age 18

Cleveland, Ohio, US

Self-taught

Listen to an original of mine! (November 14th) 2010

Genres: Classical, instrumental, rock, metal, blues

Instruments: Guitar, vocals

Years active: 2001 - present

Music career, bands, associated acts:

RECESS 2008 - 2010

GROUNDED 2010 - 2010

Alex Raz Band 2010 - 2011

VELOCITY 2011 - 2012

RECESS 2013 to present

Notable instruments:

Dean guitar

Ergotar guitar

1986 Jackson Soloist guitar

2012 Ibanez 25th anniversary limited edition "Neon Green" guitar

Misc. equipment:

Line 6 amps.

ToneRite play-in device

Alex has been playing guitar since age 4, and by age 16 is now known as one of the most talented technical lead guitar players for his age in the world. Classical trained & has learned a number of intricate guitar composition's over the past 6 years, including two of Paganini's Caprice's, as well as Bach, Beethoven & Vivaldi.

His first live performance was in March 2007 at the age of 9. A video from the performance was featured on Yahoo.com's front page and received over 400,000 views playing the Journey song Lights with lead singer Vincent Fondale (then age 7) of Recess. 2008 brought Alex, Vince & Anthony from Recess to perform at the Whiskey a GoGo in Hollywood with drummer Julian Pavone (Guinness World Record holder, World's Youngest Drummer). The band also traveled to Chicago and played at the WGN TV Morning Show live in Sept 2008.

In April 2009 Recess played their first official show at the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor Ohio. A video of the Journey song Separate Ways was recorded and this time Yahoo featured the song on it's front page for 24 hours and it received over 750,000 views within a few days. Alex put together a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner on guitar and was invited to play at Quicken Loans Arena for the 2009 NCAA MAC Tournament's Mens & Women's Finals games. A video of the performance was also featured on Yahoo.com's website and Alex eventually received over 4 million youtube hits by the age of 13.

Michael Jackson's tour director Michael Bearden contacted Alex within the next few months and they were interested in Alex playing guitar on the Michael Jackson's final 02 Arena tour in London. MJ died on Alex's birthday June 25th 2009 a few months after the Separate Ways viral video. In November 2009 Alex entered the Cleveland Cavaliers Top Talent Contest and was voted by fans as one of the top 2 finalists, and won the competition, competing in between time-outs voted the winner by fans at the Arena. He played and sang Guns & Roses Sweet Child O'Mine at halftime for winning the contest (All video's mentioned in bio are still currently on youtube). In 2010 Alex left Recess and formed an original project the Alex Raz band, and opened up on New Year's Eve for Pat Travers Band and Rock Legend Rick Derringer at the Bluestone in Columbus. Earlier in 2010 Alex opened up for the Jimi Hendrix Tribute show at BB King's Blues Club in New York's Time Square. Alex's next project was a band called Velocity, who were invited to open for Mike Keneally, guitarist/keyboard player who has toured with Frank Zappa, Joe Satriani & more. On March 25, 2012 Alex played the Star Spangled Banner at the Cleveland Cavs game vs. Phoenix Suns, & was able to meet & take picture on the court with his favorite player Kyrie Irving (dream come true). Alex re-joined Recess in January 2013. From the age of 10 Alex has been honing his craft, also taking voice lessons as well. His other passion is basketball, and is a diehard Cavs fan, so being able to play for his hero's (Lebron James, Kyrie Irving, etc), guitar playing has been Alex's main focus most of his life, and has put thousands of hours of practice into his craft.