Alfonso Velez - ProfilesArchive

About Me

__________________________________________________________ The Skinny and The Dirt __________________________________________________________
Alfonso Velez has been called a Troubadour, a Storyteller and even an Original. His voice has been compared with Chet Baker's and his look is a touch Elvis and a bit James Dean.
As a musician, his strumming and guitar picking honors the pace and timing of the folk and blues greats, while his lyrics echo the storytelling brilliance of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson and Johnny Cash - the four pillars upon which his own art has been created.
Born to a Mexican mathematician and Cuban architect, he began playing music at the age of nine, assimilating his father's love for Scott Joplin rags, the Cape Verdean folk of Cesaria Evora and the jazz, soul and blues of Nina Simone. These resulting influences have led him to a varied style, one reflective of a diverse America and its vast musical spectrum. It is folk music because it is people's music and stories.
As a performer, Alfonso is engaging. He talks to his audience, looks them in the eye, shakes their hands and invites them up on stage. He performs in venues from Montreal down to Georgia. He tours Europe yearly, playing his music from Wales to Rome, from Paris to Barcelona.
He has a genuine love for the road and is truly a citizen of the world. He has heard the gunshots of the Moscow coups and the Cumbia's of New York's Columbus Ave. He has known the serene hillsides of the Welsh country, the ship docks of old San Juan, the Tangos of Buenos Aires and the intrigues and politicos of our nation's capital. But his music is firmly entrenched in the beat, the rhythm and the soul of American music. From that inkwell he has cut an album which XM Radio enthusiastically hailed as, "sung beautifully, lush with horns, Hammond and a hell of a lot of VIBE!" It is a good, accurate description. Though, if I were to describe it, I would simply call it "Timeless"
Washington DC's DJBoy Records will release Alfonso's debut album "Make it Plain" September 30th, 2007
Ryan Lange- Kansas City Star
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Member Since: 8/20/2006
Band Members: You and Me
Influences: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People, Jon Combs, Christopher Redding, Paul Simon, Chet Baker, Robert Johnson, Ramblin' Jack, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Nina Simone, Josh White, Cat Power, The New York Times, Alina Velez, La Chata, Traveling, Oscar Wilde, Kurt Vonnegut, & Alexander Pope

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Record Label: DJBOY RECORDS
Type of Label: Indie