Alex Alvear has always known where home is. He just wasn’t sure how to get there.
Now, more than two decades after he left his native Ecuador and settled in Boston, the bassist, singer and composer has found the compass he needs: his own music.
“Revisiting my country’s music has shined a different light on it all for me,” said Alvear, who celebrates the release of his new CD, “Equatorial,” with a concert Thursday at the South End’s Center for Latino Arts, where he serves as performance and production manager and is the longtime producer of its Cafe Teatro series.
Alvear’s journey began in Ecuador’s capitol, Quito, where he grew up in the ’70s and ’80s playing rock and ignoring everything Ecuadorean. His desire to leave his country was kicked into high gear by an unsettling drama: In December 1985, he was kidnapped off the street by the secret police of Leon Febres Cordero, Ecuador’s right-wing president at the time.
Alvear calls the experience a very small thing compared to what others went through. He was released within a day when the secret police realized he wasn’t a member of a guerrilla group. But the experience hardened his resolve to make a life - and music - elsewhere.
“It happened around the same time that I was making my mind up about moving on,” said Alvear, whose songs back then didn’t shy away from questioning government authority.
After a stop in Baltimore, Alvear (pronounced ahl-VAY-ar) came to Boston in 1987 and enrolled at Berklee College of Music. He quickly became a staple of the local Cuban, salsa and jazz scenes, helping found the city’s hottest Afro-Latin bands, including Ache and Mango Blue, and singing lead in Timba Loca.
Even though he was immersing himself fully in Boston’s diverse music community, Alvear still felt there was something missing in his music. He finally found it by looking farther south.
“Equatorial” is Alvear’s take on some of the music that was swirling around him but that he ignored while living in Ecuador. With help from international guest stars including Paquito D’Rivera, Marta Gomez and Claudio Ragazzi, he puts a fresh yet respectful face on traditional rhythms such as sanjuanito, albazo and yumbo. From emotional pasillos - Ecuador’s melancholic equivalent to blues - to folkloric songs dusted by airy Andean melodies, “Equatorial” is a reflective look at Alvear’s deepest roots.
“I’ve been making a career of out of playing music from other places like Puerto Rico and Cuba,” said Alvear. “Not to underestimate the love that I feel for those musics, but there can be a stigma, as in ‘Oh, that guy plays well, but he’s not Cuban or not Puerto Rican. With this music now, I have no apologies. I have nothing that can be held against me. It’s a very empowering feeling. This CD is just me. It’s very much music by birthright.”
Alex Alvear, Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Center for Latino Arts, the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center, 85 West Newton St., South End; 617-927-1707.
By: Bob Young
11/13/07 >> 
