Born in Brittany, the Celtic province of France, raised mostly in rural North Carolina, and a traveler through Spain and Latin America now living in Washington, DC, Alex has always sought to create music that expresses his unique confluence of world cultures, what he calls “New World jazz.” A former novelist and poet with an MA from the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas at Austin, he seeks to make music that tells stories of the exotic and the familiar--the “exotic” always being familiar to some of us. He released Nostalgia for Terra Incognita with vocalist Lena Seikaly, bassist Leonardo Lucini, and drummer Alejandro Lucini in 2007. He has just completed a trio recording, Second Life, with bassist Ron Brendle and drummer Thomas Garner. Made possible in part by a grant from the Prince George's Arts Council, the CD includes 10 compositions by Alex as well as Wayne Shorter's "Ana Maria" and a jazz setting of the Breton traditional melody "Silvestrig," originally made famous by the harper Alan Stivell. The release date for Second Life is April 8, 2010 (release party at SOVA, see calendar).