Alejandro Salazar emphasizes love, peace, and unity to audiences through unique performances, education, and the cultural study of Afro-Cuban and Black-American Music. Chicago’s own rising star, Alejandro Salazar, is deeply rooted in the tradition, yet he likes to explore new ways to help people groove and dance more to his infectious swing feel. 

Alejandro has had the pleasure of playing at clubs, venues, and festivals all over Chicago and the world like The Chicago Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Jazz a la Villette (Paris), Primavera Sound Barcelona, Munch Museum (Oslo), Bourse de Commerce (Paris), Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, The Jazz Showcase, Andy’s Jazz Club, DuSable Museum, The Green Mill, Constellation, and Dorian's to name a few. 

 

During such engagements, Alejandro has shared the stage with master musicians such as Bobby Watson, Jon Faddis, Robert Irving III, Emmet Cohen, Willie Pickens, Angel Bat Dawid, Marques Carroll, Junius Paul, Dennis Carroll, Alexis Lombre, Tito Carrillo, Victor Garcia, Rajiv Halim, Ernest Dawkins, Coco Elysses, Senabella Gill, Anthony Bruno, Ira Sullivan, and many more.

 

Alejandro has had the chance to be mentored and studied under some legendary musicians such as Jimmy Cobb, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Greg Hutchinson, Vincent Davis, Ernie Adams, Evan Sherman, and Bryan Carter. Alejandro graduated from DePaul University where he studied with world-class drummer and ethnomusicologist Dana Hall.