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Profile No. 554

Monty Alexander

Piano, melodica, composition — Jamaican — B: June 6, 1944, Kingston, Jamaica
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Monty Alexander

Monty Alexander at the piano with the Monty Alexander Trio at the INNtöne Jazzfestival, Diersbach, Austria, July 24, 2022 CC BY-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; attribution: Wikimedia Commons user Schorle, own work). License read off the file page wikitext ({{CC-BY-SA 4.0}}), not off a search snippet. — Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monty_Alexander_(2022).jpg (a crop by the same photographer from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monty_Alexander_Trio_INNt%C3%B6ne_03.jpg)

Montgomery Bernard Alexander was born in Kingston on June 6, 1944, into a household that owned a piano before it owned a piano teacher. He found the instrument at four, worked out boogie-woogie patterns by ear, and started formal classical lessons at six. He attended DeCarteret College in Mandeville and then Jamaica College, and by fourteen he was playing Kingston's clubs and hotels. Two performances at the Carib Theatre marked him permanently: Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole, both of whom he later paid album-length tribute to. He also walked straight into the studio system that was inventing Jamaican popular music. He deputised on recording dates for Clue J & His Blues Blasters, standing in for the pianist Aubrey Adams, whom he has called his hero, and he worked as a session player for Ken Khouri at Federal, Duke Reid at Treasure Isle, and Clement "Coxsone" Dodd at Studio One, alongside trombonist Don Drummond, tenor saxophonist Roland Alphonso, and a young guitarist named Ernest Ranglin. He led his own dance band, Monty and the Cyclones, which cut a run of Jamaican singles between roughly 1958 and 1962, among them "Stak Is Back," "Dog It," and, on Island in 1962, "Organisation," credited on the label to "Monte Alexander."

The family moved to Miami in 1961, and Alexander went looking for work the day he arrived: the Airliner Motel, the Bonfire Restaurant, a bowling alley in Opa-locka, a stint with bandleader Art Mooney. In early 1962 he was playing Le Bi', a Miami Beach club, when Frank Sinatra came in with his friend Ermenigildo "Jilly" Rizzo. A second chance meeting later that year at the Thunderbird in Reno turned into a job offer, and Alexander moved to New York to hold the piano chair at Jilly's, Rizzo's bar at 256 West 52nd Street and Sinatra's Manhattan headquarters. Sources put the length of that residency differently: Alexander's own site describes a four-year run from 1962 to 1966, while Encyclopedia.com gives 1963 to 1965. Either way it was the making of him, because the room's regulars were Miles Davis, Count Basie, Milt Jackson and Roy Haynes, and the bassists and drummers who rotated through his trio included Ron Carter, Bob Cranshaw, George Tucker, Tony Williams and Haynes himself. He also played the Playboy Club, where he met Quincy Jones, and worked Minton's Playhouse in Harlem from 1966 to 1968. Les McCann heard him and brought him to Pacific Jazz, which released his debut, Alexander the Great, recorded at an after-hours concert at the Esquire Theater in Los Angeles and issued in 1965 under the billing "Les McCann Introduces Alexander the Great." Spunky followed the same year, Zing! was cut for RCA Victor in December 1967 with Bob Cranshaw and Al Foster on one trio and Victor Gaskin and Roy McCurdy on another, and This Is Monty Alexander put him in front of a Johnny Pate orchestra for Verve in 1969.

Oscar Peterson, whose four-square swing and two-handed density are the clearest single influence on Alexander's playing, recommended him to Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, the owner of the German label MPS. The result was the most productive stretch of Alexander's recording life. Here Comes the Sun, taped in New York on his twenty-seventh birthday, June 6, 1971, opened a run of roughly a dozen MPS albums, and the label let him follow his instincts in two directions at once. One was pure trio jazz: We've Only Just Begun, Perception! (recorded June 18, 1973), and Montreux Alexander, cut live at the Montreux Jazz Festival on June 10, 1976 with John Clayton on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums, still the record most often named when musicians talk about him. The other was Jamaica. In 1974 he went back to Kingston and made Rass! with Ernest Ranglin on lead guitar, Clifton "Jackie" Jackson on electric bass and Sparrow Martin on drums, recorded under Baldhard Falk's supervision and given, as the sleeve puts it, a reggae treatment throughout. That same October, at Brunner-Schwer's studio in Villingen, he cut Love and Sunshine with Ranglin, Eberhard Weber and Kenny Clare, and on October 25 the same quartet recorded Ranglin's own Ranglypso. Two more Villingen dates in September 1977 produced Cobilimbo (September 8 and 9, with Vincent Taylor on hand-built double tenor steel pans) and Estade (September 14 to 16), and a December 1980 session gave him a duo album with Ranglin alone.

Norman Granz signed him to Pablo, and Carl Jefferson to Concord, and between the two labels Alexander spent the late 1970s and 1980s as one of the most reliably swinging trio pianists in the music. Soul Fusion, cut at Group IV in Los Angeles on June 1 and 2, 1977, paired him with Milt Jackson and his own trio of Clayton and Hamilton; Jamento (June 1978) and In Tokyo (January 22, 1979) followed. At Concord he built two long-running partnerships. With Ray Brown, who had first hired him for the Milt Jackson Quintet dates at Shelly's Manne-Hole in Hollywood on August 1 and 2, 1969, he made Facets (August 1979) and then a drummerless trio with guitarist Herb Ellis that produced Trio (August 1980), Triple Treat (Osaka, March 1982), Overseas Special, Triple Treat II and Triple Treat III. With Trinidadian steel-pan player Othello Molineaux he built Ivory & Steel, a band that put pans inside a jazz rhythm section on the 1980 Concord Picante album of that name and again on Jamboree (1988) and To the Ends of the Earth (1996). The same decade brought The Duke Ellington Song Book, a duo with Clayton recorded March 29, 1983, the Milan trio date Threesome with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Grady Tate (November 30 and December 2, 1985), and three separate live albums drawn from one October 1985 week at Valentyne's in Orlando, released years apart as Friday Night (1987), Saturday Night and Sunday Night.

