“One of the marvelous things about being a musician is that you can play universal music and make new friends.”
Fotos para prensa
Juan Alzate is considred one of the most important jazz saxophone players and educator in Mexico and in Latin-America countries, he was teaching at Conservatorio de Las Rosas, Michoacan State University and Escuela DIM at Mexico City, now he is teaching at Queretaro State University at Fine Arts School and give masterclasses and concerts around Mexico and other Latin-American countries. He studied at Escuela Popular de Bellas Artes, Conservatorio de Las Rosas and Berklee College in Boston where his teachers included Jim Odgren, Bill Pierce, Hal Crook, and studied privately with Jerry Bergonzi. Juan also attended Dave Liebman's course at East Stroudsburg University. Juan has shared the music set with Mark Levine, Antonio Sánchez, John Benítez, Ignacio Berroa, Bruce Forman, Greg Osby, Muhal Richard Abrams, Hugh Fraser, Paquito D' Rivera, Luis Perdomo, Bobby Watson, Helen Sung, Boris Kozlov, Rodney Green and many others. Juan has recorded ten CDs: El eco en la piel; Bajo el signo del jazz, with Mark Levine; Autorretratos; Hablar en Jazz, Jugadores de Jazz, Minnewanka, recorded at Canada's Banff Centre of Arts, Premonición, El jazz y la furia, Variaciones and En el Conservatorio... with the great Mark Levine.
Artist director of the Jazztival, one of the most important jazz festivals in Mexico and Latin America, since 2003 until now.
Juan has soloed with different ensambles at Argentina, Honduras, Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, China, Taiwan, USA and Canada, from big band, symphonic orchestras, jazz, salsa to contemporary academic music. Alzate's philosophy is: “One of the marvelous things about being a musician is that you can play universal music and make new friends.”
Several press reviews:
"...the musical talents of the participants of this group is absolutely fantastic and one can see the technical capacity of each individual through the group performance. From the jazz and avant-garde point of view, Autorretratos is truly a masterpiece" Vitaly Menshikov, Uzbekistan's Rock Progressor Review.
"...this recording (Autorretratos), reflects all the strains of his post- Coltrane aesthetic." David Dupont from Cadence Magazine
"...Alzate is one of the best and most important saxphone players in the jazz mexican scene.." Antonio Malacara, Mexico City's newspaper La Jornada.
