Alvaro Sosa’s – Vol. 1, the new album

Alvaro S. S. & His Jamming Sessions has just released the new album entitled Vol. 1. Due to this release we talked with Alvaro so that we can learn a bit more about his Latin Ska Jazz project.

Most of the songs on Vol. 1 are covers, do you think that the most interesting thing in your project is adapting classic songs from other styles into Ska, or did it happened spontaneously?
I think that it has happened spontaneously, as these are songs which I really enjoy on it’s original format, taking the composition in a parallel way, covering these tunes is quite important for me so that more people can know about myself by my influences and, overall, show reggae, rocksteady and ska audiences a Latin version.
Working with Latin rhythms and taking them to the Jamaican style is a way for sharing my culture with others, so that they can have a piece of Mexico in their speakers.

In the album there are guests from different parts of the world, how can you coordinate all this? do you record the rhythm in Mexico with the band and then you add other musicians to the recording? or, from the beginning, everyone records at their own and you take care of making all the pieces of this puzzle fit?
The process with the guest musicians happens in a natural way. We record the rhythm in Mexico, along with my partner in crime Irving Madariaga, but there can also be guests in the rhythm section, as with Victor Lag Gan from Barcelona.
Guest musicians are people who I have met during my musical career, specially from the Jamaican scene. People who are good friends with whom I always felt like I wanted to work with them again, not only well known musicians, but also others who I think that can contribute positively to the essence of this project.
The pandemic had it’s influence as we couldn’t join for playing together and had to work in the distance with each other, in that moment I contacted to other musicians who I admire hoping that once they listen to the tunes they want to take part in it, as with Javi Garcia from The Oldians, who I’m very grateful to for his collaboration.

Besides Ska, which other styles can we find in the album?
We can faind Cuban son, salsa, rumba, jazz… all these combined with Jamaican rhythms, which are quite malleable for playing and experimenting with.

Do you think that the original Jamaican Ska had a Latin element in it?
Yes, I think that the original Jamaican Ska has elements which are fundamental in the Latin music, we can find it in many songs, as, for example, ‘Latin Goes Ska’, which was a cover of Benny Moré’s ‘Pachito E Che’.