Trio Da Paz is true to Brazilian roots

Trio Da Paz guitarist Romero Lubambo doesn't like to categorize music. If he likes it, he likes it.

That's why when people see the trio live, they will hear elements of jazz, Brazilian music and rock band blues.

"I'm a musician," he said during a telephone interview from his home in New Jersey. "I play music. I don't want to put any boundaries on music. For me, music is one thing."

His philosophy developed during his upbringing in Brazil.

"When I was 8 years old, I started classical piano," he said. "I stopped when I was 10, and for three years, I didn't study anything."

During the interim, however, Lubambo had an uncle who would come and play the guitar.

"I saw him play all the time," Lubambo said. "And it was all popular songs. So I picked up the guitar when I was 13 and just played a simple song that he used to play."

Four years later, Lubambo's mother, who was a classical pianist, enrolled him in Rio de Janeiro's Villa-Lobos School of Music.

"She told me that studying classical music would only help me with my playing," he said. "She was right."

Lubambo would study classical music during the day and play Led Zeppelin at night.

"I never stopped playing parties or gatherings," he said. "I would play anywhere I could."

In 1985, Lubambo came to the United States to play music. He got a gig with Astrud Gilberto through his friend (and bandmate/drummer) Duduka Da Fonseca.

"I found that I was traveling and playing on stages around the whole world," he said. "We would play and then Miles Davis would play after us.

"It was such a great experience." From there, Lubambo hooked up with the likes of Diane Reeves, with whom he still plays, Michael Brecker, Al Jarreau, Herbie Mann, Paquito D'Rivera, Harry Belafonte, Grover Washington Jr. and Kathleen Battle, to name a few.

"When everybody calls me to play, I'm lucky because they want me to be myself," said Lubambo. "They want me to do what I do.

"That's good. Because I know how to do that. If they call and say they want me to play like Scott Henderson or John Scofield, I say, why don't you call them?"

While Trio Da Paz — Lubambo, Da Fonseca and bassist Nilson Matta — have been playing together for more than 20 years, the band officially formed in 1990.