The son of a violinist, Alexander Sputh took up the guitar at 13 and soon immersed himself in blues, jazz, and bossa nova. By 20 he had chosen a professional path in music. After leaving his studies at the University of Cologne, he toured with various jazz and jazz-rock ensembles, performing at European festivals such as Châteauvallon (France), Pori (Finland), Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), and Leuven (Belgium), and recorded several albums across different styles.
In 1985/86 he furthered his training at the Banff Centre (Canada) with John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Dave Liebman, and Richie Beirach. He has lived in the Canary Islands for over 30 years. Spanish National Television (TVE) devoted a half-hour segment to him on Jazz entre amigos (1989), and in 2000 he presented his quartet at the Canarias Jazz & Más International Festival.
He currently plays in several jazz-rooted projects: Ziriab (flamenco-jazz, with Pedro Sanz and Kike Perdomo), Palm Fiction (with Martin Hohwalter, piano, and Thomas Kagermann, violin), and a duo with Cuban cellist Cary Rosa Varona, among others.
Sputh also commands an extraordinary whistling technique, which he uses as another instrument: he was invited to the International Whistling Festival in Switzerland (1997) and recorded all the whistled melodies for the feature film Ein fliehendes Pferd (based on Martin Walser’s novel), released in 2007.