The Jamaican strand, present since Rass!, became the centre of his work from the 1990s on. Caribbean Circle (Chesky, recorded June 3 and 4, 1992) is the pivot: a large-band record with Slide Hampton on trombone, Frank Foster on tenor, Jon Faddis on trumpet, Marjorie Whylie on Jamaican percussion and Othello Molineaux on pans, on which mento, ska and hard bop share a chart. In 1994 he guested on piano and melodica on the Skatalites' Hi-Bop Ska, and in 1996 he produced and played on Ernest Ranglin's Below the Bassline, one of the two launch titles for Island's Jamaica Jazz imprint. His own launch title was Yard Movement, three tracks cut live at Montreux on July 16, 1995 and five more at Studios Aquarius in Geneva two days later, with Ranglin on lead guitar and a Jamaican rhythm section. He then named his touring band after it. Telarc gave him a decade to keep going: Stir It Up and Concrete Jungle, two albums of Bob Marley material, the second cut at Tuff Gong with the Rod Dennis Mento Band, Dean Fraser and Delfeayo Marsalis; Monty Meets Sly and Robbie (recorded August and December 1999) with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare; the Pittsburgh concert Goin' Yard; My America; and Rocksteady, made with Ranglin at Avatar in New York from June 26 to 29, 2003. He kept the straight-ahead work going in parallel, most notably Echoes of Jilly's (December 1996), a trio program of songs Sinatra had popularised, with John Patitucci on bass and Troy Davis on drums.

In 2011 Motéma released Harlem-Kingston Express Live!: At Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, NYC, the live document of the band that finally stopped choosing between the two halves of his life and put them both on the same stage: an American jazz trio at one end, a Jamaican reggae section at the other, Alexander switching between them at the piano and the melodica. Israeli guitarist Yotam Silberstein plays on it, and on the 2014 sequel Harlem-Kingston Express Vol. 2: The River Rolls On, which drew on material recorded between 1988 and 2013 and brought in George Benson, Joe Sample and Ramsey Lewis as guests. The first volume is the only Grammy nomination on Alexander's record, in the Best Reggae Album category at the 54th ceremony in 2012, and it won Best Live Performance Album at the 2012 Independent Music Awards. He followed it with Wareika Hill: Rasta-Monk Vibrations (2019), which sets Thelonious Monk's tunes against Rastafarian Nyabinghi drumming with John Scofield and Joe Lovano guesting, and with three records that Wikipedia's discography still omits entirely: Love You Madly: Live at Bubba's (Resonance, 2020), a 1982 Fort Lauderdale tape unearthed almost forty years later; Love Notes (2022), which includes a "The Nearness of You" with the late Roy Hargrove; and D-Day (PeeWee!, 2024), a program of wartime standards and originals built around the coincidence of his birthday and the Normandy landings. Jamaica has honoured him steadily: Commander in the Order of Distinction and the Institute of Jamaica's Musgrave Medal in 2000, an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies in 2018, and appointment to the Order of Jamaica, announced in the 2022 national honours, for his contribution to Jamaican music. He was married to guitarist Emily Remler from 1981 until their divorce in the mid-1980s, and is married to the Italian jazz singer Caterina Zapponi. At eighty-two he is still touring, with a new album, A Jamarican in Paris, scheduled for October 2, 2026.

Alexander plays with the weight and the momentum of the Oscar Peterson school, dense two-handed voicings, long streams of even eighth notes, a habit of building a chorus toward a climax rather than letting it dissolve, and he says so freely: Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal and Nat King Cole are the names he gives. What separates him from every other pianist working that vein is that he grew up inside a second music and never treated it as a costume. The mento, ska and rocksteady rhythms he played on Kingston sessions as a teenager sit underneath his jazz playing as a rhythmic instinct rather than an effect: an offbeat displacement in the left hand, a habit of turning a standard into a one-drop halfway through a chorus, a fondness for the melodica, an instrument nobody else in mainstream jazz piano bothers with and which he uses exactly the way a Jamaican keyboard player would. He also has an unabashed entertainer's streak, learned in a Sinatra bar rather than a conservatory, which some critics have held against him and which audiences have not. Hal Leonard's The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time ranks him fifth. His press materials count "more than 75 recordings" as leader; encyclopedia entries and festival programmes more often say "over 40," and the true figure depends entirely on whether reissues, compilations and co-billed dates are counted, so both numbers circulate.

Key Recordings
Full Discography

Monty Alexander: Full Discography

Both tables below are curated selections, not exhaustive lists. Alexander has led or co-led roughly fifty-five first-issue albums since 1965 across Pacific Jazz, RCA Victor, Verve, MGM, MPS, Pablo, Concord, Atlas, Limetree, Soul Note, Chesky, Island Jamaica Jazz, Telarc, Motéma, Jazz Legacy, Resonance and his own MACD and PeeWee! imprints, plus a very large number of reissues and repackagings. The leader table itemizes 34 rows, several of which cover a whole series or a group of albums drawn from the same sessions; a short paragraph after the table names the leader dates left out. The sideman table is a representative set of 16 credits, not a full accounting.

Identity confirmed via the live Discogs API: Monty Alexander is artist ID 44130 (realname "Montgomery Bernard Alexander," profile text "Jamaican jazz pianist, born June 6, 1944 in Kingston, Jamaica," outbound links to montyalexander.com, his Bandcamp pages and the Wikipedia article, all matching). Discogs credits him on 565 releases under that ID: 118 in a "Main" leader or co-leader role, 209 sideman "Appearance" credits, 202 track-level appearances, 28 unofficial pressings and 8 production credits. No name collision exists in jazz.

Selection criterion for the leader table: first-issue albums billed to Alexander alone, to one of his own group entities, or to a small co-billed group in which he is a named principal. Reissues, label compilations, repackagings and bootlegs are excluded. Every row's label, catalog number, format, recording date and personnel was read off a specific Discogs release record rather than off the artist index, and where a source conflicts with the pressing the conflict is named in the Notes column.

Spotify caveat, honestly stated. Spotify's catalogue could not be searched or listed for Alexander, so album links could not be matched programmatically by track count. Where a link appears below it was found by a domain-restricted search of open.spotify.com and accepted only when the album title, artist billing and stated track count matched the pressing. Where no such match was found the cell says so rather than guessing.

The Buy column is — throughout: no affiliate program has been set up for this site yet, and no Amazon links have been invented.

