, a two-week gig at the Blue Note club in New York City, in commemoration of his 50th year in the music business.

From February 20 -- March 4, the 67-year-old Alexander will be joined by several musicians he has worked with over the past five decades including guitarist Ernie Ranglin, and the drum and bass team of Sly and Robbie.

While the opening week features jazz vocalists Freddie Cole and Dee Dee Bridgewater, organist Lonnie Smith and guitarist Pat Martino, Alexander told the Observer it is important for him to honour his Caribbean heritage.

"It took me years to say, 'this music is in my blood'," Alexander said.

"I'm very pleased that I have awakened from my slumber."

Alexander is best known in North America and Europe as a traditional jazz player, but in the last 15 years he has dabbled with reggae and sounds from the Eastern Caribbean. He recorded a clutch of Bob Marley tribute albums, and worked with Ranglin and Sly and Robbie on instrumental sets for the independent American label Telarc.

Ranglin appears on opening night at the Blue Note, while Sly and Robbie are scheduled to perform February 28. Shaggy, who is also a nominee in the Best Reggae Album category, is among the Jamaican guests, so too saxophonist Dean Fraser, and singers Tarrus Riley and Diana King.

Alexander also worked with Trinidadian musicians on a jazz/steel pan project in the 1970s. He revisits that period on February 25 when he teams with steel pan player Othello Molineux and trumpeter Etienne Charles, both from Trinidad and Tobago, to play the music of legendary calypsonians Lord Kitchener and the Mighty Sparrow.

Born in Kingston, Alexander began recording as a teenager. He played in several bands and recorded at Studio One before immigrating to the United States where he played alongside legendary jazz performers including Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

He has made a concerted attempt to revive interest in Caribbean music in the US with projects like Harlem-Kingston Express Live!, which is his first Grammy nomination. In March, 2008, Alexander staged the Lords Of The West Indies series at the Lincoln Center, which featured Caribbean musicians.

Monty Alexander is scheduled to perform in Kingston on May 13 at his alma mater, Jamaica College.

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FULL MONTY - Monty Alexander to celebrate 50 years