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Helio Alves

Pianist and composer Helio Alves has received high praise as an in-demand sideman with Joe Henderson, Yo-Yo Ma, Slide Hampton, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, Paquito D'Rivera, Claudio Roditi, Oscar Castro-Neves and Gato Barbieri, to name but a few. And now, with more than 40 recordings as a sideman - and two at the helm of his own ensembles - this incomparable musician is quite deservedly earning respect as a leader too.

Alves' second recording as leader, Portrait in Black in White (Reservoir Music, 2004), once again displays his impressive mastery of both straight-ahead and Brazilian jazz styles. The release is highlighted by four Alves originals - "Frenzy," "Sambetinho," "Loose Samba" and "Song for Anna" - and features his longtime musical friend Santi Debriano on bass and Matt Wilson on drums.

Alves is emerging as a powerful interpreter of even the most familiar standards, such as "You Must Believe In Spring," "Angel Eyes," and Jobim's "Portrait in Black and White," all included on his new release, and imparts a distinctively fluid and rhythmic stamp to his music. Alves selected all the music for Portrait in Black in White, and included compositions by bassist Steve Swallow ("Falling Grace") and Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and composer, Egberto Gismonti ("Loro"). The mix of straight-ahead and Brazilian sensibilities reflects Alves' personal tastes and his musical complexity. "I love jazz, and I love Brazilian music, and I always try to open things up a bit by mixing the two together," he says. "It's good to be able to go back and forth, trading one off the other. It keeps things interesting."

The son of two pianists, Alves was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1966 and started piano lessons at age 6. Following his early immersion in playing the pop standards and classical music favored by his parents, he gravitated to jazz in his teens and formed a band with some friends. "I had so much fun trying to play jazz. I just enjoyed it so much. With classical music, you have to play what's on the paper, exactly as it's written. That early discipline was good, and it still helps me keep my chops together, but jamming was such a blast, such a contrast," he recalls. Alves entered high school jazz festival competitions and won, two years in a row. One of the judges, the well-respected Sao Paulo bass player, the late Xu Viana, became his first jazz harmony teacher, and suggested he continue his studies at Berklee College of Music. Alves moved to Boston at age 18 and received his BA in Professional Music in 1990.

He decided to stay in Boston following graduation, and there met trumpeter Claudio Roditi, who advised the 24-year old pianist to move to New York City, and urged him to get in touch when he arrived. "One phone call to Claudio, that was it," says Alves of getting his start in Manhattan in 1993. "I met everybody else through Claudio. I've played with him now for many years, and he has showed me a lot," he says. Alves recorded two Reservoir releases with Roditi, Samba Manhattan Style (1995) and Double Standards (1997). From 1995 - 1997, Alves toured extensively with Joe Henderson's Double Rainbow Quartet celebrating the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and was featured in the Grammy®-winning release, Joe Henderson's Big Band (Verve, 1996).

Alves was pianist on Grammy®-winning releases by Yo-Yo Ma (Obrigado Brazil, 2003) and Paquito D'Rivera (Brazilian Dreams, 2002), and on the Grammy®-nominated Samba Jazz Fantasia (Malandro Records, 2002), by Duduka da Fonseca. His growing discography includes releases with Rosa Passos (Amorosa, Sony/Classical), Gino Sitson (Bamisphere, Polyvocal Records), Dave Pietro (Embrace, A Records), Slide Hampton (Slide Plays Jobim), Cadence Trio (Yatrata, Clavebop), Hendrik Meurkens (Amazon River, Blue Toucan), Maucha Adnet (The Jobim Songbook, Kind of Blue Records) and Duduka da Fonseca (Samba Jazz in Black and White, Zoho).He's also featured on recordings and performances with Herbie Mann, Phil Woods, Gal Costa, The Caribbean Jazz Project, Paul Winter, Sadao Watanabe, Harry Allen, Eric Alexander, Hendrik Meurkens, Santi Debriano, Duduka Da Fonseca, Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, Maucha Adnet, Vincent Herring, Don Braden, Randy Brecker, David Sanchez, The New York Voices, Mike Stern and Dave Samuels, among many others.

