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

In 1984, Alec moved to Los Angeles and met keyboard player/producer Jeff Lorber, and joined his band. After a tour of the US and Japan, he began recording extensively with Jeff, and then co-producing, writing and arranging with him. Alec has worked with such artists as Michael Franks, Juan Gabriel, and the Manhattan Transfer to name a few. Then on a recommendation, he 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. He stayed in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay for almost a month after the tour ended, visiting with family there and soaking up the incredible musical culture of South America, which he identified with immediately. A few months later, he made his first trip to see the Carnaval in Brazil. What resulted was a wonderful musical mixture of his upbringing in the States, and his experiences with people and places all over the world.