Drummer, composer, and educator: Eric Alabaster lives in Brooklyn, New York. Paghel Meshugah: The Loco Love Music is his labor of crazy crazy crazy love music (in Urdu, Yiddish and Spanish). Eric received his M.A. in Music from Queens College where he studied composition with Jimmy Heath. His relationship with Pakistani/Desi culture and music developed though his study of Desi rhythms and friendship with tabla player Mulazim Hussain, of blessed memory, formerly with Radio Pakistan, Rawalpindi.
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3-6-9 - Eric Alabaster
Childs Play - Eric Alabaster
Cornerstone Calypso - Eric Alabaster
Hubris - Eric Alabaster
Minor F in 7 - Eric Alabaster
Off Hand - Eric Alabaster
Precarius Promenade - Eric Alabaster
Tears for my Brother - Eric Alabaster
"…fascinating...eclectic music to spark your imagination..."
---- Jimmy Heath, saxophonist, composer/arranger
“Playing [Eric's] music has opened a side of my playing that I did not know existed. He has captured an authenticity of Eastern Music that you can't reach from a text book. Listening to the rhythms, melodies, chord structures, and arrangements you can tell that he’s lived the music. I am honored and humbled every time I play Eric's music.”
---- Duane Eubanks, trumpet maestro
“Fascinating music. I love talented drummers, and there’s such a talent in there. Keep your eyes out for this one.”
----- Armand DeMille - WBAI NYC
"Hello Eric!! I've been playing your wonderful CD for a couple of years now! It has been on my return to play."
----- Frank Consola, WDNA-FM Miami
“…Alabaster has assembled a stellar cast to create his visionary sounds...Throughout, bandleader Alabaster plays with awareness and quiet potency… Songs veer delightfully from the Indian subcontinent…to Arabia…to Beale Street… to Trinidad… and display Alabaster’s ability to write compellingly in the modern American jazz vein. With his recording of crazy love music, drummer/composer Alabaster has crafted a noteworthy release that reveals its secrets more upon repeated listening. Eric is one of the most creative and interesting composers working the scene today. I can’t wait to hear what he comes up with next."
— Brad Walseth, JazzChicago.net
"Hats off to Eric Alabaster - He has accessed a wholly creative way of being! As both a composer and leader, he is charting an exciting new course for music in the twenty-first century."
----- Fred Alston - Bassoonist, credits Hubert Laws, Janos Starker
“Drummer Eric Alabaster shows himself flexible and able to mesh with the Indian stylistic parameters with conviction…one of the more successful Jazz-Indian Fusion outings in some time."
----- Cadence Magazine
"Another gem from the downtown (Brooklyn) music scene.”
---- Bruce Lee Galanter Downtown Music Guide