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Alex & Nilusha is a collaborative project based in Australia, led by percussionist Alex Pertout and vocalist Nilusha Dassenaike, which features a cross-cultural contemporary sound informed by their Latin American and South Asian heritage. Nilusha has performed in concerts, jazz clubs, festivals, and on radio and television in Australia, as well as in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mexico, and Cuba.
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Recordings from Alex Pertout and Nilusha Dassenaike have featured various national and international guests including US guitarist Mike Stern, Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, pianist Paul Grabowsky, Indigenous Australian singer-songwriter Tom E. Lewis, latin-jazz flautist Dave Valentin, guitarist Leonard Grigoryan, Puerto Rican pianist Edsel Gomez, Cuban tres master Pancho Amat, Cuban violinist William Roblejo, and trumpetist Miroslav Bukovsky.
Alex Pertout and Nilusha Dassenaike’s debut album Moments in Time has received various commendations, including an ABC Jazz 'Album of the Week' and an ABC Jazz Notes 'Top 5 Australian Jazz Albums of 2012' endorsement, while their latest release Tales To Tell recorded in Melbourne, New York, Buenos Aires, London and Havana was awarded the 'Premio Internacional' at the 2015 XIX CubaDisco Music Awards in Havana, Cuba. With an invitation from the 2016 XX CubaDisco Festival, Alex and Nilusha returned to Cuba and Mexico in May 2016 presenting music from their recent album Afterglow. The tour was sponsored by an Arts Project Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts.
Alex Pertout is from Santiago, Chile. [1] He lived in Gorizia, Italy, as an early teen and grew up in Melbourne, where he developed his musical skills and later graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with High Distinction. He holds an MPhil in Music from the Australian National University. Pertout has recorded on hundreds of albums and motion picture soundtracks. [2] Some of these include albums by Powderfinger and Daryl Braithwaite, and soundtracks such as Crocodile Dundee and It Runs in the Family. Pertout is a founding member of the Australian Art Orchestra led by Paul Grabowsky, with whom he has toured nationally and internationally over the last nineteen years. Pertout has produced albums, and is the author of "Sight Reading: The Rhythm Book" published internationally by Mel Bay. He is a senior lecturer in music at the Faculty of VCA and MCM, University of Melbourne. [3]
Nilusha Dassenaike was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and moved to Melbourne as a five-month-old with her family. She studied Fine Art and Music at the Victorian College of the Arts and received an MPhil in Music at the Australian National University. Dassenaike has performed in an array of genres, and with artists such as Don Burrows, James Morrison and Renee Geyer among others. Dassenaike has worked on television shows such as Australia's Got Talent and Singing Bee. She was featured in the theme song for the series Canal Road [4] . Since 2021, Dassenaike has performed and toured with Tina Arena, including a 2022 performance opening for Billy Joel at the MCG on December 10 2022. [5]
