During his 2011 European journey, Matias (Mingo) German, conceived the idea of experimenting with musical styles like jazz, klezmer, and personal original melodies, fusing them with Afro-‐Argentinian sound colors & rhythmic feels for dancing like tango, milonga, candombe, chacarera, zamba, chamamè, huayno, landò, festejo, etc.
The American jazz guitarist John Stein is a willing and enthusiastic collaborator with Mingo, mixing these wonderful musical styles, while searching for honest and personal artistic expression.
Their successful partnership has resulted in the new recording, Emotion, on the Whaling City Sound record label, and concert tours on the East and West coasts of the USA. Mingo and John will be bringing this music to audiences throughout the world beginning in 2014.
The rich stew these musicians are cooking is spiced with their unique musical personalities and the whole is a vibrant tapestry that exemplifies the best meaning of the term “world music.”
- July 11, 2014
Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors Magazine
(will run in the August 2014 issue)
Review by Wayne Goins
Emotion
“The packaging of this album is just beautiful, with silky blood-red shadow images of a tango couple against stark black backdrop — it’s fabulous and perfectively captures the mood of the music. It feels like Argentina . . . “Empanadas,” a tune that captures one of the best guitar tones of Stein on any album I have heard of his. The single lines sound so round and robust that it almost matches the darkness of the accordion tones, while his accompaniment is sparse-yet-thick, like that of Jim Hall . . . A bubbling burst of bebop guitar solo from Stein, followed by a flying flute solo from Rebecca. Harlan on accordion and Mingo’s tom-driven drum solo complete the cycle . . . A rich tradition of fusing jazz and Latin styles to create a product that is, almost always, greater than the sum of its parts.”