Meet Matthew Alec | Saxophonist and Record Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matthew Alec and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew, what’s your definition for success?
Wow, yeah. Excellent question. It’s funny that you should ask. I’ve been thinking about what it means to be successful quite a bit lately.

In general, I think the vast majority of people in the U.S. think of success in monetary terms only. If you make money, you are therefore successful. If you make a lot of money, then you are very successful. As far as the creative world is concerned, I don’t know that looking at financial success is the best gauge of what makes an artist truly successful. To me, if you create the art that you envision and are proud of and hopefully build some notoriety in the public as a result of that then you are successful.

Obviously making money during the process would be ideal and certainly beneficial as well, but I don’t personally believe that’s what makes you successful in the creative arts. In the end, “success” is frame of mind and if you believe you are successful in whatever you do, then you are successful.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a musician and a saxophonist, my art is very eclectic. I’m speaking both in terms of the music that I perform and record as well as my saxophone playing and improvising. It’s eclectic enough that it may be one of my most definitive traits. Which, I suppose is a contradiction in terms (laughs), because being eclectic is somewhat the oppose of having true definition.

That said, my first record “Cleveland Time” was very much a jazz-funk record. Some of the tracks even fall into the “smooth jazz” category, which I don’t really agree with as I can’t say that I’m particularly fond of the smooth jazz genre personally, but admittedly a few of the tracks on that album fit within that genre’s programming for better or worse. It also featured a couple of straight-ahead jazz tunes. One of which was “Blues for McCoy,” which had a lot to do with the album’s overall success and I think it’s one of the defining moments on the release. So, that first studio album was in and of itself eclectic and I’m just getting started!

The second release that came out last year entitled “Live at the Bop Stop!” was again, something completely different. Tom “Bones” Malone from the Blues Brothers band came and performed with my group here in Cleveland and the material that I picked for it was chosen explicitly based on Tom’s career. It was a ton of fun, but had he not been involved I doubt much of the material on it would ever have been released. So, yet again, that release was a different color of music altogether touching the “Muscle Shoals soul” sound with a big 10-piece band.

My third release, “Soul Jazz Classics: Live in 2018” was just released a few days ago. As the name implies, it was recorded live in 2018 at Akron’s Rialto Theatre. The sound from that performance was recorded and mixed by Nate Vaill (who’s the co-owner of the Rialto) at the time with the explicit purpose of using it for some live music videos for promotional purposes. Those videos have been out on YouTube since 2019, but I had never officially released the audio for them. With the 2nd studio album in the planning stages currently, I was looking for another release to put out to maintain audience interest, so I gave the tracks another listen earlier this year and decided to release them. It’s a fun record and it does a good job of capturing my group’s earlier sound and style. We were just getting started as a band and I was just getting started as a “solo” artist so to speak, so the material that we played at the time was indicative of that. I think it’s a great snapshot in time of my playing as a saxophonist a few years ago. That said, it’s not where I am currently and I’m eager to pour my heart and soul into this next studio album.

The next studio record is going to be another Soul Electric release that fits within the general “jazz fusion” category. Much if of it has been written already, I’ve just a few things to finish up before we hit the studio and lay it down. I’m hoping to have it out in 2024, but we’ll see. Either way, I drew up the concept for this album almost immediately after the “Cleveland Time” album came out. Once it’s out, after that I’ve plans to stray away from the funk-fusion sound and make my first full straight-ahead album which will touch the hard bop, third-stream, and possibly even pop music genres. Much of that future release is already written as well. I think in the next five years or so audiences will start to see the full scope of what I’m trying to do both with my music and playing as well as my label, Cleveland Time Records.

As far as getting to where I am today, my music career has had two separate and defining periods as I see it. The first was with the original group Winslow through college and a few years after college. We were all music student classmates at Kent State University and we formed the group to make our own collage of soul and funk-based pop music. We all wanted to make it big and whatnot. We came close, but ultimately came up short to getting a big record deal, which was still a worthwhile thing to land 12 years ago or so. The second has been these past few years that I’ve spent forming my own solo career with my fusion band Matthew Alec and The Soul Electric and my small jazz production company/record label Cleveland Time Records. With that, I wrote out a “10 year plan” back in 2018 to grow my career as an artist and I’ve quite literally been following it almost step by step these past five years. For the most part, it’s been working well. Hopefully, I can see it all to fruition. We shall see.

