BEAUTY, GRAZING AT THE TROUGH NOW AVAILABLE! "Beauty, Grazing at the Trough" is now available at the iTunes music store or, if you just need the feel of cold, hard plastic in your hands, go to cdbaby and amazon.com. While there, you can sample all of the tunes and leave a review. BROADCAST NEWS Click here for info on where you can hear, read about, and/or buy "Beauty, Grazing at the Trough"! This includes NPR's All Songs Considered and a couple of videos on YouTube! BGATT AT PANDORA "Beauty, Grazing at the Trough" is now part of the Music Genome Project and Pandora Internet Radio. This is a very cool music referral site that helps you find new music based on what you like to listen to. It's an excellent way for independent artists to get exposure, and I'm thrilled to be part of their roster! CHECK OUT MC FRONTALOT I recently had the good fortune to contribute some slide-guitar playing to the newest record by Nerdcore's pre-eminent prognosticator, MC Frontalot. The record is called "Secrets From the Future", and I play on "Origin of Species". Nerdcore could rise up! CROSSING PATHS NOW AVAILABLE ON ITUNES! "Crossing Paths", my Jazz record from 2000, is now available at the iTunes Music Store for download. Click here to check it out! SYNDICATE ANY BOAT YOU ROW Maybe you caught this recent article in the New York Times about The Beatles. Did you also see my well-intended but maybe too snitty reply (mine is the second one down)?		Guitarist and songwriter Alec Berlin's musical palette extends from the orchestra pits of Broadway to recording studios all over New York and performance venues around the world. Alec's music has won him fans all over the US, Canada, and Israel. After completing a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Alec was off to Boston's New England Conservatory of Music for a Master's of Music as a Jazz Guitar Performance Major. Named guitarist for the Honors Jazz Ensemble, Alec performed in N.E.C.'s own Jordan Hall as well as Symphony Hall in Boston and New York's Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. He also attended the Summer Jazz Workshop at Canada's Banff Centre for the Arts, where he had the opportunity to perform with such Jazz luminaries as Jim Hall and Kenny Wheeler. Alec followed up his academic work with 6 months in residence at the Arad Arts Project in Arad, Israel. While there, Alec performed all over Israel, including on live national television and leading a concert of original music at Beit Lessin in Tel Aviv. Upon completing his tenure in Arad, it was off to New York, where he formed the Alec Berlin Group, a vehicle for his energetic Jazz compositions. Three years of performance at such New York venues as Makor, The Jewish Museum, and the storied 55 Bar culminated in the recording of "Crossing Paths", a Jazz recording that features 8 of Alec's original compositions, ranging in styles from be-bop to swing to more adventurous, rock-inspired music. Completing "Crossing Paths" marked a turning point for Alec. He had been vigorously studying Jazz for 10 years, and now directed his attention towards other styles of music - in particular, the rock and pop music that he listened to growing up. He quickly found himself recruited to play in a variety of bands in New York. This led to Alec's work with some of the great acts of the Ô50s and Ô60s, including Lou Christie, The Shirelles, and Li'l Anthony and the Imperials. Around this time, Alec also teamed up with some fellow veterans of the New York rock scene to create Quixotic, a trio whose energy derives from the decades of experience its members bring to the table, experience playing every style of music from the most conventional pop to the most abstract Jazz. In 2005, after a year of collective composition and performance, Quixotic released "Sneakin' In", an exciting synthesis of these varied influences. Never one to sit still for long, Alec also began writing and recording material for what would become "Beauty at the Trough", an album of 12 original rock songs. Alec wrote, arranged, produced, mixed, and, for the first time, sang all of the songs on this exciting collection, after a year of test-driving the material live in clubs around New York City. As if such busy performance and writing schedules were not enough, Alec's skills and dependability have come to the attention of a variety of Music Directors throughout the Broadway community. Since 2004, he has performed in the shows "AIDA", "The Lion King", "Caroline, or Change", "Rent", "Bklyn: The Musical", "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", "All Shook Up", "Mamma Mia", "The Color Purple", and "The Wedding Singer". Alec is also Music Director for "The ATrain Plays", a 24-hour musical theater project set on New York City subway's A Train. Performances, which have taken place at the Neighborhood Playhouse, New World Stages, and Playwright's Horizon, have been glowingly reviewed in the New York Times and, most recently, on NPR's "All Things Considered." With such a wide variety of activity in his life, Alec depends heavily on the energy he draws from his busy teaching schedule, both at NYU and in private, where his students range in age from kindergarten to busy professionals.