A CONVERSATION WITH HOMERO ALVAREZ ON JAZZ AND BRAZILIAN RHYTHMS IN SWEDEN

Homero Alvarez is a wonderful musician and composer from Stockholm who was born in Buenos Aires. Today we talk to him about his love for Brazilian rhythms and the influence of samba and baião in his music. He also runs a jazz club called Mornington LIVE and released "Homero Alvarez Sep7ett" , which is a group with some of the best musicians in Stockholm playing new latin jazz. They are planning concerts after the pandemic period is over.

The Album

Tell us about yourself Homero

Well to start with I am in Sweden as a result of the military regime from the 70's in Argentina. My father, who's an actor worked in two political underground movies in the 70's.  The films were banned, and our lives were threatened so we escaped first to Peru and then later to Sweden in 1976. In Stockholm my father built a new theater group. The theater influence has been enormous in my life and after starting my musical studies I started making music for his theater plays. That led me further on to other theater companies as a composer. There after writing music for TV, radio and film..
Having a good ground as composer I always missed the social part of being a musician so I founded a samba jazz quartet called Latin the Mood. Today I try to maintain the two roles as composer and musician. My latest step is building this group of seven (Homero Alvarez Sep7ett) - playing my music that moves between the Brazilian influences and musical themes from different productions I've worked on. Another important part is that I'm allowing my self to take more space with my guitar in a leading role.

Greatest inspirations or influences? 

• Brazilian music, MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira).
  João Bosco, Gilberto Gil, Djavan and Antonio Carlos Jobim but also newer stuff as Hamilton de Holanda in Brazil or Julian Lage in the US.
  Brad Mehldau and Aaron Parks do also wonderful jazz.

• Inspiration also comes from theater and films I've seen. The communication between the told story and the role music plays in it.

Tell us about your new projects and jazz club?

I'm now running a septet that I call HOMERO ALVAREZ SEP7ETT. We've just released a first EP on digital platforms as Spotify and more. Soon we'll release the second one together with our gig at Stockholm Jazz Festival in October. It's nice with some of the best musicians from Stockholm and I feel that we are quite alone in presenting this kind of live kicking, up-tempo samba jazz. It's music with a lot of improvisation and solos but also groovy with focus on compositions and arrangements.

The Jazz club?

It's called Mornington LIVE and offers live jazz every Thursday. We have been going on for six years and reached more than 240 gigs before the Corona killed it all..  We are situated in Mornington Hotel in the very center of Stockholm. Its a wonderful space where the vast majority of Swedish bands from today play.

Tell us how covid has affected the music business and how do you see it evolving in the near future for all creatives? 

As a cultural worker it's been terrible. I have guitar students who I managed to give online classes to but unfortunately all my other work is closed or on hold. This was one of the reasons I decided to do a digital release of our first EP. People can still enjoy music in their lock down.

So why Brazilian rhythms in Sweden?

Sweden has a long history with Brazil. Many famous singers from the 60's such as Cornelis Vreeswijk, Lill Lindfors and Sylvia Wrethammar introduced Brazilian music to the Swedes. Famous old Brazilian tunes have Swedish lyrics that the Swedes almost consider Swedish songs today! Personally for me it's about the great mix of rhythms with very colorful and rich harmonies and melodies.

Thank you Homero!

Photos Nina Varumo