Alex’s music style is a diverse blend of over 30 years of playing
an international range of music, including Medieval and Classical works,
British Rock, African Merengue, Brazilian Samba and Candomblé,
R&B, Funk, Blues, and Jazz. His tutelage began by being taught classical guitar by the late
Russian Master Dr Perrot and Jazz guitar by Bryan Daly of the BBC.
Early in his career he was schooled in R&B guitar by Wilson Pickett and Jimi
Hendrix. While playing with Freddie Stone and Sly Stone, Larry Graham, and Rusty
Allen, Alex became an aficionado in playing the FUNK.
This multicultural musical background began with
training in classical guitar and performances at his school and in small
London venues. With London’s Blues and R&B explosion, Alex began
fusing jazz and R&B, playing high energy rhythm guitar for UK bands
such as The Elements, (forerunner of Camel), The Silence,
(forerunner of The Heard and Humble Pie), and The New
Jump Band. The latter was London’s first racially mixed Jamaican and
British band, and gained notoriety by backing Wilson Pickett on his first
UK debut, with the release of "In the Midnight Hour" and
"Mustang Sally". It was Wilson’s personal tutelage that gave
Alex the key to "the Groove".
 
Between college studies, Alex performed in many of the
famous 60’s London venues such as the Marquee, the Revolution, and the
Round House. Sharing the stage in the same venues were bands such as Led
Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Moody Blues, Cream,
The Yardbirds, the Stones, John Mayall, the Small
Faces, the Graham Bond Organization, and the Ram Jam Band.
Alex also performed in a house band in the dive bar of the Red Lion Pub in
Soho, and was occasionally joined by a young unknown Jimi Hendrix.
In late 1969, Alex left the London scene to live and
travel in South Africa and Angola, where he absorbed the local African
music. In 1970 he moved to Rio de Janeiro and became entranced with Samba,
Macumbas and Capoeira (in which he reached Master status). Alex was a
regular member of Portela, one of the twelve main Samba Schools in Rio,
and performed in various Carnavales. He also concentrated on the
development of the music and cultural exchange between Brazil and America,
working with major Brazilian acts such as Novos Bahianos, Gilberto Gil,
Gal Costa, Ney Matto Grosso, and was involved with importing acts
including Dizzy Gillespie, the Jackson Five, Rick Wakeman and Miles Davis. |