As Leader / Co-Leader

Album Title Recording Date(s) Release Date Label Catalog Number Format(s) Personnel Role Reissue History Spotify Buy Notes
Alexander the Great Recorded at an "After Hours Concert" at the Esquire Theater, Los Angeles, 1964 1965 Pacific Jazz ST-86 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), Victor Gaskin (double bass), Paul Humphrey (drums); produced and engineered by Richard Bock, liner notes by Bock, back cover photo by Les McCann Leader Included in the 2007 four-CD MPS/Universal set Alexander the Great: Monty Swings on MPS, which is a different, MPS-era compilation despite the shared title Not found on Spotify — His recording debut at twenty. Billed on the sleeve as "Les McCann Introduces Alexander the Great"; McCann took the back-cover photograph
Spunky 1964 to 1965 1965 Pacific Jazz ST-20094 (stereo); PJ-10094 (mono) Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), Victor Gaskin and Bob Cranshaw (bass), Paul Humphrey and Bruno Carr (drums), Gene Bertoncini and Scott Turner (guitar); produced by Richard Bock Leader None catalogued Spotify - Spunky — Most tracks trio, some quartet with guitar. Ten tracks
Zing! Recorded RCA Victor Studio B, New York, December 11 and 14, 1967 1968 RCA Victor LSP 3930 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Two trios: Monty Alexander (piano) with Bob Cranshaw (bass) and Al Foster (drums), and with Victor Gaskin (bass) and Roy McCurdy (drums); produced by Brad McCuen, liner notes by Mort Fega Leader None catalogued Spotify - Zing! — Dynagroove recording. Labels credit "The Monty Alexander Trio," sleeve and spine credit Monty Alexander. The December 1967 session dates are printed on the Discogs record as sourced from AllMusic rather than from the sleeve
This Is Monty Alexander July 1969 1969 Verve V6-8790 (sleeve) / V6/8790 (labels) Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano) with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Johnny Pate, who also produced Leader None catalogued Not found on Spotify — His first orchestral date. The Discogs pressing itemizes no musicians beyond Alexander and Pate
Here Comes the Sun Recorded New York City, June 6, 1971 1972 MPS Records / BASF 21 20913-1 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), Eugene Wright (bass), Duffy Jackson (drums), Montego Joe (congas); produced by Don Schlitten, engineered by Paul Goodman, liner notes by Dan Morgenstern Leader Collected in Alexander the Great: Monty Swings on MPS (2007) Not found on Spotify — Recorded on his twenty-seventh birthday. The first of about a dozen MPS albums made after Oscar Peterson recommended him to label owner Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer
We've Only Just Begun Recorded live at the Monticello, New York City, December 1, 1971 1972 MPS Records / BASF 25103 (sleeve) / MB 25103 (labels) Vinyl LP, Album, "Unipak" gatefold Monty Alexander (piano), Eugene Wright (bass), Bobby Durham (drums); produced by Don Schlitten Leader (Monty Alexander Trio) Collected in the 2007 MPS box Not found on Spotify — Six tracks. The Monticello was the New York club that gave its name to his tune "Monticello," issued as an MPS single
Perception! Recorded June 18, 1973 1974 MPS Records / BASF 21 22021-4 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), Eugene Wright (bass), Bobby Durham (drums); recorded by Paul Goodman, supervised by Don Schlitten, liner notes by Dave Brubeck Leader Collected in the 2007 MPS box Spotify - Perception — Liner notes in English and German by Dave Brubeck
Rass! Recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, 1974, under the supervision of Baldhard G. Falk 1974 MPS Records / BASF MC 25352 Vinyl LP, Album Monty Alexander (Fender Rhodes electric piano), Ernest Ranglin (lead guitar), Clarence Wears (second guitar and cuatro), Clifton "Jackie" Jackson (Fender bass), Sparrow Martin (drums), Noel Seale (congas), Denzil Laing (percussion); engineered by Graeme Goodall, mixed by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer Leader (billed "Monty Alexander featuring Ernest Ranglin") Reissued 2026 (remastered, also on Horch House) Spotify - Rass — Six tracks. The record on which he first made his Jamaican background the subject rather than the seasoning. The sleeve's liner note describes him returning to Kingston "to play music with his local friends," giving most of the tunes a reggae treatment
Love and Sunshine Recorded in Brunner-Schwer's private studio, Villingen, October 1974 1975 MPS Records / BASF 20 22620-4 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), Ernest Ranglin (guitar), Eberhard Weber (bass), Kenny Clare (drums); produced and recorded by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, liner notes by Mike Hennessey Leader Collected in the 2007 MPS box Spotify - Love and Sunshine — The companion album Unlimited Love: Live & In Concert (MPS/BASF DC 22 787-1, 1976, six tracks) comes from the same October 1974 sessions and was also issued as Monty Strikes Again. The same quartet cut Ernest Ranglin's Ranglypso at Villingen on October 25, 1974
Montreux Alexander: Live! At the Montreux Festival Recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, June 10, 1976 1977 MPS Records 68.170 / 0068.170 / MPS 15493 Vinyl LP Monty Alexander (piano, arranger), John Clayton (bass), Jeff Hamilton (drums); produced by Willi Fruth, recorded by John Timperley Leader (The Monty Alexander Trio) 30th Anniversary Edition, MPS/Universal, October 30, 2007 (nine tracks against the LP's six); 96 kHz high-resolution edition; Horch House audiophile reissues 2021 and 2023 Spotify - Montreux Alexander (30th Anniversary Edition) — The record most often named as his best. Discogs also holds an unofficial 1998 pressing
Cobilimbo Recorded MPS Studio, Villingen, September 8 and 9, 1977 1978 MPS Records 0068.188 / MPS 15.518 Vinyl LP, Album Monty Alexander (piano), Ernest Ranglin (guitar), Vincent Taylor (steel drums), Andrew Simpkins (bass), Frank Gant (drums), Charles Campbell (congas); produced and engineered by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, recording director Willi Fruth Leader None catalogued Spotify - Cobilimbo — Vincent Taylor plays double tenor steel pans he built himself. Its twin, Estade (MPS KUX-117-P, ten tracks), was cut in the same studio the following week and issued in 1977: date conflict, the Japanese pressing prints September 14 to 16, 1977 while Wikipedia's hidden note says September 16 and 18. The pressing is followed here. Spotify - Estade
Soul Fusion Recorded Group IV Recording Studios, Los Angeles, June 1 and 2, 1977 1978 Pablo Records 2310 804 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Monty Alexander (piano), John Clayton (bass), Jeff Hamilton (drums); produced, designed and laid out by Norman Granz, engineered by Val Valentin, liner notes by Benny Green Co-leader (billed "Milt Jackson and the Monty Alexander Trio") Later CD reissues; one unofficial pressing catalogued Spotify - Soul Fusion — Two Wikipedia errors corrected. Wikipedia dates the session 1977-07 and calls it "in concert"; the Pablo sleeve prints June 1 and 2, 1977 at Group IV Recording Studios, a studio date
Jamento Recorded Group IV Recording Studios, Hollywood, June 15 and 16, 1978 1978 Pablo Records 2310-826 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano, producer), Ernest Ranglin (guitar), Vince Charles (steel drums), Andrew Simpkins (bass), Duffy Jackson and Roger Bethelmy (drums), Larry McDonald (percussion); engineered by Val Valentin Leader (The Monty Alexander 7) None catalogued Spotify - Jamento — Six tracks. Alexander produced it himself, unusually for a Pablo release
In Tokyo Recorded January 22, 1979 September 1979 Pablo Records 2310-836 Vinyl LP, Album Monty Alexander (piano, producer), Andrew Simpkins (bass), Frank Gant (drums); engineered by Katsuyuki Handa and Kazutoyo Takeda, layout by Norman Granz and Sheldon Marks Leader None catalogued Spotify - In Tokyo — Eight tracks
So What? Recorded Aquarius Studio, Geneva, October 7, 1979 1979 Black and Blue 33.148 Vinyl LP, Album Monty Alexander, solo piano on a Bösendorfer Imperial; produced by Alberto Tognetti, recorded by Jean Ristori, liner notes by Alexander Leader Reissued 2008 as The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions: So What? Not found on Spotify — His first solo-piano album. Ten tracks
Facets Recorded Coast Recorders, San Francisco, August 1979; remixed at PER, San Francisco 1980 Concord Jazz CJ-108 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), Ray Brown (bass), Jeff Hamilton (drums); produced by Carl E. Jefferson, engineered by Phil Edwards, liner notes by Gordon Raddue Leader (billed "Monty Alexander with Ray Brown and Jeff Hamilton") None catalogued Not found on Spotify — His first Concord album and the start of a partnership with Ray Brown that ran until Brown's death in 2002. Some copies are pressed on vinyl that reads dark blue translucent against a strong light
