Class Act: Sax Player Eric Alexander at Saratoga Arts Fest

The freedom and spontaneity in jazz are among the things tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander loves about the music he has immersed himself in since the 1980s. It's also the way the critically acclaimed, oft-recorded musician approaches a set list when he's leading a band.

Alexander leads a quartet on Saturday at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, part of Saratoga Arts Fest, a four-day celebration of the arts that runs today through Sunday, featuring music, dance, visual art, film, theater and literary art. It's become a fest tradition to bring in a world-class jazz act. Alexander fills the bill.

Since finishing second to Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander, 40, has had a robust career as a sideman in outstanding bands, as well as leading his own groups. He's recorded 22 albums since 1992, his last being 2007's "Temple of Olympic Zeus" on High Note Records. A new album, "Revival of the Fittest," comes out later this year on that label. He's also featured on trumpeter Jim Rotondi's new disk, "Blues for Brother Ray" (Posi-Tone, 2009). This month, he's recording as part of jazz guitar master Pat Martino's group.

On Saturday, he will have David Hazeltine on piano, Joe Farnsworth on drums and John Webber on bass, all established players on the New York City scene and people with whom Alexander has worked consistently in recent years.

What will people hear? "A lot of times I don't know what we'll play until a couple minutes before we go on," he said recently from San Francisco, where he was involved in a teaching and mentoring program before returning to his Bronx home. "That's one of the good things about playing with these people (his long-standing musical associates). You know what you're going to get from them. We may use one thing as a starting point and see where it goes, then change things."

Alexander, whose influences include Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon and George Coleman, makes no bones that he plays mainstream jazz, keeping it as fresh as possible.

"We play acoustic, straight-ahead modern jazz. People like to pigeonhole players and put them in a nice, little neat compartment. I don't think it's accurate because once you step into a style of playing, there's still so much room for individual expression, development and creativity. And being modern as well. Even though we're playing swinging music, that doesn't mean its museum music. We're stretching and looking for new ways to approach it all the time. Different harmonies we can use to accentuate what we're doing. Different rhythms. Different tunes we can play.

"We try to finds music from all sorts of different genres. It's not just rehashing tried and true standards. We look for material all over the place. We like to incorporate elements from the avant-garde. But I like the music to be challenging, but listenable."

Alexander started in Chicago playing with organ groups and ended up touring the big time with Charles Earland even before the Monk competition. Since then, he's toured or recorded with the likes of Martino, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Cobb and others.

"I enjoy doing leader gigs, absolutely. But there's also a great lesson every time you become a sideman in a group," he said. "You pick up tidbits here and there and throw them into your own musical mix. It makes you a stronger player."

RJ DeLuke is a local freelance writer and frequent contributor to the Times Union.

Eric Alexander

The jazz saxophonist is performing as part of the Saratoga Arts Fest

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Skidmore College, Bernhard Theater

Tickets: Single-event ticket $10 at venue or free with ARTSPASS

Contact: http://www.saratogaartsfest.org or call 682-2397

Note: The fest includes a jazz club at Tiznow restaurant at 84 Henry St. On Friday, Ria Curley Band plays at 9 p.m. and JDT: Jason Domnarski Trio, 10:30 p.m. On Saturday, Pete Weise Quartet plays at 9 p.m. and the Brian Patneaude Quartet is at 10:30 p.m.