Gecko Turner

Globalization is the buzzword for the new Century, and it is taking place culturally as well as politically. The internet's ability to instantly link people worldwide has allowed a new musical sensibility to arise, one that's creating a universal community by hurdling over the musical and cultural barriers that are supposed to separate us. Spanish singer, songwriter, producer, guitarist and visionary Gecko Turner is part of a new generation of musicians whose imagination is unfettered by imaginary boundaries. His omnivorous appetite for the groove is evident on every track of Guapapasea! - his stunning debut album. His unique blend of jazz, blues, samba, reggae, rock, Spanish and Arab music with songs in English and Spanish is unlike anything you've ever heard, and yet there's something strangely familiar about it too. Journalists in Spain have dubbed it "Afromeno," 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 that's derived from it - soul, funk and jazz," Gecko explains in his almost accent free English. "It's been filling my soul from the first time I heard it and it comes out when I do my own music. In today's 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."

Gecko's global vision is evident on every track of Guapapasea!, an internationally inspired opus with an unstoppable groove. Gecko's musical guests include drummer Emilio Valdés (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 Veloso's band. It's 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 Dylan's "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 song's wild internal rhymes, making a case for Dylan as an
early rapper.

"[Subterranean] was Dylan's first rock song," Gecko says. "I've been crazy about it since I was 15, so I played with the words and tried it with a reggae swing groove. The author, or his business people, approved it, so I was lucky." One has to wonder what Dylan thinks of his song's radical transformation, but it's hard to imagine any music lover not being knocked out by it. 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. "Limon En La Cabeza" is a wild pastiche of funky 70s wah wah guitar, rap, Brazilian percussion and dub heavy bass. "Dizzie" is a sizzling R&B homage to be bop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie with an elegant xylophone interlude. It's sung in English by Gene Garcia, lead singer of Inlavables (The Unwashed),a boyhood friend of Gecko's and a fellow musician. Gecko is currently producing Garcia's first solo album.

The title track "45.000$ (Guapa Pasea)" rides a gently pulsing tide of Afro-Cuban percussion, accented by a big reggae bass and a horn reminiscent of Fela Kuti. But its celebratory groove is used to deliver a chilling message. "The English translation of the title is ‘$45,000 Dollars, Beauty Walking'. It relates to the immigration mafia; people from Africa pay $45,000 to get into Europe with a phony passport, but no chances to get good work. They often have to work as prostitutes to pay back that $45,000. GuapaPasea is an idiomatic expression for prostitutes walking." (The song was recently used in the Spanish movie "Obaba", a film nominated for 2005's Best Foreign Language Film.)

Writing and singing in English, Spanish and Portuguese, the album 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. With its US release, can a World Music Grammy nomination be far behind?

Gecko Turner has been making music for most of his life and his story is almost as colorful as his songs. Born and raised in Badajoz, Spain, a small town nestled between Lisbon and Madrid, as a teenager he fell in love with The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. The Stones led him backwards to Elmore James, Lead Belly, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, and the other Blues greats. He picked up the guitar in his teens and eventually formed a cover band that played an eclectic mix of American and British pop. "It was a real melting pot. I played what I liked the most. I don't know if I played it right, but I liked it."

In his late teens, Gecko discovered jazz. A true Dizzy fan, with his best friend in tow, they hitched across Spain following Gillespie on tour, listening to be bop and reading Jack Kerouac. Inspired by London's thriving jazz scene, at 20 he moved to London and began busking in tube stations with a borrowed guitar. That time of his life ended abruptly when following the death of his mother, he returned to Badajoz, married and got a steady job in a bank. When his wife later got sick and died after a long illness, Gecko quit his job and returned to music full time. "I realized life was short and felt my purpose on Earth was to write songs and do music."

His first band as a singer, guitarist and songwriter was Animal Crackers, a noisy Joy Division meets Sonic Youth outfit. They made two albums before Gecko left to start an artsy acoustic guitar project called Reverendos with his boyhood friend Gene Garcia. In the mid-90s Gecko moved to Merida, a town known for its Roman ruins and legendary tapas. He landed a job in a recording studio and began learning to work the boards. He also founded a new band Perroflauta (Dog Flute). Half the band was Brazilian, so they played a blend of samba and reggae. "I got an education from the Brazilian guys and began writing in a style similar to the stuff I later did on Guapapasea! We made a couple of CDs and toured all over Spain. It was the first time I got recognition for my songwriting."

When Perroflauta broke up, Gecko decided to demo up a few of the new tunes he was writing that combined the Brazilian reggae he'd been playing with the funk, blues and rock he'd always loved. Eventually, the demos became GUAPAPASEA! and were signed to the Spanish label, Lovemonk and licensed to Quango Music Group in North and South America. A fitting home for the musically diverse project, Los Angeles-based Quango Music Group is regarded as a tastemaker label of exotic, forward thinking and globally open-minded music renowned for championing artist like Zero 7, Koop, Talvin Singh, and Kruder & Dorfmeister.