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GECKO TURNER

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His unique blend of jazz, blues, samba, reggae, rock, Spanish and Arab music with songs in English and Spanish is unlike anything youve ever heard, and yet theres something strangely familiar about it too. Journalists in Spain have dubbed it Afromeo, but it owes as much to North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Arab continuum as it does to Africa.

I have a passion for blues music and everything thats derived from it - soul, funk and jazz, Gecko explains in his almost accent free English. Its been filling my soul from the first time I heard it and it comes out when I do my own music. In todays world, the Internet makes it easier for everybody to get in contact with music from all over the world. There is a global culture emerging, not from the politicians but from musicians and people who love music.

Geckos global vision is evident on every track of Guapapasea!, an internationally inspired opus with an unstoppable groove. Geckos musical guests include drummer Emilio Valds (son of Irekere pianist Chucho and grandson of Cuban icon Bebo); percussionist Rubem Dantas, longtime associate of both Paco de Lucia and Chick Corea, sax man Javier Vercher, and trumpeter Irapoan Freire from Caetano Velosos band.

Its an album full of unexpected juxtapositions and deliriously mixed up beats, none perhaps more surprising to American ears than the opening track; his Spanish language re-make/re-model of Bob Dylans Subterranean Homesick Blues. A tropical flute blows long floating notes over a swinging one-drop reggae riddem. Then Gecko comes in with a sing/say vocal performance that maintains all the songs wild internal rhymes, making a case for Dylan as an early rapper.

Guapapasea! has already won Spains 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 45.000 (Guapa Pasea) was recently used the Spanish movie Obaba, nominated for 2005s Best Foreign Film. GUAPAPASEA! is being released by Quango Music Group.

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