INSTAGRAM| Spotify | Bandcamp

BIO

None of her friends or family were surprised when Jazmine Alvarado announced she’d just joined a band as the lead singer. Back in middle school she’d walk around with a ukulele under her arm, she was in a class chorus, and she’d sing every opportunity she got — mostly in Spanish. They weren’t surprised when she told them what kind of music they were playing either — a kind of Chicano soul. Jazmine’s dad had been in a Tejano band when he was younger, and her parents introduced her to '60s soul singers like Brenton Wood and Barbara Mason. It was, they thought, what Jazmine was destined to do.

The then-unnamed band she’d just joined, with a group of boys, some of whom she’d known from school in Hawthorne, California, would become Thee Heart Tones. Still in their teens when they formed, Thee Heart Tones draw from a deep well of Latin American standards and North American soul ballads but manage to pull something out that sounds fresh and modern.

And how else could the story of a modern band begin than with a DM on Instagram? “One day I got a message from Ricky Cerezo asking if I wanted to write a song for his new band,” Jazmine says. “I knew his drummer Jorge Rodriguez and the other boys from middle school, so they were familiar faces.” Jorge remembered Jazmine, too — the girl who always carried around her ukelele. “They sent me an mp3 of an instrumental they’d written and told me they wanted lyrics,” Jazmine says. “So I wrote some and sent it to them.”

That song ended up being “Don’t Take Me as a Fool,” a downbeat, minor key ballad on which Jazmine's sultry, pitch-perfect vocals soar, and which is now destined for their debut album. But Jazmine still hadn’t met Ricky in person. That finally happened at their very first rehearsal. “Luckily,” she says, “we got along.” “Once she sang ‘Don’t Take Me As a Fool’, Jorge and I made eye contact,” Ricky says. “We both had goosebumps. We knew this was it; this was exactly what we wanted.”

Thee Heart Tones are Jazmine on vocals, Ricky on keys and organ, Jorge on drums, Jeffrey Romero on bass, Peter Chagolla on lead guitar, and Walter Morales on rhythm guitar. They’re all precociously young: Jorge is the eldest at 21 (“the old man of the band,” Ricky jokes,) Jazmine the youngest at 19, and the others are all 20.

Ricky met Jorge, Peter, Walter, and Jeff at Hawthorne High School. The boys were already in a band, with Peter on vocals, but they were playing heavy metal covers — songs by Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Metallica. Ricky’s dad, who eventually came up with the band’s name, introduced them to mainstream artists like Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, and also opened up a world of rare soul 45s. But it was “Is It Any Wonder” by a contemporary band called Durand Jones & The Indications that would change the course of their lives. “I played the song to Jorge and he said, ‘Why don’t we start doing something like this?’,” Ricky says.

After that first rehearsal with Jazmine, Ricky went home to play “Don’t Take Me As a Fool”, recorded as a voice note on his phone, to his dad. “I was hesitant. Dad knew this music better than anyone; he grew up with it. But he grabbed my phone and held it to his ear. His approval meant a lot to me. But he had the same reaction Jorge and I did when we first heard Jazmine sing. ‘This is going to be a hit,’ he told me. ‘You guys have something really special here’.” It was that same recording that caught the ears of Leon Michels and Danny Akalepse of Big Crown Records, who both heard the potential in the group immediately. After they signed to the label, Leon flew out to Los Angeles to record their debut album with Tommy Brenneck at Tommy’s Diamond West studio. They knocked out 14 songs in five days, capturing the charm of teenage soul and mixing it with their seasoned production prowess.

Thee Heart Tones debut album Forever & Ever is a testament to their unmistakable chemistry and talent that are both far beyond their years. Choosing to cover “Sabor A Mi”, a 1950s bolero by Mexican musician Alvaro Carrillo also shows a sophistication in their intention rarely found in kids their age.“It allows us to let our audience know we go back to our roots,” Jazmine says. “Growing up in LA, you get influenced by the city, the artwork, the music,” Ricky says. “Dad didn’t own a lowrider car, but other members of our family did. Impalas. El Caminos. I was influenced by the culture, particularly the Chicano culture. And oldies and soul music played a big part.” The style. The culture. The nod to the past. “That’s what we’re going for. We want to connect young Chicanos with their heritage. And we want to unite people — old and young.”

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Booking Contact: joey@spaceagencybooking.com