For those unaware, Alex McLaughlin is a bassist, composer, and the newly appointed Jazz Program Director at Idyllwild Arts Academy, an international boarding arts highschool just outside of Los Angeles.

He has been marked as representational of what a modern artist entails, in that he is equal parts artist, composer, and educator. Alexʼs voice on the double bass distills his upbringing in both the jazz lineage as well as his rooted study of the European classical canon.

The counterpoint of both J.S. Bach and Ron Carter equally inform his fundamentals, alongside artists considered home to the long twentieth century: Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Scriabin, Mingus and others -- in this regard, stylistic comparisons to bassist David Holland have been made.

Alexʼs debut effort, A Brand New State, is set for release on January 17th, 2025. This all original album features Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), Jeremy Siskind (piano), and Tina Raymond (drums).

Ulysses Owens Jr. produced the record, with mixing and mastering done by Dave Darlington. The album offers a series of musical vignettes, thematically reflecting on harnessing the power of change: taking advantage of the right moment or signal to progress, and using the hardship of life as a means to define our character in constructive directions.

1. Desert Chapel
2. Trail Head
3. Signals
4. The Solar Punks
5. Lily
6. El Polvo
7. Trial
8. Elevation

Exquisitely trained as a teacher and performer, Alexʼs new recording opens on the organically sewn Desert Chapel and the jaunty Trail Head, and then we get the lushly sculpted Signals and my own personal favorite track here, the fervently charged The Solar Punks.

Along next is the scintillating Lily, which is in turn followed by the rhythmically-grooved El Polvo, the album rounding out on the delicately ornate Trial, coming to an all-too-soon close on a rambunctiously playful Elevation.

www.alexmclaughlinbass.com