Singing in both Spanish and English, Jersey City resident Giovanni Almonte fuses rock melodies with traditional Latin instrumentation. As poppy as a Latin John Mayer and with musicianship to spare, Almonte and his band perform monthly shows at Shades, 700 Monroe St. in Hoboken, and are finishing work on a new CD, Bored Room – a collaboration with jazz guitarist Ray West due out in May.
Although Bored Room is Almonte’s first CD, the singer completed work on a previous album, High vs. Low, before funding from his label dried up. The video for the single from High vs. Low, “Vientos de Abril” is available on You Tube.
In addition to music, Almonte is an active participant in the Jersey City Collective, an organization dedicated to reviving the arts in the area. Along with eight other jazz musicians, Almonte and the Jersey City Collective crew will be donating an hour a week to teach free music lessons to kids.
To learn more about this up-and-coming artist or to listen to his new single, “Soldier,” check out www.giovannialmonte.com.
Age: 30
Birthplace: Harlem
What’s playing in your iPod right now?
“Right now the playlist is pretty varied. On my most-played list would be the new Brian Blade album and Gnarls Barkley, “The Odd Couple.”
Favorite book: Jung on Active Imagination by C.J. Jung.
Who are some of your favorite bands?
“I grew up with jazz and loved Coltrane, and got into Miles, and more rebellious players, like Theolonious Monk. Then, I started getting away from that sound, and started listening to Soundgarden – Chris Cornell was my man. When Soundgarden broke up, my friends got me a get well card.”
Shades in Hoboken has been your home base for the past couple of months. Why so many shows there?
“Shades has such an open format that you can kind of create your own vibe and really play anything you want. They really give you a chance to play it out. It’s open and simple.”
What are some of your favorite songs to play live?
“I did the whole bar band thing for a while, about a year, and I promised myself that I would never play music that I didn’t love. So after that, I’ve been playing original stuff, or really obscure covers, like Eric De Armas, or Alex Cuba Chivo.”
Your video for “Vientos de Abril” has close to 2,000 hits on You Tube and counting. What was it like making a video?
“It was a trip. It was the highlight of the whole experience [of making an album]. It was pretty complicated, too. But, we only ended up only spending $4,000. Most people would spend close to $15,000 to make a video like that. I found this great director on Craigslist and I really loved
“Conga, bumbek, full string sections, brass – real Afro-Cuban sound.” – Giovanni Almonte
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Some of the songs from your album High vs. Low sound almost finished. When are you going to be done?
High vs. Low was a really complicated project. We had all different kinds of instruments like conga, bumbek, full string sections, brass – real Afro-Cuban sound. Doing it right like that is really expensive. So we ran out of money and the album was never complete. But, I hope to finish it one day. For now, I have an album coming out in May with the guitarist Ray West called Bored Room.
What’s on the agenda for Giovanni Almonte?
“A lot of my friends and other musicians were having dinner the other night, and someone said that it was so expensive to get piano lessons for her child. The arts are really suffering, especially now, but are so important to the community. So, the musicians decided to donate a week of their time to give free music lessons to children in the area. We’re hoping that the Monroe Center will have some space for the project.”
Sean Allocca can be contacted at: Current@hudsonreporter.com.