Bio:
Described as “one of the greatest improvising violinists in America today” by virtuoso mandolinist/composer Mike Marshall, Alex Hargreaves is a violinist equally at home playing bluegrass, jazz and everything in between. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Alex has toured with Jerry Douglas, David Grisman, Bela Fleck, Danilo Perez and has performed with many others including Punch Brothers, Sierra Hull, Steve Martin and Kacey Musgraves, appearing on her Saturday Night Live debut. He was a member of the Grammy award-winning Turtle Island Quartet from 2016–2019, appearing on their 2018 release, Bird’s Eye View, and can often be heard playing in the house band on the public radio variety show, Live From Here with Chris Thile.
At age 17, Alex, along with bassist Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers), teamed with Mike Marshall to form The Big Trio, performing together extensively following the release of their self-titled album in 2009. From 2007–2014, he toured with Grammy-nominated singer/multi-instrumentalist, Sarah Jarosz, appearing on her three critically acclaimed albums, Song Up In Her Head, Follow Me Down and Build Me Up From Bones, as well as being featured on her Grammy-nominated instrumental, Mansinneedof. Alex released his debut album Prelude in 2010, featuring Mike Marshall, Grant Gordy and Paul Kowert, along with special guests Bela Fleck and Noam Pikelny. In reference to Alex’s playing on the album, David Grisman says “[Alex] plays with wit, authority and soulfulness belying his years. In my opinion, he's destined to be one of the fiddle giants of the 21st century.”
Alex was awarded the Jimmy Lyons full tuition scholarship to the Berklee College of Music at the 2010 Monterey Jazz Festival. While studying at Berklee, Alex completed the prestigious Global Jazz Institute, providing him with the opportunity to work one-on-one with artistic director Danilo Perez (Wayne Shorter Quartet), along with countless other jazz legends. During this time, Alex also toured with Perez and recorded on his album, Panama 500.
Currently on faculty at The New School, Alex is an experienced music educator, having taught at a variety of music camps and workshops including the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp, Swannanoa Gathering, Augusta Heritage, Christian Howes’ Creative Strings Workshop and the Mike Block String Camp. He also teaches privately in Brooklyn and via Skype. With a strong emphasis on ear training, Alex helps his students find their own way of learning and staying inspired, while still respecting the traditions and contributions of those who set the groundwork for the music we play today.
Lessons/Workshops:
Alex is an experienced music educator, having taught at a variety of music camps and workshops including the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp, Swannanoa Gathering, Christian Howes’ Creative Strings Workshop, Rockygrass Academy, and the Mike Block String Camp.
You can study privately with Alex in person or via Skype.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).