Alves' move to lead his own ensembles was inspired by votes of confidence from two men already familiar with his prowess. During this second recording date with Roditi, both Roditi and producer Mark Feldman suggested Alves give leadership a try. "It was very nice of Mark to make an offer to me to do it; Claudio also encouraged me a lot. I think I might have waited longer to do it without their encouragement, but I'm glad I did it. It's so important to do your own work," he continues. "I really enjoy being a sideman, but people take you more seriously when you also step up as a leader."

In the liner notes for Trios (Reservoir Music, 1998), noted Los Angeles Times music critic Zan Stewart writes: "Here on his debut as leader, this fine pianist from Sao Paulo, Brazil, shows that he's an alluring modernist who exhibits the harmonic depth of a Chick Corea (a major influence) or Bill Evans, the alternatively driving and subtle swing of a Cedar Walton (another strong influence) or McCoy Tuner, the melodic charm of Bud Powell, Wynton Kelly or Herbie Hancock. And like those giants collectively, no mood or milieu is beyond his reach..." Trios features John Patitucci and Nilson Matta on bass, Al Foster, Deduka Da Fonseca and Paulo Braga on drums.

"It was really great recording in the historic Rudy Van Gelder Studio," says Alves, "and working with Mark Feldman was fantastic. He gave me a great deal of creative freedom." Alves drew from experiences gained in working with Henderson, Roditi and Castro Neves to help define his own style of leadership. "Each of them had a different style. Joe was a real jazz guy, didn't say much, just played. Oscar is more in control, more of an arranger, and Claudio, well, he's like a big papa, a mentor. The three of them shaped me quite a bit, and were all very encouraging."

"My own style? I pick guys and let them play. I wanted them to come up with ideas and run with them. Both records sounded great as a result," says Alves.

He's been a headliner at the Taichung International Jazz Festival in Taiwan since its inception in 2003. "I'm really honored by the enthusiasm for my music in Taiwan," he says. "I'm like a star there - now I need about 50 more places like that!" In addition to performing at the new festival, he offered Brazilian music clinics, just as he's done while on tour to German universities and elsewhere. "I first participated in clinics with Duduka DaFonseca, the Drummers' Collective and Portinho. The clinics in Taiwan were my first on my own, and they were really fun."

Studying with the renowned Charlie Banacos provided Alves an inventive and challenging springboard to develop his composing skills. "Most of my compositions started as exercises for Charlie," Alves says. "Charlie's just so amazing, so positive and energetic. He loves teaching, and is so encouraging."

No doubt Alves will himself be described as an encouraging mentor and bandleader in years to come. Helio Alves is successfully combining his abilities as pianist and composer, as leader and sideman, and as straight-ahead and Brazilian jazz musician into a winning combination, one sure to bring him to the forefront of a new generation of players.
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Helio Alves: Samba Of Sorts

Read "Samba Of Sorts" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
May 9, 2025

It is not uncommon for people in the United States to discuss the British Invasion of the 1960s, when groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds became staples of American radio. But alongside this, another invasion was becoming part of the American music scene: bossa nova. “The Girl from Ipanema" (Verve 1964) topped the charts, and seemingly overnight, the sixties exuded the Latin vibe. While bossa nova echoed the sixties spirit, it was far from a passing ...

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The Paul Carlon Quintet: Blues for Vita The Paul Carlon Quintet

Read "Blues for Vita The Paul Carlon Quintet" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
August 3, 2024

Blues for Vita provides listeners with an outstanding eight-selection presentation that is a modernized throwback to the days when tenor-trumpet quintets such as Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Lee Morgan's, and Cannonball Adderley's ensembles were the mainstays of jazz labels such as Riverside, Columbia, and Blue Note. The album offers a well-produced mix of straight-ahead, boogaloo, and Latin-flavors from five terrific Paul Carlon originals, two Broadway musical grabs, and a Larry Willis tune made most famous by Woody Shaw ...

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Alex Kautz: Where We Begin

Read "Where We Begin" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
June 28, 2024

Born and raised in São Paulo, drummer Alex Kautz moved to Mexico City with his parents in 1996. His sound world growing up included his parents' MPB (música popular brasileira), bossa nova and samba, along with North American rock and a bit of classical music. Jack DeJohnette's New Directions (ECM, 1978)--with Lester Bowie, Eddie Gomez and John Abercrombie--turned his head toward jazz in a big way. Chick Corea's Return to Forever (Light as a Feather, Polydor, 1973) caught his ear ...

