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Jazz Articles about Pedro Melo Alves
Alma Tree: Sonic Alchemy Suprema
by Karl Ackermann
New York native Ra Kalam Bob Moses grew up in the same building as Max Roach, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones. Early on he saw performances by many of the best jazz drummers in history, including Roy Haynes, Rashied Ali, Milford Graves, Billy Higgins, and Ed Blackwell. As a teenager in the mid-1960s, he played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Moses was not only destined to be a drummer; he had soaked up a variety of jazz styles and sub-genres that ...
read moreLuis Vicente Trio: Chanting In The Name Of
by Glenn Astarita
All-world jazz man, world music maker and fierce improvisational drummer Hamid Drake penned venerating liners for this album led by the always in demand Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente and his trio. And Drake's correlations with estimable Sufi mystic and teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan's view that music is life, and a means of discovery that parallels the harmony of the entire universe among relationships with nature and other pleasurable perceptions is spot on. Hence, the trio attains a symbiosis, rooted in ...
read morePedro Melo Alves: Lumina
by Mark Corroto
If the title was not already taken by author Dave Eggers, Portuguese drummer and composer Pedro Melo Alves might have titled this recording A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. During a brief reprieve from the global pandemic, in November 2020, Melo Alves presented the 22-piece Omniae Large Ensemble at the Centro Cultural Vila Flor in Guimarães, Portugal. He expanded his Omniae Ensemble with vocalists, electronics, tuba, clarinets, flutes, bassoon, cello, and classical guitar to present this commissioned work.
read moreJavier Subatin: Mountains
by Troy Dostert
Guitarist Javier Subatin may have gotten his start in his native Argentina, but he's been in Europe since 2014, when he began working in Paris. An eventual relocation to Portugal put him in contact with some of that country's most adventurous improvisers. His debut release, Autotelic, was a duo record with João Paulo Esteves da Silva, released in 2018 on Portugal's Sintoma label, and he followed it up with Variaciones, a self-produced quintet album in 2019 and a trio album, ...
read morePedro Melo Alves, James Brandon Lewis Quartet & Ohad Talmor Trio
by Maurice Hogue
Here's another of those almost-all-music editions of One Man's Jazz, with just an intro at the top of each hour. The music includes samplings from new releases by Portuguese drummer/percussionist Pedro Melo Alves & his Ominiae Large Ensemble, bassists Juan Bayon from Buenos Aires and Tomo Jacobson from Copenhagen, and several saxophonists: James Brandon Lewis Nick Mazzarella, Darius Jones, Patrick Shiroishi, Lena Bloch & Feathery, Loren Stillman (with pianist Russ Lossing), and Ohad Talmor. Enjoy! Playlist James Brandon ...
read morePedro Melo Alves: Lumina
by Karl Ackermann
On the burgeoning Portuguese jazz scene, drummer Pedro Melo Alves is becoming one of the more prolific artists. The multiple award-winning composer has accumulated international praise for four unique recordings in the space of a year. On Lumina he has extended his existing ensemble and assembled the Omniae Large Ensemble of twenty-two musicians for a project commissioned by the Guimarães Jazz Festival. Melo Alves' Clean Feed Records debut was a quartet outing (with vocalists), In Igma (2020), a ...
read morePedro Melo Alves: In Igma
by Karl Ackermann
Jazz has had a presence in Portugal since the mid-1920s but had found itself in decline from the 1970s. The revolutionary jazz scene in Portugal, circa the 2010s, has produced a profusion of rising stars. Violist Ernesto Rodrigues, trumpeter Susana Santos Silva, Orquestra Jazz De Matosinhos, and the Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble are among those who have emerged as influential beyond the Portuguese border. Two driving forces in that country's improvised music—drummer-percussionist Pedro Melo Alves and experimental guitarist Abdul Moimême—team ...
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