Encouraged by his parents, Alex Han began playing alto saxophone at the very young age of 8.
By age 11, he performed in front of legendary jazz man, Paquito D’ Rivera, and formed a lifelong friendship.
A year later, he was performing at major jazz festivals all over the world. At age 17, he won the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition for Saxophone, and won a 2006 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award.
He was awarded the Presidential Scholarship to Berklee School of Music, where he made his first connection with Marcus Miller, of which, he has been officially touring with since August 2009.
Alex already has a number of Grammy nominations, and his debut CD, Spirit, is available everywhere records are sold and streamed.
His 2nd album will be coming out in 2019 – follow him at the links below to know when his Kickstarter campaign will begin.
In this episode, we talked about:
- His incredible background as a prodigy on saxophone
- How his friendship with Paquito D’Rivera came about
- His father’s connection with David Sanborn
- How he eventually became an official part of Grammy Winner Marcus Miller’s band
- A practical perspective of the Music business today
- Why it’s harder to book tours now
- His view of the type of music that will always be successful
- and much more…
(Please note, Alex was in Berlin on tour, so there were some minor audio glitches, but not enough to take away from this amazing interview.)
“Music shouldn’t be forced. If it’s forced, it’s not meant to be out there…”
Links:
Resources mentioned:
Joe Sax Woodwinds – in Walton NY now
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 049: Julius Tolentino
Episode 005: Roxy Coss
Episode 023: Sharel Cassity
Episode 045: David Halliday
Enjoy all the podcasts. Particularly enjoy when I hear references to places I know comin up in NY like Weiner music which I knew back to Jackson hts. Interesting guests & products. Good informative listening. Zelde 11756, 10019, 90048, 33140