Home » Jazz News » Performance / Tour

80

Gecko Turner Takes His 'Afrobeatnik" Sound to SXSW

Source:

Sign in to view read count
GECKO BRINGS HIS “AFROBEATNIK" STYLE TO SXSW:

Wednesday, March l6th at Caribbean Nights for The World / KUT Showcase & Saturday, March l8 at Spiro's

Guapapasea! Out on Quango Records April 4 - #8 on I-Tunes!

Los Angeles, CA - Quango recording artist Gecko Turner calls his music “afrobeatnik," combining his love of the beat poets, Nigerian Afrobeat sounds, jazz, blues and reggae. Gecko will play two showcases at SXSW (see below), as part of PRI The World / KUT's All Music World Music showcase on 3/l6 and at Spiro's on 3/l8.

Find Gecko's April 4 release Guapapasea! on AOL's Music Party this week: http://music.aol.com/songs/new_releases_full_cds

The album was #8 last week on I-Tunes! The title track “40.000 (Guapa Pasea)" was recently used the Spanish movie Obaba, nominated for 2005's Best Foreign Film.

Marco Werman, host of PRI's The World, calls Gecko's album for Quango Records Guapapasea! “extremely playable..." Even Gecko's name is a cross cultural fusion: Gecko is a play on a Spanish nickname and Turner salutes two loves: Big Joe Turner AND Katherine Turner!

SXSW Showcases:
*Thursday, March l6: 9:00pm Carribbean Nights “All Music is World Music"
*Saturday, March l8: 10:00pm Spiro's, inside

About Gecko Turner:
Spanish singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist Gecko Turner is part of a new generation of musicians whose imagination is unfettered by boundaries. His omnivorous appetite for the groove is evident on every track of Guapapasea!, his stunning debut album.

Guapapasea! is an album full of unexpected juxtapositions and deliriously mixed up beats, none perhaps more surprising to American ears than the track that opens the album, his Spanish language re-make / re-model of Bob Dylan's “Subterranean Homesick Blues". A tropical flute blows long floating notes over a swinging one-drop reggae rhythm. Other standout tracks include “Rainbow Country," another clever cover, this time of Marley's “Roots, Rock, Reggae." It's a paired down track that blends flamenco guitar and hand clapping with an acoustic reggae groove.

Gecko sings and composes in English, Spanish and Portuguese and is backed by his 12 piece band, The Afrobeatnik Orchestra. Musicians include some of the best from the Afro-Cuban jazz scene including Ruben Dantas, Rodney Dassif and the great trumpet player Irapoam Freire.

Guapapasea! has already won Spain's Premio Extremadura a la Creacion, given each year to writers and musicians who have created work that furthers the recognition of the Spanish language as a creative medium. The title track “40.000 (Guapa Pasea)" was recently used the Spanish movie Obaba, nominated for 2005's Best Foreign Film.

About Quango Music Group:
Quango Music Group is a Los Angeles based tastemaker label, renowned for championing emerging sounds from around the globe. Quango helped bring acts like Zero 7, Koop, Talvin Singh and Kruder & Dorfmeister to the forefront of Americas musical radar while creating innovative lifestyle compilations that are considered to be ahead of the curve. Quango continues to break new ground with an international roster of forward-thinking artists such as Bliss (Denmark), Cantoma (UK), Gecko Turner (Spain) and Bitter:Sweet (US).

For more information contact .

Comments

Tags

News

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.