Like Sugar Eric Alexander

• 1 Jave 09:54
• 2 Triste 06:10
• 3 Like Sugar 05:40
• 4 Early Morning Stroll 05:36
• 5 The Way We Were 05:41
• 6 Is It You 07:12
• 7 MARIA (BFFWSA) 03:59
• 8 Love Letters 06:26
• Total Runtime 50:38

Info for Like Sugar

Along with co-producer John Bennett, Cory Weeds encouraged me to make a recording that paid tribute to the great Stanley Turrentine. Our goal wasn’t to recreate his music in an anachronistic way, but rather to stay faithful to his aesthetic and musical sensibilities. With that in mind, we carefully selected repertoire that reflected his bluesy approach and love for the Great American Songbook.

Stanley had a deep love for the blues and a beautifully lyrical way of interpreting standard tunes. We recorded “Love Letters,” one of his favorite standards, as a direct nod to him. Beyond that, our tributes were often more indirect. For instance, we borrowed the shout chorus from Stanley’s iconic tune “Sugar” and used it as a melodic idea on my composition “Jave.” I also wrote an original piece titled “Like Sugar,” based on the chord changes to “Sugar,” but with a new melody and harmonic rhythm. “Sugar” remains one of Stanley’s most beloved compositions, and “Like Sugar” was written in that spirit.

Stanley also had a strong affinity for Brazilian music, so we included “Triste” and added our own unique spin to it. We felt that tunes like “The Way We Were” and Hank Mobley’s “Early Morning Stroll” were also right in Stanley’s wheelhouse—he would’ve loved playing them.

I was thrilled to have these three extraordinary musicians in the rhythm section for this recording. They are among the finest players on their respective instruments today—and dear friends of mine as well. Organizing the music and shaping it in the studio was a joy because we trust each other’s instincts and ideas, and there’s a strong mutual respect in our musical conversations.

Eric Alexander, tenor and soprano saxophone
David Hazeltine, piano
Dennis Carroll, bass
George Fludas, drums

Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ on November 1st, 2024
Engineered by Maureen Sickler
Mixed and Mastered by Shawn Piece
Produced byCory Weeds & Eric Alexander
Executive Producer: John Bennett & Cory Weeds

Eric Alexander
Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. He started out on piano as a six-year-old, took up clarinet at nine, switched to alto sax when he was 12, and converted to tenor when 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. "The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today," says Alexander. "Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson--the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that's the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I'm still listening all the time to Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic information and find ways to employ them in my own playing."

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 on Muse Records, and cut his first album as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings followed for numerous labels, including Milestone and others, 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.

Eric has appeared in many capacities on record, including leader, sideman, producer as well as composing a number of the tunes he records. By now, Alexander has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; he guesses 80 or 90. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition.

In 2004, Eric signed an exclusive contract with the New York-based independent jazz label, HighNote Records where he has amassed a considerable discography of critically-acclaimed recordings. Most recent among them is “Chicago Fire” HCD 7262, “The Real Thing” with Pat Martino HCD 7278 and “Second Impression” HCD 7296. Eric’s most recent HighNote release, “Song of No Regrets,”(HCD 7311) was featured in Downbeat’s “Hot Box”. He is currently working on a new recording project which will see commercial release in mid-2019.

Eric continues to tour the world over to capacity audiences. Using NYC as his home base he can regularly be seen in the city’s most prestigious jazz clubs.

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