Johnny Alegre

L-R: bassist Ron McClure, guitarist-composer Johnny Alegre, drummer Billy Hart

Juan Bautista H. Alegre III (born June 4, 1955), known professionally as Johnny Alegre, is a jazz guitarist and composer from Manila, Philippines. He leads the jazz group Johnny Alegre Affinity and the world music group Humanfolk.

Quotes

• One of my fondest childhood recollections is spinning 7” vinyl records on my plastic turntable, an RCA 45-EY. Becoming a composer-musician and recording artist was a natural recourse and fruition.
  • All Jazzed Up with Guitarist-Composer Johnny Alegre

• I was stuck somewhere between originality and no gigs. My own colleagues called me the conceptualist, the maverick with the only too occasional stadium concert.
  • ‘Johnny Alegre 3’: Journey of a jazz hound

• I was just a kid inventing my own guitar chords because I did not have a teacher. Whatever sounded good to me was effectively correct. There were no rules.
  • Johnny Alegre revives underground radio hit

• As one who wrote interesting stories — whimsical stories, perhaps — and who drew whimsical maps and landscapes across a long canvas. Is this real enough? I also wish to be remembered as a Filipino, most of all.
  • The Jazz Journeyman