Alejandro Espinosa
Alejandro Espinosa
Genres: drums, jazz, jazz fusion, chile, Hard Bop
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About Alejandro Espinosa
Alejandro Espinosa was born in 1951 in Concepción, Chile. His artistic beginnings date back to the years of the Modern Jazz Trio (1970-1976), a band headed by pianist Moncho Romero. The band appeared in a highly traditionalist Concepción scene as the most advanced of the jazz projects. In it, Espinosa played the drums with a distinctly refined west coast style. But it was not until 1972, upon listening to Elvin Jones live on stage, that his musical operations changed completely. Espinosa's beat was modernized into hard bop and became as aggressive as would eventually come to describe him as a drummer in the future. Having emigrated from Concepción, in 1977 he joined trumpeter Daniel Lencina's quartet, in which he would remain for more than 25 years. Once in Santiago, he then began a hyperactive double career, alternating his passion as a bop drummer in the clubs, his work as a session musician in the studios and his participation in Miguel Zabaleta's television orchestra. With this famous pop guitarist, he would begin his immersion on jazz rock and fusion through the band Koalión. In 1979, this experimental line of electric jazz continued with Tercera Generación, a group that connected him with one of his closest friends: guitarist Edgardo Riquelme. The direct consequence of these jams was the invitation he obtained in 1982 as a stellar Latin American drummer for the Berlin Jazz Festival. His history in jazz continued in 1987, when he was summoned by the Peruvian bassist Enrique Luna to join the Coda quintet, an all-stars that shortly after would lead him to a new historic group—this time electric and fusion-oriented—led by Riquelme on guitar: Alsur. While he was performing with this electric band and recording the albums Anhelos sureños (1989) and Fusión Americana (1991), in 1990 he began leading his own acoustic groups, mostly bop quartets (or quintets) in which participated many three-decade solo artists. From that year on, sax players Marcos Aldana, Ignacio González, Max Alarcón, Claudio Rubio, Melissa Aldana, Andrés Pérez and Cristián Gallardo played in these variable groups within the sidemen rotation; the pianists Moncho Romero, Marinho Boffa, Ariel Pino, Carla Romero, Gonzalo Palma and Felipe Riveros, and the double bassists Sammy Domínguez, Felipe Chacón, Nelson Arriagada, Rodrigo Galarce, René Sandoval and Marco Reyes. But throughout this era, Espinosa was not only a band leader. He also worked as a producer and musical director, instrumentally accompanying the singers Sergio Lillo, José Luis Arce, Jorge Caraccioli and Andrea Tessa (in her time as lady crooner swing), or convening and directing a modern orchestra that played a lot of soul jazz and pop jazz that he called Funk Jam Big Band (he had previously performed informally with the Víctor Durán Big Band). Espinosa recorded historic albums as a soloist, the first of the new decade: Alondra (1992), Like someone in love (1997) and later the compilation of his recordings with foreign artists visiting Chile between 1991 and 2001, Solo jazz, volume 1 (2004). They were the titles that would establish him as a prolific musician and, certainly, an example of a rare species. Because, in Chilean jazz, not only was there never too much discography, but for a drummer, obtaining it meant a double challenge, which Espinosa overcame. In the 2010s, Espinosa continued in his role as a connecting musician of generations and disseminator, through new editorial and radio projects. Another album of his with collaborative sessions was My funny Valentine (2019), a session recorded live at The Jazz Corner club with Óscar Pizarro (piano) and Marco Reyes (double bass), a trio that then accompanied the Canadian trumpeter Kevin Turcotte in Chile. It was also the album that preceded the new volumes of Solo Jazz, which Alejandro Espinosa would then edit from his vast records from the Classica radio era, his meetings and festivals, in addition to the cultural management that he carried out as a trend-setter. One of his last active casts was The Chilean Jazz Project, a quartet that led him to play at the famous Blue Note club in New York in 2015, along with a stellar ensemble that included Cristián Cuturrufo (trumpet), Christian Gálvez (bass) and Nelson Arriagada (double bass).
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