Nominated by the Cleveland Scene Music Awards as Cleveland’s “Best Jazz” for 2024, Cleveland’s premier high-octane fusion supergroup Matthew Alec and The Soul Electric make their return to the Bop Stop alongside esteemed special guest Grammy-nominated saxophonist Greg Banaszak. The group will be debuting new material off their anticipated sophomore studio release which is due in 2025.

Featuring:

Matthew Alec – Tenor Saxophone
Greg Banaszak – Alto Saxophone
Brian Woods – Piano & Vocals
Steven Forrest Sanders – Guitar & Vocals
Miguel Tarin Torres - Bass
Brian Randall - Percussion
Jeremiah “The Franchise” Hawkins - Drums

Tickets to attend this show in person are $20 in advance and $25 day of. This event will also be livestreamed on BOP STOP's YouTube Channel at showtime. Accessing the stream is free but donations are encouraged and directly support the band.

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Voted #19 on All About Jazz’s “Favorite Living Saxophonists” for 2024, Matthew Alec is a jazz and popular music saxophonist, founder and producer at Cleveland Time Records, and bandleader for the all-star fusion supergroup Matthew Alec and The Soul Electric.

Performing for over 20 years, he has toured nationally and has opened for a number of A-list acts including Earth, Wind, and Fire, Incubus, Robert Randolph and The Family Band, Keane, Average White Band, Lupe Fiasco, OAR, J Holiday, and others. He has performed with former Saturday Night Live Musical Director, CBS Orchestra member, and Blues Brothers bandsman Tom “Bones” Malone, internationally acclaimed bassist Victor Wooten and his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten, SNL trombonist Steve Turre, Ohio Players’ Billy Beck, and he has recorded with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Parliament/Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell and aforementioned Tom “Bones” Malone. His debut album as a leader Cleveland Time (which features Malone) was released in 2021 and charted for several weeks on the NACC Jazz Radio Chart and received international press from Jazziz Magazine, All About Jazz, JazzMonthly.com, SoulTracks.com, Broadway World, WBSS Media, Glide Magazine, Cleveland.com, and many others. Since that release, Matthew’s group has released two live albums Live at the Bop Stop! (2022) and Soul Jazz Classics: Live in 2018 (2023). Matthew is sponsored by RS Berkeley saxophones, DeJacques saxophone straps and Remic Microphones.

www.matthewalec.com

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Greg Banaszak is one of today’s leading saxophonists, specializing in both jazz and classical music. As one of the most sought-after orchestral saxophone soloists of his generation, he has performed with the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra and appeared throughout the United States, Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, including France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Egypt, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Finland, India, and Japan. Banaszak has released eight albums in both the classical and jazz idioms and serves as a voting member of the of the annual Grammy Awards. Banaszak received a bachelor's degree from the Hartt School of Music, a master's degree from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and an Artist Diploma from the Centre

Musical d’Annecy in France and currently sits as faculty with both the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University. He is a Vandoren Performing Artist, Selmer Saxophone clinician, and a Rovner Products and DeJacques consultant.

www.gregbanaszak.com