Ivory & Steel 1980 1980 Concord Jazz Picante CJP-124 Vinyl LP, Album Monty Alexander (piano), Othello Molineaux (steel drums, "featuring"), Gerald Wiggins (bass), Frank Gant (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (percussion); produced by Carl E. Jefferson Leader (The Monty Alexander Quintet) Repackaged with Jamboree as Island Grooves (Concord, 2000) Not found on Spotify — Wikipedia error. Wikipedia calls this a sextet and adds Len "Boogsie" Sharpe on steel drums; the pressing is billed to the Monty Alexander Quintet and credits Molineaux alone. Wikipedia's own entry flags the bassist as "Gerald Wiggins [sic]." The same band, expanded, made Jamboree (Concord Picante CJP-359, recorded Penny Lane Studios, New York, February and March 1988, with Lennox "Boogsie" Sharpe and Molineaux on pans, Marshall Wood on bass, Bernard Montgomery on electric bass, Marvin "Smitty" Smith on drums) and To the Ends of the Earth (Concord Picante CCD-4721, 1996, eleven tracks)
Monty Alexander / Ernest Ranglin Recorded December 17 and 18, 1980 1981 MPS Records 0068.269 / MPS 15570 Vinyl LP, Album Monty Alexander (piano), Ernest Ranglin (guitar); produced and engineered by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, recording director Willi Fruth Co-leader (duo) None catalogued Not found on Spotify — Ten tracks. The only album on which the two of them play entirely alone together
The Ray Brown / Herb Ellis trio series: Trio, Triple Treat, Overseas Special, Triple Treat II, Triple Treat III Trio: Coast Recorders, San Francisco, August 1980. Triple Treat and Overseas Special: Sounds Creation, Osaka, and the Satin Doll Club, Tokyo, March 1982. Triple Treat II and III: live at The Loa, Santa Monica, June 1987 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1989 Concord Jazz CJ-136, CJ-193, CJ-253, CCD-4338, CCD-4394 Vinyl LP and CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano), Ray Brown (bass), Herb Ellis (guitar); John Frigo (violin) added on parts of Triple Treat II and III; produced by Carl E. Jefferson and others, liner notes by Leonard Feather on Trio Co-leader (three-way billing throughout) Repackaged as Straight Ahead (Concord, 2003, Overseas Special plus Trio) and Triple Scoop (Concord, 2002, all three Triple Treat volumes) Not found on Spotify as first-issue albums; the material circulates through the Concord compilations — A drummerless trio, five albums over nine years. Overseas Special was taped live at the Satin Doll in Tokyo in March 1982 but held back until 1984
Fingering Recorded Sage & Sound Studio, Hollywood, May 5 and 6, 1981 1981 Atlas Record LA27-1013 Vinyl LP, Album Shelly Manne (drums), Monty Alexander (piano), Ray Brown (bass); produced by Yasuyuki Ishihara, engineered by James Mooney Co-leader (three-way billing) None catalogued Not found on Spotify — A Japanese-market album on Yupiteru's Atlas imprint, with Japanese liner notes. Its follow-up Look Up (Atlas LA27-1021, recorded December 6, 1982, mixed December 7) has Andrew Simpkins and Duffy Jackson in place of Brown and Manne
The Duke Ellington Song Book Recorded March 29, 1983 1984 Verve (issued from MPS masters) 821-151-1 / 821 151-1 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (Steinway concert grand), John Clayton (bass); produced and recorded by Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer Co-leader (duo) Later CD reissues, including a 2014 digital edition Spotify - The Duke Ellington Song Book — Ten tracks, piano and bass alone, all Duke Ellington material
Reunion in Europe Recorded live at Club Manufaktur, West Germany, March 1983 1984 Concord Jazz CJ-231 Vinyl LP, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), John Clayton (bass), Jeff Hamilton (drums, and producer) Co-leader (three-way billing) None catalogued Not found on Spotify — The Montreux Alexander trio reconvened seven years later. Nine tracks
Threesome Recorded Barigozzi Studio, Milan, November 30 and December 2, 1985 1986 Soul Note SN 121152 CD CD, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bass), Grady Tate (drums, vocals); produced by Giovanni Bonandrini, engineered by Giancarlo Barigozzi, liner notes by Max Harrison Co-leader (three-way billing) None catalogued Spotify - Threesome — Six tracks
The Valentyne's trilogy: Friday Night, Saturday Night, Sunday Night All recorded live at Valentyne's, Orlando, Florida, October 1985 1987, 1988 and 2016 Limetree Records MCD 0022, MCD 024, MCD 0044 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano), Reggie Johnson (bass), Ed Thigpen (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (percussion); produced by Larry Alexander, engineered by Chuck Kjergaard and Greg McNeily Leader None catalogued Not found on Spotify — One week of club dates parcelled out over thirty-one years. Wikipedia lists only the first two. Sunday Night (seven tracks) is absent from its discography. The Sunday Night pressing warns that its own back-cover tracklist is wrong, tracks 4 and 6 being switched, and that "Joyspring" should read "Joy Spring." Apple Music dates its edition of Saturday Night 1993; the Limetree CD is 1988
The River Recorded Omega Studios, Rockville, Maryland, October 1985 1990 Concord Jazz CCD-4422 CD, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano, producer, liner notes), John Clayton (bass), Ed Thigpen (drums); executive producer and liner notes Carl E. Jefferson, mixed by Phil Edwards Leader None catalogued Not found on Spotify — A studio trio date from the same month as the Valentyne's residency, held back five years. Ten tracks
Caribbean Circle Recorded Mastersound, Astoria, Queens, New York, June 3 and 4, 1992 1992 Chesky Records JG80 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, whistle, spoken vocals, producer), Ira Coleman (acoustic bass), Herlin Riley (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (hand drums), Marjorie Whylie (percussion), Othello Molineaux (steel drums), Frank Foster (tenor saxophone), David Glasser (alto saxophone), Slide Hampton (trombone), Jon Faddis (trumpet); produced with David Chesky and Mark Van Den Bergh, recorded by Bob Katz Leader None catalogued Spotify - Caribbean Circle — Twelve tracks. Track 6 is a medley of "Happy Trails to You," "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "D Minor Ska." Wikipedia gives no personnel at all for this album, which is the largest and best-documented band of his career to that point
Steamin' Recorded September 14 and 15, 1994 1995 Concord Records CCD-4636 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano), Ira Coleman (bass), Dion Parson (drums); produced by Allen Farnham, executive producer Carl E. Jefferson, liner notes by Fred Bouchard Leader Repackaged with Full Steam Ahead as Steaming Hot (Concord, 2004) Not found on Spotify — Thirteen tracks
Monty Alexander at Maybeck Recorded live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Berkeley, California, September 20, 1994 1995 Concord Jazz CCD-4658 CD, Album Monty Alexander, solo piano; produced by Carl E. Jefferson, remote recording coordinated by Bud Spangler, liner notes by Derk Richardson Leader Issued digitally as The Maybeck Recital Series, Vol. 40 Spotify - The Maybeck Recital Series, Vol. 40 — Eleven tracks. Volume forty of Concord's Maybeck solo-piano series
Yard Movement Tracks 1 to 3 recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, July 16, 1995, on the Voyageur III mobile; tracks 4 to 8 at Studios Aquarius, Geneva, July 17 and 18, 1995 1996 Island Jamaica Jazz / Island Records 314-524 232-2 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, melodica, producer), Ernest Ranglin (lead guitar), Robert Angus (guitar), Dwight Dawes (keyboards), Carlton Messam (bass), Roland "Phanso" Wilson (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (hand drum); executive producer Trevor Wyatt, liner notes an interview with Alexander by Steve Barrow Leader None catalogued Spotify - Yard Movement — Eight tracks. Reached No. 25 on the UK Official Jazz & Blues Albums Chart. One of the two launch releases for Island's Jamaica Jazz imprint, alongside Ernest Ranglin's Below the Bassline, which Alexander produced. He named his touring band after this album. Wikipedia's article on the album adds Lennox "Boogsie" Sharpe on "Crying," a credit the pressing does not carry
Echoes of Jilly's Recorded Sound On Sound, New York, December 20 and 21, 1996; mixed at PER, Hayward, California 1997 Concord Jazz CCD-4769-2 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, liner notes), John Patitucci (bass), Troy Davis (drums); produced by Allen Farnham, further liner notes by Sid Mark and Will Friedwald Leader None catalogued Spotify - Echoes of Jilly's — Thirteen tracks, all songs popularised by Frank Sinatra, recorded thirty years after Alexander's residency at Jilly's. The booklet italicises lyricists although there are no vocals on the record
Stir It Up: The Music of Bob Marley 1999 1999 Telarc CD-83469 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano), Glen Browne (bass, co-arranger, director, recording producer), J. J. Wiggins and Trevor McKenzie (bass), Robert Angus and Derek DiCenzo (guitar), Dwight Dawes (keyboards), Roland "Phanso" Wilson and Troy Davis (drums), Desmond Jones (percussion), Steve Turre (trombone); liner notes by Dermot Hussey, Neil Tesser and Alexander Leader None catalogued Spotify - Stir It Up — Recorded in Direct Stream Digital. Track-count conflict: the Discogs tracklist runs to 14, Apple Music and Spotify to 13. The second Marley album, Concrete Jungle: The Music of Bob Marley (Telarc CD-83635, 2006, "The Tuff Gong Sessions," twelve tracks), adds the Rod Dennis Mento Band, Dean Fraser on saxophone, Delfeayo Marsalis on trombone, Herlin Riley on drums and Luciano on vocals. Spotify - Concrete Jungle
