In a career spanning five decades,
pianist Monty Alexander has built a reputation exploring and bridging the
worlds of American jazz, popular song, and the music of his native Jamaica,
finding in each a sincere spirit of musical expression. In the process, he has
performed and recorded with artists from every corner of the musical universe
and entertainment world: Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ray Brown, Dizzy
Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Quincy Jones, Ernest Ranglin, Barbara
Hendricks, Bobby McFerrin, Sly Dunbar, and Robbie Shakespeare.
In the mid-1970s he formed a group consisting
of John Clayton on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums, creating a stir on the
jazz-scene in Europe. Their most famous collaboration (and arguably Alexander's
finest album) is “Montreux Alexander,”
recorded during the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1976.