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Dial and DeRosa: Keep Swingin'

Read "Keep Swingin'" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 30, 2024

Keep Swingin', a splendid new album from pianist Garry Dial and drummer Rich DeRosa, features “the music of Charlie Banacos." Charlie who? you may ask. And the answer is, there are jazz educators, and then there was Charlie Banacos, whose talent and ingenuity in the classroom influenced and inspired countless jazz musicians for more than fifty years. During that time, he designed more than a hundred courses of study and wrote half a dozen books on composition and improvisation.

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Gili Lopes: Algures

Read "Algures" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
January 13, 2024

Bassist, composer, musical director and producer Gili Lopes is nothing if not an astute judge of talent. After all, for Algures (from an old Portuguese word meaning 'somewhere'), he has recruited a redoubtable case of accompanists, not the least of whom is saxophonist John Ellis, he of fruitful collaborations with Charlie Hunter and Miguel Zenon among others, as well as a string of diverse albums under his own name such as Dance Like There's No Tomorrow (Hyena, 2008) and Puppet ...

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Torben Westergaard: Jazz Brazil

Read "Jazz Brazil" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
April 6, 2023

For Torben Westergaard, sooner or later all roads lead back to Brazil. The special flavor of South American jazz shaped his life from an early age, and has stayed a recurring staple in his music from his debut Brazilian Heart (Self Produced, 1996) through the Tangofied (Gateway) series of 2013-17. If it's taken him a while to circle back to this favorite milieu again, that's because he has been roaming a long way in the meantime, from home base Denmark ...

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Hendrik Meurkens: Manhattan Samba

Read "Manhattan Samba" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
May 5, 2021

Composer, virtuoso on both the vibraphone and harmonica, German-born New York-based Hendrik Meurkens presents yet another colorful and tantalizing taste of Brazilian music on the exquisite Manhattan Samba. A proponent of the samba and bossa nova styles of music after a full immersion while living in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1980s, Meurkens continues documenting his passion for the music, this time offering new compositions, includes previously recorded tunes and features the music of Brazilian/jazz masters Ivan Lins, Toninho ...

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Recording

Brazilian Pianist Helio Alves Releases "Musica" On Jazz Legacy Productions, November 9

Source: DL Media
October 28, 2010

LABEL DEBUT FEATURES REUBEN ROGERS & ANTONIO SANCHEZ, AMONG OTHER SPECIAL GUESTS While growing up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, studying classical piano, Helio Alves did not pay much attention to the samba and other indigenous rhythms that surrounded him. Yet today, as one of the most in-demand and consistently creative pianists on the international jazz scene, he incorporates samba, baião, and other Brazilian patterns into his technically stunning, rhythmically and harmonically challenging, and frequently rhapsodic approach to jazz. Such characteristics ...
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Performance / Tour

Helio Alves Quartet Appearing at Cachaca Friday & Saturday, December 14 and 15

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
November 29, 2007

117

Performance / Tour

Bargemusic December and January Jazz Programs

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
November 20, 2007

THURSDAY NIGHT JAZZ SERIES AT BARGEMUSIC

For reservations and further information, please call: (718) 624-2083 Or e-mail us at [email protected] Tickets are $35 regular, $30 seniors, $20 students

Located at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, Bargemusic began its Thursday night JAZZ Series starting in June 2007. Please find the September schedule below with more performances to come! Imagine a truly unique New York City location with charm, history and spectacular water views. A location that will delight ...
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132

Performance / Tour

Helio Alves Quartet Appearing at the Zinc Bar November 20, 21, 22 Sets at 9, 11 and 12:30PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
November 20, 2007

126

Performance / Tour

Upcoming Appearances for the Helio Alves Trio the Kitano 8/2 + Litchfield Jazz Festival 8/5

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
July 22, 2007

HELIO ALVES TRIO is; Helio Alves: Piano Lonnie Plaxico: Bass Ernesto Simpson: Drums

appearing at:

