Drummer and composer dedicated to the modern tendencies of written and improvised music, his work is known for the exploratory attitude and for boldy intersectioning different aesthetic circuits.
Born in 1991, in Porto, Portugal, Pedro starts studying music in 2000. Enrolls at the Jazz Drums superior course in 2011 at the Porto Superior School of Music (ESMAE), having lessons with Michael Lauren and Carlos Azevedo, and leaves the course in 2013 to study classical and jazz piano with Abe Rabade and Daniel Bernardes. The participation on several workshops in Portugal, Spain and Italy led him to meet and study with some of the contemporary jazz scene figures, such as Danilo Perez, John Escreet and Ralph Alessi. Enters in 2015 on the Musical Composition superior course at the Lisbon Superior School of Music (ESML), where he studies with Sérgio Azevedo, José Luís Ferreira and António Pinho Vargas.
With commissions from institutions such as Guimarães Jazz, Culturgest or Fundação Serralves, Pedro has been debuting unprecedented projects, solo or with large formations such as the Omniae Large Ensemble. And today he plays and leads exploratory jazz bands (Omniae Ensemble, The Rite of Trio, In Igma), electroacoustic projects (his solo O, CACO.MEAL or his trio symph), projects of extended percussion research (João Pais Filipe duo, Prepared Drums Studies or Pedro Carneiro duo), improvised music (with João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Luís Vicente, Theo Ceccaldi, Ricardo Jacinto, Jacqueline Kerrod, Nuno Rebelo, Pedro Branco), rock and pop bands (Catacombe, Surma), soundtracks for Theatre and Dance (with Schaubühne’s Peter Kleinert, Carlota Lagido) and erudite composition.
Solo, Pedro Melo Alves brings a sensorial narrative of percussion and electronics surrounding the word.
Searching for a vivid and present flow, the composer embraces a plastic relationship of fragmentation, fusion and metamorphosis of the sinuous and disturbing borders that reveal the frailty of ego and control. Presence and absence, identity and dissipation, reality and virtuality, solitude and collectivity.
The visceral speech of percussion and voice feeds this abstract sphere of clashes. Fracture and boom.
In the end, maybe the dissolution of control and the meeting of all, in one.
Percussion, electronics and musical composition – Pedro Melo Alves
Quotes
“The most sensational, forward rushing and compelling creative force at the moment (…) A creative force par excellence”
Henning Bolte, Jazzahead Blog, 2020
“(…) one of the most promising musical minds that showed up in Portugal on the last years.”
João Esteves da Silva, 2017
“(…) great musical maturity, strong aesthetic and artistical concept and an unusual instrumental mastership.”
Sérgio Carolino, 2017
“(…) Pedro Alves has a bold writing, that surprises and challenges us. As a composer he demonstrates a certain kind of courage that causes me great admiration.”
Mário Laginha, 2017
“Pedro Alves’ drumming stood out right from the beginning. Not only for the versatility of employed resources but mostly for the precision with which he intervened in each moment – for the minutia and care for detail.”
Nuno Catarino (jazz.pt), 2017
Awards
2019 – Premio Internazionale Giorgio Gaslini
2017 – National Artist of the Year (Jazz.pt)
2016 – Composition Award — Prémio de Composição Bernardo Sassetti – 2ª Edição (Portugal)
2013 – Prémio Jovens Músicos 2nd place (ex-aequo, with no 1st given) – Jazz Combo category with the Eduardo Cardinho Quintet as a drummer/arranger
2007 – Solo Drums Award “Yamaha PMS” (Spain)
