Alec Milstein

In 1983, I was living in Boston, studying music. I was writing songs and learning how to play jazz, when a song that I wrote with a friend got picked up by Chaka Khan for her "I feel for you" record. I went to new York for the session and worked with her then producer, the incomparable Arif Mardin. From then on, I knew I had found my place, and have been rolling ever since.

In 1984, I moved to Los Angeles and met keyboard player/producer Jeff Lorber, and joined his band. After a tour of the US and Japan, I began recording extensively with Jeff, and then co-producing, writing and arranging with him. I worked with such artists as Michael Franks, Juan Gabriel, and the Manhattan Transfer to name a few.

Then on a recommendation, I played bass for Bette Midler on her Christmas special 1991, and in 1994 went on the road with Diana Ross for her 30th anniversary tour of Europe and South America. I stayed in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay for almost a month after the tour ended, visiting my family there and soaking up the incredible music culture of South America, with which I identified with immediately. A few months later, I made my first trip to see the Carnaval in Brazil. What resulted was a wonderful musical mixture of my upbringing in the States, and my experiences with people and places all over the world.