Monty Meets Sly and Robbie Recorded August and December 1999; mixed January 2000 April 25, 2000 Telarc Jazz CD-83494 CD, Album, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano, melodica), Robbie Shakespeare (bass), Sly Dunbar (rhythm drums, programming), Desmond Jones (drum fills), Handel Tucker (keyboards), Jay Davidson (saxophone), Steve Jankowski (trumpet); produced by Sly & Robbie, executive producer Robert Woods Co-leader (billed "Monty meets Sly and Robbie") None catalogued Spotify - Monty Meets Sly and Robbie — Ten tracks. Wikipedia gives the recording date as December 1999 only; the pressing says August and December
Rocksteady Recorded Avatar Studio C, New York, June 26 to 29, 2003, in Direct Stream Digital 2004 Telarc CD-83581 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, melodica, producer), Ernest Ranglin (lead guitar), Junior Jazz (rhythm guitar), Gary Mayone (keyboards), Hassan Shakur (acoustic bass), Quentin Baxter (drums), Courtney Panton (hand drums); produced with Adrian Mills Leader (billed "with special guest Ernest Ranglin") None catalogued Spotify - Rocksteady — Twelve tracks. Also appears in Wikipedia's sideman section under Ernest Ranglin, which double-counts it
Live at the Iridium Recorded live at the Iridium, New York, May 21 to 23, 2004 February 22, 2005 Telarc Jazz CD-83610 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, producer), Hassan Shakur (bass), Mark Taylor (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (hand drums on some tracks); engineered by Jack Renner Leader None catalogued Spotify - Live at the Iridium — Nine tracks, 61:20 total. The pressing itself notes that track 7 is mistitled and should read "Li'l Darlin'"
Calypso Blues: The Songs of Nat King Cole 2008 March 3, 2009 Chesky Records SACD339 SACD, Hybrid, Multichannel Monty Alexander (piano, melodica), Lorin Cohen (bass), George Fludas (drums); produced by David Chesky, liner notes by Ira Gitler Leader None catalogued Spotify - Calypso Blues: The Songs of Nat King Cole — Thirteen tracks. The second of two Chesky tribute albums by the same trio; The Good Life: Monty Alexander Plays the Songs of Tony Bennett (Chesky SACD340, March 25, 2008, twelve tracks) came first
Harlem-Kingston Express Live!: At Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, NYC Recorded live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, New York, 2006 to June 2010 June 14, 2011 Motéma MTM-67 CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, arranger, producer); jazz side: Hassan Shakur (acoustic bass), Obed Calvaire and Frits Landesbergen (drums); Jamaican side: Glen Browne and Hoova Simpson (electric bass), Andy Bassford (electric guitar), Richard Browne and Yotam Silberstein (guitar), Christopher McDonald (keyboards), Bernard Montgomery (melodica), Desmond Jones and Karl Wright (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (percussion); produced with Jana Herzen, Katherine Miller and Todd Barkan, liner notes by Carter Van Pelt Leader None catalogued Spotify - Harlem-Kingston Express (Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, NYC) — Eleven tracks. His only Grammy nomination, Best Reggae Album at the 54th ceremony in 2012, per Grammy.com's own artist page, which records no wins. Also won Best Live Performance Album at the 2012 Independent Music Awards. Silberstein's guitar credit verified on the pressing, not inherited from secondary sources. The two live Uplift albums (Jazz Legacy Productions 1001012 and 1201020, 2011 and 2013) come from the same period, assembled from concert recordings made between 2007 and 2010. Spotify - Uplift
Harlem-Kingston Express Vol. 2: The River Rolls On Sessions between 1988 and 2013: track 3 live in Jamaica, 1988; track 12 live in France, 2005; track 9 at Bennett Studios, New Jersey, 2011; tracks 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 at Dubway Studios, New York, April 2012 and Avatar Studios, February 2013; tracks 11 and 13 live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, 2012; tracks 4, 7 and 10 at Avatar Studios, August 2013 April 8, 2014 Motéma PROMO233828 (promo pressing) CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, melodica, vocals, producer, liner notes), Hassan Shakur (acoustic bass), Courtney Panton and Joshua Thomas (electric bass), Andy Bassford and Yotam Silberstein (guitar), Earl Appleton (keyboards), Frits Landesbergen, Karl Wright, Obed Calvaire and Winard Harper (drums), Junior Wedderburn (percussion), Caterina Zapponi and Wendel Ferraro (vocals); guests George Benson (guitar), Joe Sample (lead keyboards) and Ramsey Lewis (piano) Leader None catalogued Spotify - Harlem-Kingston Express Vol. 2: The River Rolls On — Track-count conflict: the promo CD indexed on Discogs has 13 tracks, the Apple Music and Spotify masters have 14. Soul Train Award-nominated in 2014. Yotam Silberstein's guitar credit again verified on the pressing
Wareika Hill: Rasta-Monk Vibrations 2019 August 23, 2019 MACD Records (no catalog number) CD, Album Monty Alexander (piano, producer), Hassan Shakur (acoustic bass), Courtney Panton and Leon Duncan (electric bass), Andy Bassford (guitar), Earl Appleton (keyboards), Jason Brown and Obed Calvaire (drums), Karl Wright (percussion, mixing), Abashani Wedderburn, Bongo Billy and Junior Wedderburn (Nyabinghi drums), Andrae Murchison (trombone), Ron Blake and Wayne Escoffery (tenor saxophone); guests John Scofield (guitar) and Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone); co-produced by Caterina Zapponi Leader None catalogued Spotify - Wareika Hill Rastamonk Vibrations — Fourteen tracks. Thelonious Monk's compositions set against Rastafarian Nyabinghi drumming, named for the Kingston hillside where Count Ossie's Rasta drumming community gathered. Released on his own MACD imprint, as Road Dog (2017) had been
Love You Madly: Live at Bubba's Recorded live at Bubba's Restaurant, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, August 6, 1982 November 27, 2020 (2LP); December 4, 2020 (digital) Resonance Records HLP-9047 2 x Vinyl LP, Album, Record Store Day, Deluxe, Limited, Numbered, Stereo Monty Alexander (piano, producer), Paul Berner (bass), Duffy Jackson (drums), Robert Thomas Jr. (percussion); recorded by Mack Emerman, restored and mixed by George Klabin and Zev Feldman, LP mastering by Bernie Grundman Leader None catalogued Spotify - Love You Madly: Live at Bubba's — Thirteen tracks. A Record Store Day Black Friday release limited to a first pressing of 2,000, with a twelve-page booklet carrying interviews with Berner, Jackson, Thomas and Kenny Barron. Absent from Wikipedia's discography
The Montreux Years Compiled from four Montreux Jazz Festival appearances: Auditorium Stravinski, July 5, 1993; Miles Davis Hall, July 16, 1995; Montreux Jazz Club, July 13, 2014; Casino Barrière, June 30, 2016 November 4, 2022 Montreux Jazz Festival / BMG / Montreux Sounds / Radio Télévision Suisse BMGCAT573DLP 2 x Vinyl LP, Album Monty Alexander with the bands of the four dates; compiled and produced by Fraser Kennedy, mastered and restored by Tony Cousins, sleeve notes by David Sheppard and Alexander Leader (archival) Also issued on CD, one track shorter Spotify - Monty Alexander: The Montreux Years (Live) — Ten tracks on vinyl, nine on CD; the vinyl adds "The Pawnbroker." Contains previously unreleased material. Absent from Wikipedia's discography. Apple Music's metadata mis-dates it 1965
Love Notes Not stated on the release August 19, 2022 (digital, Monty Alexander LLC); May 23, 2023 (Japanese vinyl) Monty Alexander LLC; HMV Record Shop (LP) HRLP286 (LP) Digital, 11 tracks; Vinyl LP, Album, Limited, Stereo, 9 tracks Monty Alexander (piano) with guests including Roy Hargrove (trumpet on "The Nearness of You") and Arturo Sandoval (trumpet) Leader The 2023 HMV Japan LP is a shorter vinyl edition of the 2022 digital album; a 7-inch single, These Love Notes, was issued alongside it Spotify - Love Notes — Discogs dates this 2023 and holds only the Japanese LP. The Apple Music master is dated August 19, 2022 and carries "℗ 2022 Monty Alexander LLC," so the true first release is 2022 and the vinyl is a later, shorter edition. Roy Hargrove died in 2018, so his contribution is archival. Absent from Wikipedia's discography
D-Day Not stated on the release March 29, 2024 (digital); the official biography says June 6, 2024 PeeWee! (Peewee Productions) PW1013 CD; digital Monty Alexander (piano), Luke Sellick (bass), Jason Brown (drums) Leader None catalogued Spotify - D Day — Twelve tracks including an "Intro," so eleven pieces, among them "June 6," "V.E. Swing," "D-Day Voices" and "Day-O." Date conflict left open: Alexander's own site says the album was released on June 6, 2024, his eightieth birthday and the eightieth anniversary of the Normandy landings, but the Apple Music master is dated March 29, 2024, ten weeks earlier. Both are stated here rather than one being picked. Absent from Wikipedia's discography

