Matthew Alec

Did You Know?

• He was raised in the small town of Richfield, Ohio.
• He studied classical music and jazz with saxophonist Greg Banaszak.
• Cleveland Magazine nominated him as Best Horn Player in Cleveland in 2009.

Career

Matthew Alec first entered the professional music scene in Northeast Ohio as a founding member of Winslow, a soul and funk band based in Cleveland. The group was active from the late 2000s into the early 2010s, earning a regional reputation for mixing funk, rock, and soul, and they toured widely across the United States. While with Winslow, Alec shared bills with a range of acts, including Earth, Wind & Fire, Incubus, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Average White Band, Lupe Fiasco, O.A.R., Ozomatli, Rusted Root, Bret Michaels, and Keane. The band put out two albums: Crazy Kind of Love in 2008, which featured Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and Left of the Right Direction in 2013, which Alec co-produced.

After Winslow disbanded, Alec launched his own project, Matthew Alec and The Soul Electric, a jazz fusion ensemble that blends jazz fusion, funk, soul, pop, and improvisation. The group has included musicians like Brian Woods, Steven Forrest Sanders, Jared Lees, Leon Henault, and Jeremiah Hawkins, along with guest players such as Tom “Bones” Malone. In 2020, Alec started Cleveland Time Records, an independent label dedicated to promoting jazz and contemporary instrumental artists from Northeast Ohio.

The following year, Matthew Alec and The Soul Electric released their first studio album, Cleveland Time, on that label. The record featured Malone, a former musical director for Saturday Night Live, and drew coverage from outlets like All About Jazz, Jazziz, SoulTracks, Glide Magazine, and Cleveland Scene. It also landed in the Top 20 on the NACC Jazz Chart, with airplay on both U.S. and Canadian jazz radio. Singles from the album—Give What You Take, Baby You Got Me, and the title track Cleveland Time—received national jazz media attention and streaming distribution.

In 2022, the group issued a live album, Live at the Bop Stop!, followed in 2023 by Soul Jazz Classics: Live in 2018. These releases helped raise Alec’s visibility in the contemporary jazz fusion and groove-based jazz scenes. In 2024, All About Jazz readers ranked him No. 19 on their list of Favorite Living Jazz Saxophonists. That same year, Matthew Alec and The Soul Electric earned a nomination in the “Best Jazz” category at the Cleveland Music Awards.