Alex Martin, New World Jazz

Born in Brittany, the Celtic region of western France, raised mostly in rural North Carolina, and a traveler through Latin America now living in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Alex seeks to create music that expresses his unique confluence of world cultures, a personal crossroads of the “exotic” and the familiar that he calls “New World jazz.” He is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Texas at Austin who now views his music as his primary medium of storytelling. He is about to release his fourth CD. Appalachian Fall: The Song-Poems of Michael Martin, ten original compositions that set to music the writing of his Appalachian poet father. Made possible by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, the album features Alex with nine of the DC area's finest folk, jazz, and Americana musicians, including vocalist Jess Eliot Myhre. Alex has released three previous albums: Nostalgia for Terra Incognita (2007), recorded in Washington, DC, with a Brazilian rhythm section and vocalist Lena Seikaly; the more intimate trio recording Second Life (2010); and Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys (2021), an exploration of musical traditions that have shaped him, from Brittany to Brazil and beyond. Alex has performed at venues around the DC area, from Blues Alley, Twins Jazz, Bethesda Blues & Jazz, and the National Gallery of Art’s Jazz in the Garden series.