New Music Monday—Miguel Espinoza, Aguankó, Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter

We have new music coming to you on New Music Monday on Lunchtime! with Arturo Gómez on Monday, August 28 at noon.

Miguel Espinoza Fusion: “Gabriella”
The superlative Denver flamenco guitarist Miguel Espinoza has been playing guitar since his childhood. After graduating high school, he moved to Madrid, Spain to take lessons from several of the masters living there. “Guitar Magazine” has described Miguel as a mesmerizing player. He has toured the USA and Europe and founded his current group Fusion in 2018. As with his previous Fusion recordings, he’s accompanied by Howard Levy’s harmonica on two tracks with his fellow founding members, Dianne Betkowski on cello and Randy Hopker playing bass and other guests sitting in on a tune or two. All ten of the songs on this session were composed by Miguel Espinoza who when he isn’t playing, he is teaching guitar to many fledging guitarists, to children whom he enjoys instructing the most! ¡Olé!

Aguankó: “Unidad”
Celebrating their tenth anniversary, the Ann Arbor Michigan based Latin jazz ensemble Aguankó has issued a new recording title “Unidad” or unity. The founder and leader of the group, Alberto Nacir chose the title believing that music is a unifying force that brings people together. Another vision of Nacif is the Japanese art form, kintsugi which takes shattered bowls, cups, vases, and other object then create a new visual art piece by gluing the pieces with gold. He’s hoping this will help unite the political, national, and international divisions that are so prominent in today’s world. Best of all Aguankó’s latest is aimed at the feet of the listeners to get them dancing to forget about their problems and have fun!

SuperBlue: Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter: “The Iridescent Spree”
Two acknowledged masters of their instruments, Kurt Elling-vocals, the first instrument and Charlie Hunter who excels playing over five different types of guitars teamed up with DJ Harrison-keyboards and Corey Fonville-drums to release a new provocative sound experience. Instead of using standards, they chose nine songs covering a broad range of music. Compositions by Joni Mitchell, Ornette Coleman, and Bob Dorough are on the set list alongside three originals by Hunter. Kurt adding lyrics to four instrumental songs as well. Bob Dorough’s “Naughty Number” Nine adds the Huntertones Horns to the mix and Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow” has a flute added.

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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