The Kitano Thursday, August 2nd 8:00 and 9:45 pm

66 Park Ave@ 38th St (212) 885 7119 (no cover charge)

August 5th at the Litchfield Jazz Festival With Matt Wilson and Lonnie Plaxico

“Alves' work melds a percussive edge with a lively, fluent right hand..." John Ephland ...
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Performance / Tour

Helio Alves Trio Oct 11th at Sweet Rhythm

Source: All About Jazz
September 28, 2006

Helio Alves Trio

Helio Alves: Piano Santi Debriano: Bass Anthony Pinciotti: Drums

Oct 11th at Sweet Rhythm 88 Seventh Ave. (at Bleecker St.) (212) 255 3626 http://www.sweetrhythmny.com/ 2 Sets at 8 and 10 PM P

laying songs from Helio's CD Portrait in Black and White

“Brazilian pianist Helio Alves lets things rip with his samba-laced, straight-ahead Portrait in Black and White ... Alves' work melds a percussive edge ...
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Performance / Tour

Helio Alves Quartet at 55 Bar Monday, September 11th

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
September 9, 2006

Helio Alves Quartet

Helio Alves - Piano Vic Juris - Guitar Santi Debriano - Bass Ernesto Simpson - Drums

Playing songs from Helio's CD Portrait in Black and White

At the:

55 Bar 55 Christopher Street, NYC (212) 929 9883 Monday, September 11th Sets at 7 and 8PM http://www.55bar.com/

“Brazilian pianist Helio Alves lets things rip with his samba- laced, straight-ahead Portrait in Black ...
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101

Performance / Tour

Brazilian Piano and Vocals Maucha Adnet & Helio Alves at Terrace in the Sky June 13

Source: All About Jazz
June 11, 2006

"Jazz in the Sky"

Produced by RobertaOnTheArts.com

At TERRACE IN THE SKY 400 West 119th Street (bet. Amsterdam Ave & Morningside Drive) New York, NY 10027 212.666.9490

Reservations suggested for guaranteed seating Sky Grille & Cash Bar. No Cover!

LIVE MUSIC 7:30PM - 9:30PM BAR OPEN LATE!

Spectacular skyline views & river views ** Outdoor tapas & grille Superb wines & exotic drinks ** Great networking events
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Performance / Tour

Hendrik Meurkens-Helio Alves Brazilian Jzzz Duo Tuesday, March 21st at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: All About Jazz
March 21, 2006

HENDRIK MEURKENS - HELIO ALVES BRAZILIAN JAZZ DUO

Tuesday, March 21st 8:30 PM

at the CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC 10014 (212) 989-9319 http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Hendrik Meurkens, harmonica Helio Alves, piano

Hendrik Meurkens and Helio Alves have been playing together since 1994, when they first toured Europe with the Hendrik Meurkens Samba Jazz Quartet. That same year, they recorded their first CD October Colors.

In the last decade, Hendrik ...
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Performance / Tour

Hendrik Meurkens and Helio Alves Brazilian Jazz Piano Duo February 6, 2006 at A Piano-Plus Jazz Series ( AC Pianocraft Showroom/Concert Space)

Source: All About Jazz
February 4, 2006

February 4, 2006 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] ? ? ? Reminder!!! RobertaOnTheArts.com and A.C. Pianocraft, Inc. www.RobertaOnTheArts.com and http://www.acpianocraft.com/homepage.asp Are Pleased to Announce A Piano-Plus Jazz Series February 6, 2006 Hendrik Meurkens and Helio Alves Brazilian Jazz Duo Hendrik Meurkens on Harmonica and Helio Alves on Antique Steinway All Concert Profits to be Sent to The New Orleans Musicians' Clinic http://wwoz.org/clinic/ $20/Ticket, At the Door, Includes 8 - 10 PM Concert, Wine, and ...
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"Alves' work melds a percussive edge with a lively, fluent right hand." —John Ephland, Downbeat

"His performances were technically astonishing, showing great rhythmic, harmonic and improvisational strengths, which few, if any, could match. His melodic free form inventiveness and sense of time stood out like a free spirit seeking to liberate itself from all traditional constraints." —Bruce Gilman, brazzil.com