Alex Asher is a Grammy-award winning trombonist, producer and bandleader from Brooklyn, NY. He comes from a generation of musicians who grew up playing jazz and in recent years have embraced a sound with no stylistic or regional boundaries. Alex is fascinated by analog and digital music production techniques and retro pop music as well as a wide variety of international music styles. Alex synthesizes these diverse influences with a jazz ethos and a producer’s touch to create an aesthetic that Cassette Gods calls “A full-on cluster bomb of pop stylings made for the visionary in all of us.”
As a U.S. Department of State-sponsored OneBeat Fellow in 2014 and 2019, Alex collaborated and toured with top international musicians throughout the USA and Colombia, South America. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Montalvo Center for the Arts in Saratoga, California. Traveling on his own, Alex has learned from traditional musicians in rural towns in Colombia, Ireland and in the Brittany region of France as well as from brass bands on the streets of Vranje, Serbia and New Orleans, LA.
Alex is known as a bandleader and organizer of several projects central to the Brooklyn music community. He is the leader of future soul band People’s Champs, which features vocalist Starr Busby, and released its sophomore album, “Show Up” in late 2023. Wax Poetics says: “People’s Champs creatively delivers a unique blend of powerful lyrics and danceable rhythms that relate to people from all walks of life.”
An organizer of Los Cumpleaños, he also performs with this genre-defying electronic cumbia ensemble featuring musicians from Colombia, Argentina and the USA. The Deli Magazine says Los Cumpleaños is “Thoroughly novel, both contemporary and classic – more importantly, impossible not to dance to.” Con Safos Magazine says, “Imagine Carlos Santana if he had started playing music in 3050, that’s Los Cumpleaños.”
His newest project, Slow Motion, emerged during the pandemic when Alex was offered a weekly residency at Brooklyn music hotspot Wild Birds. “Like a DJ, I went deep into my record collection and curated a set of songs for everyone living in New York City in 2020,” recalls Alex. “This was a set of music to bring joy back into people’s lives.” Slow Motion recently recorded a full-length record of originals based on this directive. The album combines trombone with effects, lush synthesizers and thick tropical rhythms with R&B and indie pop to reimagine the sound of jazz.
People’s Champs, Los Cumpleaños and Slow Motion have performed at venues and events including NYC Winter Jazz Fest, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, Lincoln Center, The MoMA, The Guggenheim Museum, Mass MoCA, Public Records, Pioneer Works and National Sawdust.
Outside of bandleading, Alex has performed and recorded with groups in almost every style of music, including luminary pop artist Beyoncé, Boy George & Culture Club (Pop), Slavic Soul Party! (Jazz/Balkan), Porfi Baloa & Sus Adolescentes (Salsa), Rubblebucket (Indie Pop), Mostly Other People Do the Killing (Avant-Jazz), John Brown’s Body (Reggae), Jean Grae (Hip Hop) and many others. He has performed at Wembley Arena (London, UK), NYC SummerStage, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and toured throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and South America.
From 2010-2012, Alex and his horn section, The Superpower Horns, co-wrote and recorded all horn arrangements for Beyoncé’s album “4”. The song “Love on Top,” featuring the Superpower Horns, won “Best Traditional R&B Performance” at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
Alex has a B.M. in Jazz from Oberlin Conservatory, an M.M. from New England Conservatory in Jazz and an M.F.A. in Sonic Arts (Music Production/Composition) from Brooklyn College. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at CUNY’s LaGuardia Community College.