With that general synopsis, I think maybe it comes across as “easy,” but truthfully it’s been anything but. It’s been an arduous, uphill climb since I started in professional music sometime in my early ’20s. Not to try to sound too negative, but often times it seems as if the entire industry is working against you as an artist much, if not most of the time. Literally the only way that I’ve overcome it has been through hard work and extreme patience. I don’t mean patience on a day to day basis, I’m referring to patience on a year to year and decade to decade basis. You have to be committed to your end goal no matter what and do not waver from it. This is a tough, tough business. The first single from my “Jazz Meets Poetry” series entitled “Art Triumphed Through Attrition” came out last year and it’s a poetic and musical expression all about this difficulty. If you want to succeed in any art form you have to keep going no matter what happens.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Maybe it goes without saying since I named my label “Cleveland Time Records”, but I’d like to start by saying how much I love the city of Cleveland. I also really like much of the city of Akron as well which is where my wife and I just bought a home. I often joke about the fact that Akron is really just a suburb of Cleveland. Given it’s only about a 40 minute drive south, in a way, it is. I think when visitors come to the Northeast Ohio area, they believe too much of the “mistake by the lake” rhetoric and think the city is something less than it truly is. If you’re a visitor and you come to Cleveland expecting New York City or Chicago, well, then you are likely going to be disappointed. The downtown area is nowhere near as impressive or populated as either. That said, if you come to the city and experience it for what it is I think you will find it to be vibrant city full of great people, art, music, and there’re literally thousands of great restaurants to eat at.

To answer the question, I’ll tell you exactly where I took music legend Tom “Bones” Malone when he came to play with my group at the Bop Stop last year on our day off. We spent the afternoon at The Cleveland Museum of Art, which is an absolutely beautiful museum that rank’s amongst the finest art museums in the world located on the city’s east side. To top it off, it’s a totally free museum with no general admission fee. It’s such a large complex there that it may take you two full days to get through it all and spend time admiring each piece. After that, we enjoyed dinner and wine up the street in Cleveland’s Little Italy at a restaurant called Maxi’s Bistro. Cleveland has a great Little Italy district which has many fine restaurants. Maxi’s is a personal favorite of mine. Tom was pleased.

Of course, there’re a lot of places downtown, too, and just about everything downtown is within walking distance from a hotel. Travelers have an open mind and come visit the city for a weekend! You’ll enjoy yourself.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to recognize a fellow saxophonist, good friend, and former teacher of mine, Greg Banaszak.

Greg is a fabulous saxophonist that has had an incredible career as both a professional player and an educator in both the jazz and classical idioms. He has played all over the world as a guest soloist with major international orchestras and has appeared at international jazz festivals. He currently sits on faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and is a voting member of the Grammys.

My first experience with Greg was as my saxophone professor during my undergraduate years at Kent State University. I spent five years learning from him there but then lost touch with him for a few years after graduation. I’ve spent the last few years working as pro saxophonist and building my resume in both regional and international music settings and somewhere during that process I was lucky enough to reconnect with him as a result.

Since we’ve reconnected he has helped me tremendously. He’s helped me to secure a couple of my newer sponsors, he’s connected me with some important industry contacts, and he has performed with me now on a few occasions giving my group a whole new sound and dimension. He’s also been a great person to talk to on a personal and business level. I’m not sure I can truly convey in words how great it’s been to have him “in my court” in recent history so to speak.

Website: www.matthewalec.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/matthewalecmusic

Twitter: www.twitter.com/matthewalecjazz

Facebook: www.facebook.com/matthewalecmusic

Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/matthewalec

Other: www.facebook.com/thesoulelectric www.clevelandtime.org

Image Credits
Chris Kurka and Jared Lees