Jazz musician Jules Hay from Kemsing writes new album 'From London to Little London' while locked down in Brazil
17:21, 17 September 2020
updated: 20:37, 17 September 2020
A musician from Kemsing who became stuck in Brazil when the country went into lockdown has used his time in quarantine to write an album with local artists.
Jules Hay, 45, travelled to Londrina - known as Little London - a small city about 300 miles West of São Paulo on March 5.
Armed with his guitar and full of ideas, the jazz fusion artist hoped to meet up with some musician friends to work on new music.
But when Covid-19 started to take its toll, Mr Hay and his wife Gloria instead had to go into quarantine.
Months isolated in an Airbnb proved valuable to Mr Hay who said he ended up getting more out of the trip than he ever expected.
A whole album later, he added: "I went to Brazil to play some shows and we were going to finish mixing the tracks with mind to putting an album out.
"Instead I ended up writing and recording more tracks in the quarantine period and decided to use the time in isolation productively and officially release an album."
Titled 'From London to Little London' the instrumental album is heavily based on Brazilian rhythms from different regions around the county.
He added: "I think if I have to pick a favourite tune it has to be Baião Azul because that reflects the whole project.
"It has a very progressive and interesting melody, a real party inducing samba section and everybody played their hearts out on that tune."
Mr Hay had hoped to return to Kent at the end of March but the pandemic meant a last minute change of plan and he is still there now.
He added: "It was all very surreal. We don't speak Portuguese well so that was also a little worrying. Thank God that we at least have friends here.
"It’s been an anxious time, but we’ve got used to our new way of life and we are taking each week as it comes.
"I’ve started writing more material so you never know perhaps there will be another quarantine album before I leave Brazil."
In the past fortnight, Brazil has had more than 421,200 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
It is one of the worst affected countries in South America with more than 134,100 deaths according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
In Londrina wearing a face covering is now mandatory and just like the UK, shops are prepared with hand sanitiser and social distancing measures.
After a pitstop in Columbia where his wife is from, Mr Hay hopes to be back in Kent in time for Christmas.
If the pandemic allows, he hopes to share the album by playing gigs across the UK.
'From London to Little London' can be found on all streaming platforms, or by clicking here.
