Alex Merritt - Jazz Saxophone (Tenor/Soprano) and Clarinet - London, Birmingham and Cambridge, UK

Alex Merritt Biography - Jazz for Weddings, (Corporate) Functions and Parties

Alex is a freelance saxophonist and teacher based in North London. He plays Tenor, Soprano sax and clarinet and is an active composer.

Alex is currently leading a quartet featuring Kit Downes (BBC Jazz rising star 2008) on piano, James Maddren (also touring with Gwilym Simcock) on drums and Calum Gourlay on bass. This band plays all of Alex's original music and has recently played at The Rainbow and The Oxford amongst other prominent live music venues around the UK.

Drawing on classical composers and the contemporary European scene as much as the modern jazz greats, he cites influences as diverse as Messiaen, Debussy and Benoit Delbecq as well as Warne Marsh, Jimmy Giuffre and Sonny Rollins.

Alex also runs another band featuring US drum legend Jeff Williams (Joe Lovano, Stan Getz, and Bill Evans) Jonny Brierley (Outhouse) on bass and John Turville on Piano who recently went down a storm at The Yardbird in Birmingham.

Numerous other jazz projects keep Alex busy including the Jim Bashford trio with Mark Hodgson and his work with The Household Collective, an exciting new collaborative project between young composers from Birmingham which is set to flourish over the coming years and yield some very exciting, fresh music.

He is a member of the Cobweb Collective and has broadcast with the BBC Big Band on Radio 2, performed at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival as well as numerous other gigs and events around the UK.