Over five decades of performances and more than 70 CDs later, award-winning Jamaican-born jazz maestro, Monty Alexander, is being bestowed with a honorary doctorate degree from the University of West Indies, (UWI).
Alexander, born Montgomery Bernard Alexander in Kingston, Jamaica, will be presented with an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the UWI Mona Campus this November.
The degree was approved by the University’s Council and will be conferred at the 2018 graduation ceremonies and presented by Chancellor Robert Bermudez.
The man, who singer extraordinaire, Tony Bennett, has declared put on one of the “best jazz shows” he has ever seen, will be one of four stellar Caribbean-born musicians who will be presented with honorary doctorates by UWI.
Three other recipients of doctorates
They include Bajan star Rihanna; fellow Jamaican artist Grace Jones, and Winston A. Bailey, aka the Mighty Shadow, from Trinidad and Tobago.
In commenting on the incredible recognition and prestigious honor, Alexander said humbly: “I have a sense of great privilege and gratitude.”
Upper echelon master of the piano
Alexander began his musical career at age four by playing Christmas carols by ear. By age 5, he was entertaining neighbors and relatives and at age 6, he was taking his first piano lessons.
Today, Alexander is most widely known as an upper echelon master of the swinging piano trio function, as he has demonstrated with several top-shelf groups, including iconic units with bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton, and with the legendary bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis.
He also performs frequently with Harlem-Kingston Express, a double trio in which he coalesces his love for hard-swinging jazz with musical flavors that reflect his Jamaican heritage, shifting between an acoustic trio and master Jamaican practitioners of electric bass and drums. He debuted the project at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2009 and documented it both on the Grammy-nominated 2011 CD, Harlem-Kingston Express: LIVE, and its 2014 Soultrain Award nominated follow-up, Harlem Kingston Express 2: The River Rolls On (Motéma).
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