Leader dates not itemized above. Taste of Freedom (MGM SE 4736, 1970, a second Johnny Pate orchestral date); Unlimited Love: Live & In Concert (MPS, 1976, from the Love and Sunshine sessions); Estade (MPS, 1977, covered in the Cobilimbo row); Live in Holland (Polydor 2441 078, recorded live March 10, 1977, released 1978); The Way It Is (MPS 5C 064-62611, 1979, the Clayton/Hamilton trio); Solo (Jeton 100.3310, recorded Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg, April 10, 1980); Just In Time (Live At EJ's, recorded September 1979, released 1996); Look Up (Atlas, 1983); Caribbean Duet (Harmonic, 1985, a two-piano concert with Michel Sardaby); Full Steam Ahead (Concord CCD 4287, 1985); Li'l Darlin' (GML/Lob GML-CD4808, 1988); To Nat, With Love (Zanda, 1987); Live at the Cully Select Jazz Festival (Limetree MCD 0034, recorded March 20, 1991 in Cully, Switzerland, with Lynn Seaton, Duffy Jackson and percussionist Steve "Paco" Grier); Many Rivers to Cross (MELDAC MECJ-30005, May 21, 1995, with Ernest Ranglin, Arturo Tappin and vocalist Suzanne Couch); Goin' Yard (Telarc CD-83527, recorded live at Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, Pittsburgh, October 5 and 6, 2000); My America (Telarc SACD-63552, 2002); Impressions in Blue (Telarc CD-83578, 2003); The Good Life (Chesky SACD340, 2008); Uplift and Uplift 2 (Jazz Legacy, 2011 and 2013); Road Dog (MACD, 2017); and the forthcoming A Jamarican in Paris (PeeWee!, announced for October 2, 2026).

