Alex Bugnon

Bugnon studied at a music conservatory in Paris before coming to America to continue at Boston’s famed Berklee School of Music. He spent a lot of time playing not only jazz but gospel, gigging on that time-honored southern circuit. Upon graduation he moved to New York. After spending a year driving taxicabs and teaching French at the Berlitz School, he found initial work backing R&B stars such as Patti Austin & James Ingram, Melba Moore, Freddie Jackson and Keith Sweat. It was through backing Najee that he made the contact at then-new Orpheus Records where he recorded his first two CDs Love Season (1989) and Head Over Heels (1991), making his deepest first impressions with R&B audiences as a soulful instrumentalist du jour. Love Season earned him a Black Radio Exclusive Best new Jazz artist award. A switch to Sony’s Epic Records family yielded 107 Degrees in the Shade (1991) and another Soul Train Award. After the release of the best-selling This Time Around (1993), he jumped to RCA Records for Tales from the Bright Side (1995). From there he segued into the four albums he did for Narada Records, an associated label that specialized in smooth jazz and new age.