Franklin High Grad Brings Jazz to Baltimore Tonight

Owings Mills native Alex Ariff grew up around music and took every opportunity in high school to perform. He played saxophone for the jazz band, marching band, wind ensemble, symphonic band and musicals. He sang in the honors chorus and even formed his own a cappella group.

While he certainly blossomed at , it wasn’t until his freshman year at Florida State University in 2006 that he really stepped up his game.

He wasn’t enrolled in the college’s music program, but hung out in the rehearsal spaces, networking and learning everything he could.

“I had never been around that many talented musicians,” he said. “It was a place where I could walk the halls and literally hear the talent.”

It wasn’t long until he started gigging with several bands and formed his own, Sheriff Ariff & The Wali Sanga.

Ariff brings his blend of pop, soul and funk with the improvisational spirit of jazz to Baltimore tonight. The free show is at Joe Squared in the Power Plant, at 30 Market Place, at 10 p.m.

Tonight’s show marks a couple of firsts for Ariff, who lives in Montclair, NJ, these days. It’s his first performance back in his home city, and his first performing his music as a duo.

Ariff keeps a rotating cast of musicians around for Wali Sanga, and his band has been as large as 11 people, as it was at his last show.

“It allows the music to continually change and that’s a beautiful thing,” he said of playing with different musicians at different times. “It allows people to reinterpret my music, and I don’t put a lot of limitations on them.”

Tonight, the music will be stripped down, with Ariff covering vocals, saxophone and keyboards with only the accompaniment of drummer/percussionist Kirk Kubicek.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to completely control where the music goes,” Ariff said.

While the duo will be the core of the band, there will be guests, most notably Ariff’s childhood friend Stephen Mulligan, a Peadbody-trained violinist, and tenor sax player Daniel Wallace, who goes back to middle school with Ariff. He will also be selling his album, The Sanga Sessions, at tonight’s show.

While the stage may fill up with guests – Ariff said several sax players may sit in – tonight’s show will be an experiment for Ariff, who plans to explore the room a duo gives him.

“I’ve never done anything like this before.”