As Sideman (selected major credits)

Year Project (Leader) Title Label Catalog Role Notes
1965 Les McCann Ltd. Beaux J. Pooboo Limelight Piano (indexed) Indexed on Discogs as an appearance but not confirmed against the pressing's own credit block. McCann is the musician who brought Alexander to Pacific Jazz and photographed the back cover of Alexander the Great
1970 Milt Jackson Quintet featuring Ray Brown That's the Way It Is Impulse! / ABC AS-9189 Piano Recorded in performance at Shelly's Manne-Hole, Hollywood, August 1 and 2, 1969, with Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Teddy Edwards (tenor saxophone), Ray Brown (bass), Dick Berk (drums). Alexander's first recording with Brown and Jackson
1971 Quincy Jones Smackwater Jack A&M SP-3037 Tack piano One of a large keyboard cast that also includes Dick Hyman, Joe Sample, Bob James and Jaki Byard
1973 Milt Jackson Quintet featuring Ray Brown Just the Way It Had to Be Impulse! / ABC AS-9230 Piano The second album from the same August 1 and 2, 1969 Shelly's Manne-Hole dates. Wikipedia dates this 1970; the Impulse! pressing is 1973, and its stereo/quad labels confirm it
1976 Ernest Ranglin Ranglypso MPS / BASF 20 22677-8 Piano Recorded MPS Studio, Villingen, October 25, 1974, by the Love and Sunshine quartet: Ranglin, Alexander, Eberhard Weber, Kenny Clare. Wikipedia dates this 1974; the pressing is ℗ 1976
1977 Milt Jackson and Ray Brown Montreux '77 Pablo Live 2308 205 Piano With Clark Terry (trumpet, flugelhorn), Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (tenor saxophone), Jimmie Smith (drums); produced by Norman Granz
1977 Dizzy Gillespie Montreux '77: Dizzy Gillespie Jam Pablo Live Deluxe 2308 211 Piano Recorded at Montreux on July 14, 1977, with Gillespie and Jon Faddis (trumpets), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Ray Brown, Jimmie Smith
1978 Phyllis Hyman Somewhere in My Lifetime Arista AB 4202 Acoustic piano and arranger The sleeve notes that "Monty Alexander appears courtesy of Pablo Records." Not to be confused with producer Larry Alexander, no relation, who also worked on Alexander's Limetree albums
1979 Ray Brown Trio with Ernestine Anderson Live at the Concord Jazz Festival 1979 Concord Jazz CJ-102 Piano With Ray Brown (bass), Jeff Hamilton (drums), Ernestine Anderson (vocals)
1981 Ernestine Anderson Never Make Your Move Too Soon Concord Jazz CJ-147 Piano Released May 1981, recorded 1980. With Ray Brown and Frank Gant. He also plays on her Sunshine (Concord, 1980)
1982 Milt Jackson Memories of Thelonious Sphere Monk (Milt Jackson in London) Pablo Live 2308-235 Piano, miscredited on the sleeve as organ Recorded at Ronnie Scott's Club, London, April 28, 1982, with Ray Brown and Mickey Roker. Discogs flags the pressing's credit as both uncredited and miscredited; Alexander plays piano
1987 Barney Kessel with the Monty Alexander Trio Spontaneous Combustion Contemporary CCD-14033-2 Piano Recorded direct to digital, February 20 to 22, 1987, with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. Produced by Richard Bock, who had produced Alexander's 1965 debut
1994 The Skatalites Hi-Bop Ska Shanachie 45019 Special guest: piano and melodica Released October 19, 1994. The album that put him on record with the band that invented ska, the music he had played on as a Kingston teenager
1996 Ernest Ranglin Below the Bassline Island Jamaica Jazz / Island IJCD 4002 / 524 299-2 Piano, melodica and producer Released June 11, 1996, recorded at Sony Music Studios, New York, with Ira Coleman (bass), Idris Muhammad (drums), Gary Mayone (keyboards). One of the two launch releases for Island Jamaica Jazz, alongside Alexander's own Yard Movement
2000 Clark Terry One on One Chesky JD198 Piano on track 1 only Recorded December 13 to 16, 1999 at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, New York. An all-duo album pairing Terry with fourteen different pianists; Alexander plays "L.O.V.E." and Junior Mance plays "Swingin' the Blues," alongside Kenny Barron, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Roland Hanna, Geri Allen, John Lewis, Marian McPartland and others
2002 Ray Brown, Monty Alexander, Russell Malone Ray Brown, Monty Alexander, Russell Malone Telarc Piano (co-billed) Recorded 2002, released October 22, 2002, with the sequel Walk On following in 2003. Brown died in July 2002

