New Music Monday — Steve Turre; GoGo Penguin; and Antonio Adolfo

It’s Lunchtime! with Arturo Gómez and New Music Monday! Listen in on Monday, June 10 at noon as Arturo debuts music from Steve Turre, GoGo Penguin, and Antonio Adolfo.

Steve Turre: “Sanyas”
After over fifty years as a professional musician, master trombonist and shells player extraordinaire Steve Turre releases his first live album. Recorded at Smoke Jazz Club in Upper Manhattan, New York City, Steve recruited a stellar line-up of accompanists. As an educator and mentor to many established musicians including Denver-based Stafford Hunter, he chose the “new kid on the block,” the gifted young pianist, Isaiah J. Thompson-piano with the veterans, bassist Buster Williams, Lenny White on drums, tenor saxist Ron Blake, and Nicholas Payton-trumpet.

The title of this session, “Sanyas” harkens back to 1975 when Steve was just embarking on his noted career, he composed the song for Woody Shaw’s landmark recording, “Moontrane”, his first recorded song on which he took his first recorded solo. The Sanyasi are the Hindu monks who renounce all worldly needs and wear bright orange robes which was the inspiration for the song because, for Steve Turre, different colors evoke different rhythms and harmonies.

GoGo Penguin: “From the North: Live From Manchester”
Since their founding in 2012, GoGo Penguin has been thrilling audiences around the world with their innovative music that is hard to pigeonhole into any category as it is filled with a myriad of influences. The break-beat minimalist trio was founded by pianist/composer Chris Illingworth and drummer Rob Turner who met while attending the Royal College of Music Conservatoire of Manchester, UK. One year later they added bassist Nick Blacka, in 2023 Jon Scott replaced founding drummer Rob Turner. This is the trio’s tenth album, their second with the current drummer, and their first live session.

On this new recording, GoGo Penguin, named after a stage prop, they saw in their dressing room just minutes before walking on stage for their first concert, plays reimagined live-in-studio versions of some of the songs from their two previous successful albums, all seven selections are first takes!

Antonio Adolfo: “Love Cole Porter”
The prolific pianist and composer from Rio de Janeiro was born into a musical family, his mother played violin in the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Driven by his love of music, Antonio began studying piano tutored by his mother at age seven, he began his professional career at seventeen, sixty years ago. He has composed many hit songs for his fellow Brazilians and was the pianist for Brazil’s most iconic singer, Elis Regina. Adolfo has also written music for Brazilian TV soap operas. Always wanting to improve his skills, he spent a few years in the early 1970s studying with various jazz pianists in the USA before returning to Brazil. Over the last ten years, Antonio has been busy recording in the studio releasing eight albums, all of which have been successful ranking in the Top Ten most played by jazz radio across Canada and the US.

For his latest effort, Antonio Adolfo chose not to compose any tunes, instead, he selected ten marvelous songs from the legendary Cole Porter and arranged them Brazilian style. Cole Porter’s music has always been loved in Rio, influencing many of the best-known musicians including Antonio Carlos Jobim. Joined by the best studio musicians of Rio de Janeiro, Antonio’s playing is impeccable, surely to make the listener exclaim, tudo bem!

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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