The professor of music had an article published in the professional trumpet journal.
Professor of Music Thomas Erdmann had a 6,000-word article published in the June 2016 issue of the International Trumpet Guild Journal.
The article, Gabriel Alegria: Forging New Paths In Afro-Peruvian Jazz, is about the trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer, arranger and bandleader Gabriel Alegria’s rise to trumpet prominence, along with a detailed discussion of the need to eliminate the term, “Latin Jazz.” Born in Lima, Peru in 1970, his family background was grounded in the arts. Gabriel’s grandfather, Ciro, was not only Peru’s most famous novelist, but also a journalist, politician and activist. Gabriel’s father, Alonso, is the nation’s most acclaimed playwright. Studying trumpet and classical music, it was studying at the National Conservatory in Lima with British pianist and avant-garde performer Martin Joseph that expanded Alegria’s musical base beyond classical.
Moving to Ohio in order to attend Kenyon College, the young artist furthered his studies by earning a master’s degree in jazz at City College of New York where his mentor was Ron Carter. There he met the quickly developing faction of artists from all over the world that were beginning to carve a foothold in the New York music scene like John Benitez and Cliff Korman. Even though Alegria moved back to Lima and won a position in the city’s Philharmonic Orchestra, where he stayed for five years, the call of jazz was too strong. He eventually moved to California to earn a doctorate in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California. It was there where he put together his first Afro-Peruvian Jazz Sextet, combining traditional jazz concepts with the rhythms, instrumentation and spirit of Afro-Peruvian music.
In 2008 Bobby Shew produced Alegria’s debut CD, Nuevo Mundo. It’s not often great jazz musicians will agree to assist and work as sidemen on a young musician’s first record, but so strong and respected were Alegria’s abilities Russell Ferrante, Lisa Harriton, Tierney Sutton and Bill Watrous all agreed to perform with the developing phenom. In 2010, now living and working in New York’s thriving music community, Alegria released Pucusana, which was the first record featuring his still continuing to this day Afro-Peruvian Sextet. This new form of jazz quickly took off not only in New York and here in the United States, but also in Peru through their recordings and frequent tours.
Now a Professor of Jazz Studies at New York University, when he’s not spending half of the year performing with his band in Peru and throughout the United States, Alegria has spread his musical integrations to his students through various bands he coaches and in his teaching which emphasizes not only Peruvian musical concepts but also a strongly entrenched Western jazz harmonic idiom.