Alexander's Discogs sideman log also includes further Milt Jackson dates (A London Bridge and Mostly Duke, both Pablo, 1982), further Ray Brown dates (Summerwind, Jeton, 1981; A Ray Brown 3, Concord, 1983, with Sam Most), Jimmy Smith's Go for Whatcha' Know (Blue Note, 1985), Howard Alden's Snowy Morning Blues (Concord, 1990), Benny Golson's That's Funky (1995), Barbara Hendricks's Tribute to Duke Ellington (1995), Mary Stallings's Manhattan Moods (Concord, 1996), and a substantial run of Jamaican reggae dates for Beres Hammond, Mystic Revealers, Tony Rebel, Chalice, Lee "Scratch" Perry and Sly & Robbie's Taxi Gang. None of those are itemized here.

Credits excluded as Discogs index errors or unconfirmed

Discogs's artist-level index for a 565-release entry is looser than any individual pressing's credit list. Each of the following was checked against the pressing and left out, with the reason.

Errors found in Wikipedia's discography

Wikipedia is the most-cited source on this artist and is wrong or incomplete in specific, checkable places. Recorded here so the profile does not repeat them.

  1. Just the Way It Had to Be is listed as "(Impulse!, 1970)." The Impulse!/ABC pressing (AS-9230) is 1973. Only its companion That's the Way It Is (AS-9189) is 1970. Both come from the same August 1969 dates.
  2. Ranglypso is listed as "(MPS, 1974)." Recorded October 25, 1974; released ℗ 1976.
  3. Live in Holland is given a release year of 1988. The Polydor first issue (2441 078) is 1978, and the recording date is March 10, 1977.
  4. Soul Fusion is dated "1977-07" and described as "in concert." The Pablo sleeve prints June 1 and 2, 1977 at Group IV Recording Studios, Los Angeles. It is a studio album recorded in June.
  5. Solo is given a recording date of "1980-10." The Jeton pressing prints "Aufgenommen im Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg 10.4.1980," which in German date order is April 10, 1980. The month and day appear to have been transposed.
  6. Estade is dated September 16 and 18, 1977 in a hidden comment. The MPS pressing prints September 14 to 16, 1977.
  7. Ivory & Steel is described as a sextet including Len "Boogsie" Sharpe on steel drums. The Concord Picante pressing is billed to the Monty Alexander Quintet and credits only Othello Molineaux on pans. Wikipedia's own entry already flags the bassist as "Gerald Wiggins [sic]."
  8. Boogsie Sharpe's name is spelled two different ways inside the same table, "Len 'Boogsie' Sharpe" for Ivory & Steel and "Leo 'Boogsie' Sharp" for Jamboree. The Jamboree pressing prints Lennox "Boogsie" Sharpe.
  9. Impressions in Blue is described as a plain trio with Hassan Shakur and Mark Taylor. The Telarc pressing (CD-83578) also credits John Pizzarelli on guitar. The pressing has fifteen tracks against Apple Music's eleven.
  10. Live at the Cully Select Jazz Festival carries a hidden recording date of March 21, 1991. Alexander's own signed liner note on the Limetree CD says March 20, 1991. The pressing also credits percussionist Steve "Paco" Grier, who is missing from Wikipedia's line-up.
  11. Caribbean Circle has an entirely empty Notes column in Wikipedia, despite being the largest band of his career to that point: Slide Hampton, Frank Foster, Jon Faddis, Othello Molineaux, Marjorie Whylie, Ira Coleman, Herlin Riley and David Glasser are all on the Chesky pressing.
  12. Monty Meets Sly and Robbie is dated December 1999. The pressing says August and December 1999, mixed January 2000.
  13. Five leader albums are absent entirely. Sunday Night (Limetree MCD 0044, 2016, the third of the October 1985 Valentyne's albums), Love You Madly: Live at Bubba's (Resonance, 2020), The Montreux Years (BMG/Montreux Sounds, 2022), Love Notes (2022) and D-Day (PeeWee!, 2024). The list stops at Wareika Hill (2019).
  14. Rocksteady is listed twice, once as a leader album and again under Ernest Ranglin in the sideman section. It is one record, billed to Alexander with Ranglin as special guest.

Other source conflicts, left open rather than resolved

Sources

Personnel & Collaborations
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