I did all my training as a classical pianist, but I spent half my teenage years learning songs and trying to figure them out on the piano from my Dad’s record collection. My heroes were the great songwriters of America: Gershwin, Kern, Berlin and their generation.
Once I was studying in New York, I started to hang out with jazz musicians and at jazz clubs more and more, until finally I realized that jazz was what I wanted to do. It was around this time that I wrote my first songs and started singing. Eventually, I came back to London with only the goal of being a jazz pianist in mind. I got the chance to play with a lot of great players and at a lot of great clubs like Ronnie Scott's and the 606, and when the pandemic hit, I finally had a break to think about singing and songwriting again.
The songs that came out have been a kind of catalogue of my romantic misadventures over the years, and, together with the best rhythm section I know: Asaph Tal on bass, and Joe Dessauer, I’m pleased to present these songs under the title ALEX BRYSON IN LOVE. I hope they entertain, amuse, and move you!
A note from Alex Bryson
Joe Dessauer
Drummer
I first met Joe where I met everyone after I moved back to London from New York: at Ronnie’s. He was already an excellent up and coming drummer then, and in the 10 years since he has established himself as one of the most in demand players on the scene, working with Stella Cole, Howard Alden, Jon Gordon, Pete Horsfall and many others.
Alex Bryson
Pianist, singer, songwriterI’ve been a piano player based in London for the last 10 years after studying and working in New York. I’ve worked with Ralph Moore, Grant Stewart, Mark Kavuma, Emma Smith, and accompany and write arrangements for Lucy-Anne Daniels, Georgia Cécile and Pete Horsfall in the vocal group Flightcall. I write songs for myself to sing primarily, though Flight Call have performed a composition of mine with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Asaph Tal
Bass playerMy first gigs with Asaph Tal were in Bedford where he was living, and running a jazz venue. Since moving to London two years ago he’s become a huge asset to the scene here, and you can also hear him in the Bim Williams Trio and Sam Davies Trio, with whom he has a recorded a new album “Live at the Mildmay”. He has also worked with Xhosa Cole, Emma Smith, Tony Kofi, Steve Fishwick, and Jo Harrop among many others.