Eric Alexander Quartet feat. Brad Mehldau & Quintet feat. Nicholas Payton

*PLEASE NOTE: All 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM shows at Smoke are Dinner Shows $25.00 / $50.00 / $60.00 / $65.00 – Wed, Thu & Sat $25.00 / $40.00 / $50.00 / $55.00 – Fri & Sun Wed – Thu Eric Alexander – tenor saxophone Brad Mehldau – piano Alexander Claffy – bass Carl Allen – drums Fri – Sun Eric Alexander – tenor saxophone Nicholas Payton – trumpet David Kikoski – piano Alexander Claffy – bass Carl Allen – drums “One of the giants of the tenor sax.” – All Music Guide Saxophonist Eric Alexander spends the week leading not one, but two extraordinary groups: A quartet on Wednesday and Thursday featuring the great pianist Brad Mehldau with bassist Alexander Claffy and drummer Carl Allen; and a quintet on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with the acclaimed trumpeter Nicholas Payton, pianist David Kikoski, as well as Claffy and Allen. Since he emerged in the early ’90s, Alexander has been “one of the finest bebop saxophonists in the world,” according to National Public Radio, producing an impressive discography, often collaborating with his one-time teacher, the late great Harold Mabern. In addition to leading his own groups, Alexander has worked notably with Pat Martino, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, George Coleman, Freddie Cole, and with the cooperative sextet, One for All. All About Jazz calls him “one of the more emotive and resourceful improvisers on the scene,” or as Downbeat put it, “one of the most blazingly bad-assed saxophonists of his generation.”