Gerardo Nunez & Perico Sambeat

Gerardo Nunez and Perico Sambeat combine in a passionate adventure of a half-dozen musicians of differing backgrounds that came to find on the "crossroads" a joyous common geography, between jazz improvization and flamenco tradition at its most alive.

Gerardo Nunez is one of the most formidable guitarists and composers on today's Flamenco scene.

Perico Sambeat is one of the great figureheads of Spanish jazz. Outside Spain little is known of the recordings he made in 1993 and 1995 with Brad Mehldau, Mark Turner and Kurt Rosenwinkel. though from the mutual appreciation that these musicians have for each other has evolved a close friendship.

Recently, many have become aware of the vivid, powerful playing of saxophonist Sambeat through his own recordings, as well as the collaborations with a brilliant line-up based around guitarist Gerardo Nunez. With his exceptionally elegant and sinuous phrasing (also in duet with Michael Brecker), Sambeat plays an important role in bringing the fusion of jazz and flamenco to a high performance and compositional level.

The Jazz/Flamenco balance of Nunez and Sambeat is joined by the brilliant Turkish percussionist Arto Tunçboyaciyan, George Colligan on piano, Esperanze Fernandez on vocals, Javier Colina on bass and Marc Miralta on drums. The album contains references to everything from Thelonious Monk, Latin jazz, Saharan muezzin sounds and, of course, flamenco. —Courtesy Calabash Music