The soulful New York City sound of pianist Alexis Marcelo is fed from fertile musical sources. The 39-year-old with Afro-Latino background grew up in New York City and attended the Harlem School of the Arts, where he worked for saxophonist J. D. Parran (AACM) studied. At the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, he learned composition from saxophonist Yusef Lateef. Lateef, a spiritual universal artist and pioneer of the „World Music Sound “ was a first mentor and important influence for Alexis Marcelo. He took the young pianist to the recording studio. Since then, the pianist's radius has increased continuously. Marcelo deals intensively with the jazz tradition, makes a name for himself as an interpreter of Thelonious Monk and plays with Adam Rudolph's band Moving Picture at European festivals. On his CD Glare of the Tiger he can be heard alongside jazz greats such as the cornetist Graham Haynes or the drummer Hamid Drake. The former newcomer with ragtime-like grooves, stride rhythms, energetic explosive improvisations and exuberant enthusiasm for playing, with openness to jazz tradition and experiments is a sought-after pianist in the New York scene today. He also regularly tours in a duo with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis.
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