New Music Monday — Eugenie Jones; Spike Robinson Quartet; Zaccai Curtis

It’s New Music Monday! Tune in on Monday, April 8 at noon to Lunchtime! with Arturo Gómez as he debuts new music from the KUVO music library.

Eugenie Jones: “The Originals”
Originally a successful marketing executive, Eugenie never imagined a career as a vocalist until her mother passed away. Raised hearing her mother sing daily at home and in church choirs, she decided to continue her mother’s legacy and decided to enter the competitive Seattle jazz scene where she quickly emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Recently, Jones received the Earshot Jazz Recording of the Year Golden Ear Award, the first vocalist to win that honor! Moreover, she was elected to the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame! In addition to her skillful singing and exciting live performances, Eugenie is an entrepreneur owning her own recording company and marketing firm. Her new release is a compilation of her earlier recordings before her nationwide fame that have been remastered and remixed, all composed by her.

Eugenie returns to Denver on Thursday, May 16 noon to perform live with the Eric Gunnison Trio at KUVO Jazz’s Bonfils-Stanton Performance Studio; followed by her show at The Muse Performance Space at 7 p.m.

Spike Robinson Quartet: “The Live Session”
Henry Robinson, best known as Spike is still fondly remembered along the Front Range by veteran jazz fans. Spike played saxophone and had the golden tones he acquired by listening to Lester Young. Originally from Kenosha, WI Spike joined the Navy to become a member of their big band which took him to the UK, and launched his professional career playing in the best jazz clubs of London with the leading players of the UK including Victor Feldman. Upon his return to the US, he settled in Chicago for a few years but then relocated to Denver where he lived until he passed away in 2001. Robinson often played and recorded with Ellyn Rucker. Thanks to the son of Spike’s bassist, Dick Patterson, they have released a remastered and previously unreleased concert from The Lost Knight Loung, Boulder that features drummer Derryl Goes and the legendary master guitarist Dale Bruning. This double-disc album is brimming with swinging tunes that will capture your ears! A lost treasure was found!

Zaccai Curtis: “Cubop Lives!”
The Curtis brothers came out of Hartford, CT as protégés, Zaccai on piano, and Luques on bass. They honed their skills in part at the Vail Jazz Summer Camps as well as being mentored by some of the finest musicians and instructors of NYC while still in their teens. Both are firmly embedded in both jazz and Latin music. Cubop is a term coined by the legendary radio host in the early 1940s to describe the music of Machito & the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra which was the first ensemble to play jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms, Cubop is a contraction for Cuban bebop. Zaccai and Luques are accompanied by three percussionists in this superlative collection of 17 songs, mostly remakes of jazz standards, several originals, and even a few pop song covers. This session is a reaffirmation of the words of Jelly Roll Morton: “If you can’t manage to put tinges of Spanish in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasonin’ for jazz.”

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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