Alain Pacowski was born in Paris, France and grew up in Biarritz in the Basque province, near the Spanish border. It is trough his father Marcel, himself a jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, that he fell in love with Jazz at an early age. By the time he picked up the guitar at 10 years old, he had already studied its whole history, embracing with the same passion the early records of Louis Armstrong or the last avant-garde experiments of John Coltrane. Soon after, Alain started playing in his father's band, the "Happy Feet Jazz Band", performing regularly in Jazz festivals. He also got to spend time and sit in with many of the Swing Era musicians, like Joe Jones, Milt Buckner, Benny Carter, Arnett Cobb, Oliver Jackson, Cliff Smalls and many others, who came to perform in Biarritz during concerts organized by the local Hot Club. The close proximity with these Jazz legends shaped Alain's dream to move to the U.S so that he could immerse himself in the land of Jazz in order to live and breathe its culture. After a few years of playing extensively in France and Spain, he finally moved to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music, on a scholarship, after being recommended by guitarist John Mclaughlin. While studying at Berklee, he played weekly gigs in the house band at Wally's Cafe, a great local jazz club. There, he honed his skills with the likes of Kurtis Rivers, Antonio Hart, Darren Barrett, Roy Hargrove, Jim Black, Chris Speed, Joshua Redman, Dwayne Burno,Richie Goods, Melvin Butler and others. In 2001 he recorded a quartet album, of old standards, "Rendez-vous in New York", with his father, Marcel Pacowski. Then, after years of contributing to the Boston Jazz scene, Alain moved to New York in 2011. There, he recorded his new album, "Double A", in collaboration with trumpet player Alan Chaubert, at the end of 2013. Recorded with pianist Helio Halves, bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Mark Ferber, "Double A" contains compositions by Alain Pacowski and Alan Chaubert as well as covers by Wayne Shorter, Ivan Lins and the Beatles.
These days, Alain shares his life between New York City and Boston, playing gigs, presenting his lecture "The Art of Listening to Jazz"and furthering his passion for Jazz, blues and guitar.
