Genre: Jazz, improvised music

Musiciens associés: George Garzone, Joe Lovano, Esperanza Spalding, Francois Moutin, Roy Assaf, Steve Davis, Louis Moutin, Pierre De Bethmann, Roberto Fonseca, Francisco Mela, Idan Raichel Project, Manu Codjia, Mauro Gargano, Leo Montana, Felipe Cabrera, Lukmil Perez, Javier Zalba, Lionel Loueke etc...

Influences: Afro-American folk music, Jazz icons, Western music icons, la vie.

Né à: Paris, France

Date de naissance: September 25, 1980

Résidence: New York City, USA

Disponibilité: Monde

Connaissances: Saxophones Soprano, alto, tenor, flute, piano, compositeur, arrangeur, band leader, sideman, enseignant etc...

Sponsors: Lebayle Mouthpieces, Rico Reeds, BG France (ligatures and accessories), Keilwerth Saxophones

Éducation:

• BTMM, Sèvres, France
• Médaille d'Or, Ecole Nationale De Musique, Evry, France
• Bachelor's Degree in Performance and Composition, Berklee College Of Music, Boston, USA

• Stop Requested, 2007, Aphrodite Records
• Roundtrip, 2009, Barking Cat Records

• Rhetoric, 2010, Akira Ishiguro
• La Miel, 2011, Chia's Dance Party, Chia Records
• Half A Year In Half An Hour, 2009, Holger Scheidt
• New Work, 2007, Dimitris Mikelis
• TBA, 2012, Ben Stapp

Alex Terrier est né à Paris en 1980. "Je n'ai pas grandi dans une famille de musiciens, mais mon voyage dans le monde de la musique a commencé le jour où je me suis assis au piano pour la première fois". Alex Terrier étudie le piano classique à partir de l'âge de 8 ans. Vers 12 ans il entend pour l'orchestre de Duke Ellington et le son du saxophoniste Johnny Hodges. Ce choc sera décisif pour l'enfant qui part alors sur un chemin qui le mènera jusqu'à New York.


From that day on, Alex Terrier has been dedicating his life to Jazz: "I used to get up in the morning and play the piano half asleep, really first thing in the morning before breakfast. I would listen to music all the time, read, study... that's all I did when I was a kid. That drove my mom crazy!" His first influences were Duke Ellington, Memphis Slim, Fats Domino, and Sydney Bechet, as these were the few LPs he found in his father's home office.

Alex Terrier received a Brevet de Technicien des Métiers de la Musique in Sèvres (it is hard to translate, but that could be Music Technologic Diploma) in 1999. He received a Médaille d'Or at the Ecole Nationale de Musique d'Evry before going to Berklee College of Music in 2004. He graduated from Berklee in 2007 with a Dual Degree in Performance and Jazz Composition.

Since then Alex Terrier has been living in New York City. He is an indie artist and has become what you could call a multiple threat: band leader, composer, arranger, teacher etc...

A born leader, he manages his own bands both in North America with the Alex Terrier New York Quartet and Europe with the Alex Terrier European Quintet. He is also increasingly present in South America. "My goal is simple: try to create some beauty and share it. The magical couple hours I share with people during a concert help me keeping on. If I can help even just a few persons to feel better with my music, my life won't be totally useless".

Alex Terrier has been interested in composition since an early age, studying both classical and jazz masters: "When I was a kid I would do everything I could to study and understand how it was possible to write music. How could I write melodies like Bach, Debussy, Mozart? How could I orchestrate like Ravel? This is an impossible task to me. I just try my best and hope that someone will be moved by my music". His two albums feature his compositions. "Stop Requested" was recorded while he was still studying at Berklee and legendary George Garzone supports his then student on 6 tracks. Joe Lovano talks about Alex Terrier as "a very gifted and expressive saxophonist [...] with a very strong developing conception as a composer and a soloist", and "Roundtrip", recorded in NYC in 2009, illustrates this quote perfectly.

Big band music has also been a huge part in Alex Terrier's love affair with jazz. He spent countless hours listening to and studying Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson etc... and modern ones such as Kenny Wheeler, Maria Schneider etc... Equally fascinated by European composers, Alex Terrier can write for jazz orchestra complex and intricated serial music for big band ("L'Heautontimoroumenos"), swing ("Like Someone In Love", "There Will Never Be Another You") or modern jazz ("Scrupules").

If you would like to discuss with Alex Terrier about some arranging work, contact him via the contact form here. Alex Terrier also offers transcription and copyist services.

As a teacher, Alex Terrier has been appreciated both by private students and in a class environment. The most commun comment is how passionate he is to share his knowledge and genuinely interested in students' progress. "I remember going to some classes or clinics when I was a kid and being so disapointed. You know, getting out of the class without knowing anything new or nothing to motivate me. Today that's the worst thing that could happen to me, someone telling me he/she didn't get anything from my class. Someone trusts me to learn something so I try my very best to share my knowledge in a relax and unintimidating way, but at the same time one has to understand that a serious commitment is necessary".

If interested in discussing with Alex Terrier about his teaching availability (one on one or group class, improvisation for all instruments, composition, arrangement, band mentoring etc...), you can contact him via the contact form here.

Alex Terrier is also having fun producing music for pictures. "I prefer music made by humans, no question about it. But I have to say it's a lot of fun to produce music with computers and the tools we have today are truly amazing. I like the challenge to write music specifically for a motion picture, it's a total different conception. It can be very inspiring".

In addition, Alex Terrier's passion for music has pushed him to learn also about the technologic part of his art and has become very knowledgable with saxophones and mouthpieces. In 2011 Alex Terrier teamed up with Fred Lebayle (Lebayle Mouthpieces) and together they designed a new mouthpiece model, the AT chamber. Click here to read Alex's blog about this.