Helio Alves: Samba Of Sorts

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 fad. The Unity Quartet's Samba of Sorts reminds us that Brazilian jazz is not a genre locked in time, but a living, breathing language that continues to evolve, migrating across cultures and reshaping itself in real time.

The Unity Quartet was formed by four Brazilian-born musicians now based in New York. Pianist Hélio Alves, guitarist Guilherme Monteiro, bassist Gili Lopes and drummer Alex Kautz together craft a compelling crosscurrent of samba, baião, and post-bop, all refracted through a distinctly modern jazz lens.

Recorded over two days at Brooklyn's Brorby Studios, the album feels both rooted and exploratory. It opens with Milton Nascimento's "Viola Violar," setting the tone with Monteiro's lyrical phrasing and a gentle rock pulse beneath the hymn-like melody. Monteiro's own "Lucena" stretches out patiently, unfolding with dense harmonic textures that reveal the band's deep jazz vocabulary while honoring its folk origins.

Throughout Samba of Sorts, the ensemble reveals a keen ability to integrate rhythmic complexity without ever losing the listener. Alves's "Frenzy" is a case in point—a propulsive, off-kilter piece that toys with rhythmic displacement and dynamic contrast. Kautz's title track, "Samba of Sorts," further blurs lines by slipping samba into a 9/8 groove, maintaining its essence while reshaping its frame.

Hermeto Pascoal's "Santo Antonio" and Luiz Gonzaga 's "Pau de Arara" pay tribute to the elders, reimagining their rhythmic blueprints with contemporary edge and improvisational elasticity. Meanwhile, Lopes's "Paloma Plage" brings the set to a gentle close, a breezy jazz waltz, swaying with cinematic warmth and understated grace.

What makes Samba of Sorts stand out is not just the players' collective virtuosity—though there's plenty of that —but their shared aesthetic: grounded in Brazilian forms, shaped by the New York jazz scene, and animated by a spirit of genuine dialogue. This is not a fusion project in the traditional sense—it is a conversation among equals, where no tradition overshadows the other, and where rhythm and melody are tools for both memory and invention.

With Samba of Sorts, Unity Quartet does not simply reinterpret Brazilian classics—they extend the lineage, bringing samba and bossa nova into the present with intelligence, heart and soul.

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