This week, acclaimed international jazz musician (and owner of Bird’s Basement) Albare will present an intimate evening of music with long-time collaborator Joe Chindamo. They’ll Jobim Vol 1 & 2 and I was lucky enough to grab ten minutes with Albare.
Welcome home from your tour. Can you share with us where you’ve just been performing and a highlight of the tour? Thank you! We’ve just returned from Israel, where we performed under the auspices of the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange. The tour was extraordinary on every level. We did two concerts with the JSO — one of the finest orchestras in the world — at the Crown Theatre in Jerusalem and the Ranana Concert Hall. We also played intimate club shows at the legendary Shablul Jazz Club in Tel Aviv. I had an incredible Australian contingent with me — Joe Chindamo on piano and Phil Rex on bass — plus the wonderful Pablo Bencid from the US on drums.
The highlights? Honestly, all five concerts. The musical experience with the JSO was transcendent, and the audience response matched that intensity. We received standing ovation after standing ovation. There’s something profoundly moving when an audience connects so deeply with the music — it creates this beautiful circle of energy between the musicians and the listeners. Those moments stay with you forever.
You’re presenting Jobim Vol. 1 & 2 this Saturday night at Bird’s Basement. Jobim is considered one of the greatest exponents of Brazilian music. Can you tell us a little bit about what his music means to you? Jobim’s music is woven into the fabric of my musical life. I discovered Bossa Nova in 1972 through the film Black Orpheus, and I’ve been playing that music ever since. There’s something about the sophistication, the harmonic richness, and the pure soul of Bossa Nova that captured me completely.
But it wasn’t until 2020 that I formally launched the Albare Plays Jobim project, followed by Volume 2 in 2021. Both were orchestral projects, brilliantly arranged by Joe Chindamo, who’s now the in-house composer for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Jobim’s compositions have this remarkable quality: they’re deceptively simple melodies that reveal infinite depth. They work beautifully in an intimate duo setting, yet they can expand to embrace the full colour palette of a symphony orchestra. His music speaks to both the soul and the feet; it moves you emotionally and physically. That’s rare and precious.
You’ve just been overseas performing on tour with a symphony orchestra. Can you tell us how that differs from the more intimate performance at Bird’s Basement? They’re completely different beasts, and I love them both for different reasons. With the JSO, you’re working with this massive sonic canvas, 70-plus musicians creating these lush, sweeping soundscapes. There’s a grandeur and power that’s absolutely thrilling. The sound washes over you in waves; it’s almost cinematic.
At Bird’s Basement, it’s intimate, direct, conversational. You can see the expressions on people’s faces. You can feel when someone in the third row takes a breath. There’s an immediacy and vulnerability that’s beautiful. Every note matters differently. In the club setting, you’re not just performing for people, you’re in dialogue with them. The energy is more spontaneous, more responsive. Both are profoundly satisfying, just in very different ways.
Does this affect how you approach presenting the music? How do you interpret instrumentation from a larger orchestral setting to a smaller ensemble? Absolutely. What we’re doing at Bird’s is quite special, actually. We’re recreating the experience we had with the JSO, but the symphony tracks will be playing in the background. So the audience will have that same sonic experience, that orchestral richness, as if they were sitting in the concert hall in Jerusalem, while we’re performing live right in front of them.
It’s the best of both worlds: the intimacy and spontaneity of live performance in a club, combined with the grandeur of the orchestral arrangements. Joe’s arrangements are so masterful that they allow us to navigate between these worlds. We can play more freely, respond to the moment, improvise, while the orchestral foundation provides that sweeping, cinematic backdrop. It creates a unique listening experience you simply can’t get anywhere else.
You’ll be presenting this show with Joe Chindamo. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to meet Joe and began performing together? It was almost inevitable, really. We’ve been living in the same city (Melbourne), roughly the same age, though I’m slightly older, and drawn to the same music. We first met in 1993, and there was an immediate musical connection. When you find someone who speaks the same musical language, who understands the spaces between the notes as well as the notes themselves, you hold onto that.
Over the years, our collaboration has deepened in wonderful ways. Joe has arranged a great deal of my music, including these Jobim projects. And I had the privilege of producing his first album, A History of Standard Time, which featured the late, great Ray Brown. Our relationship is built on mutual respect, shared musical values, and genuine friendship. After more than 30 years, we can finish each other’s musical sentences.
And as highly successful and respected musicians, can you tell us a little bit about how you work together? There’s a beautiful balance between structure and freedom in how we work. Joe’s arrangements provide this sophisticated architecture, the harmonic framework, the orchestrations, and the form. But within that structure, there’s tremendous space for improvisation, for responding to the moment, for conversation.
We trust each other implicitly. I know that whatever Joe plays will be musical, tasteful, and serve the composition. He knows I’ll honour the melody while bringing my own voice to it. It’s like a great conversation where you’re really listening to each other, building on each other’s ideas, sometimes finishing each other’s thoughts. There’s no ego in the way, it’s all about serving Jobim’s beautiful music and creating something meaningful for the audience.
The Jobim project is a perfect example: it’s a mixture of carefully crafted arrangements and spontaneous improvisation. We know the map, but we allow ourselves to explore the landscape freely.
How do the two of you agree on repertoire? With Jobim, the challenge isn’t finding material, it’s choosing what to leave out! We could easily do another two volumes and still not come close to capturing the entire richness of Tom Jobim’s catalog.
The selection process is organic. We talk about what moves us, what we think will translate beautifully with the orchestral arrangements, and what will create a balanced program with variety in tempo, mood, and colour. For this show at Bird’s, we’re presenting pieces like “Double Rainbow,” “Wave,” “Desafinado,” “Chega de Saudade,” and more. These are pieces that showcase different facets of Jobim’s genius, from the melancholic beauty of “Wave” to the playful sophistication of “Desafinado.”
Ultimately, we choose music that resonates with both of us, that we believe will create a meaningful journey for the audience. Music for the soul and the feet.
Finally, what can audiences expect from Saturday night, and is there anything else you would like to add? Audiences can expect something truly special. We’re recreating the sonic experience we had performing with the JSO, right here in the intimate setting of Bird’s Basement. You’ll hear Joe’s magnificent orchestral arrangements providing this lush backdrop while we perform live, creating that unique blend of grandeur and intimacy.
Expect to be moved. Expect sophisticated musicianship but also warmth and joy. Jobim’s music has this remarkable ability to be intellectually satisfying and deeply emotional at the same time. It’s music for the soul and the feet, it’ll make you think, it’ll make you feel, and it might just make you sway in your seat.
After the incredible response we received on tour, those standing ovations, that connection with the audience, we’re bringing that same energy and passion to this performance. If you love beautiful music, if you love Jobim, or if you’re just curious about experiencing something transcendent, come join us. It’s going to be a memorable night.
You can catch Albare and Joe this Saturday night at Bird’s Basement or most Wednesday night’s where he performs with the Harmonix Experience and Jazz Alchemists.
For more information and to book tickets visit here. For more information about what’s on at Bird’s Basement, follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
