Jazz saxophonist Eric Alexander’s residency Thursday through Saturday (Oct. 27-29) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will include three free public concerts.
Thursday, he’ll play with UNC jazz studies faculty members Stephen Anderson, Dan Davis, Jason Foureman and Jim Ketch starting at 7:30 p.m. in Hill Hall Auditorium. They will perform classics by Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and others.
Friday, Alexander will be featured in a concert by students in the UNC Jazz Combos at 4 p.m. in the Kenan Music Building Rehearsal Hall. Works by Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Herbie Hancock, Charlie Parker and others will be performed.
Alexander will give a free jazz improvisation/saxophone clinic at 2 p.m. Saturday in 1201 Kenan Music Building. At 8 p.m. Saturday, he’ll perform with students in the UNC Jazz Band directed by Ketch in Hill Hall Auditorium.
“Our local jazz community will enjoy the immense talents of internationally acclaimed jazz tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander,” said Ketch, director of the jazz studies program in the music department, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Eric is a prolific artist deeply influenced by jazz tenor titans Sonny Stitt, George Coleman and John Coltrane. Please join us for the fireworks.”
Alexander will be the Jamey Aebersold Visiting Jazz Artist in the jazz studies program. The residency is funded by a gift from Aebersold, a jazz saxophonist, educator and publisher. He is known for his textbooks and play-along instructional CDs.
A soloist, bandleader and composer, Alexander performs with the sextet One for All and records with numerous jazz artists. He finished second to Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonius Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition.
For more information, contact Ketch at (919) 962-7560 or jketch@email.unc.edu. For a searchable campus map, visit http://www.unc.edu/maps/index.htm.
