New Music Monday—Alex Heffron, CJRO, Bobby Sanabria

Tune in on Monday, June 19 at noon to New Music Monday with Arturo Gómez, and listen in to new additions to the KUVO music library!

Alex Heffron: “Avoidance”
Denver native son Alex is a much in demand versatile guitarist who has played with the Front Range’s best bands as well as leading his own group, Connecting Flights. In 2015 as part of KUVO Jazz’s 30^th Anniversary, Alex was selected as one of the “Thirty Under Thirty”, a list of the most promising up-n-coming young artists of Metro Denver, he not only has lived up to expectations, but he’s also exceeded them. For his second release as a leader, Heffron chose his accompanists wisely, Gabe Rupe-bass, Braxton “BK” Kahn-drums, Daryl Gott-alto sax and Taylor Clay plays the tenor saxophone. The compositions on this recording were written by Alex during the pandemic when the future looked bleak, he wrote music that was inspired by his early influences growing up and learning how to play jazz, Bird, Diz, Lee Konitz and other 2-horn groups were his mentors and that style is heard in this album, a job well done!

Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra: “Compared To What”
The Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra: popularly called the CJRO has become one of the most important big bands in Colorado, not only for the swingin’ live performances but also for the themes they choose and for the special guest vocalists enlisted to sing with blazing band. Founded in 2012 by reed man Art Bouton who opted to present the best live jazz with the finest musicians, Mr. Bouton’s mission is in full effect, since 2019 CJRO is now led by the Artistic Director Drew Zaremba with Art still playing in the woodwinds section and remaining the executive producer. Their latest recording, their 3rd, heads down a different path as it shows the versatility of the aggregation in reimagining pop music classics. Due to a most successful live performance two years ago with the internationally known vocalist Larry Braggs, one of my favorite concerts ever, the orchestra has him singing on 4 of the 10 tracks of this magnificent session. The only thing better than having Larry on this album is to bring him back-live on stage!

Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band: “Vox Humana”
As the accomplished musician, educator, and music ambassador that Bobby Sanabria is, this outing represents a first for Sanabria, an all-vocal album. The 50-plus years member of the Manhattan Transfer, Janis Siegel joins the Multiverse for 6 of the 13 selections including the tour de force version of “Caravan”, my immediate all-time favorite rendition of this classic by Juan Tizol. In addition to Siegel, the underrated NYC vocalist Antoinette Montague chimes in on 3 tunes while the “new kid on the block”, the multi-lingual, smokey voice singer from the Bronx, Jennifer Jade Ledesma adds her presence on the remaining songs. Several of Bobby Sanabria’s previous recordings have been Grammy® nominees, I have a hunch that this is the one that will garner Bobby Sanabria & the Multiverse their first Grammy® win!

Now in its 21st year of debuting the latest arrivals to the KUVO Jazz library, many of them are played ahead of their official release date. In addition to the music comments, I’ll provide a few tidbits about the artist, if it’s a new or an up-and-coming artist. It all begins at Noon every Monday.

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