Soleá Meets Los Angeles; Sir Sultry Combines Flamenco and Jazz on New Album

Led by guitarist and vocalist, Ethan Margolis, the Los Angeles-based Sir Sultry Quintet fuses elements of flamenco, jazz and blues and will release its first full length album entitled “Soleángeles” (July 15th, 2014) The name, “Soleángeles” is derived from the combination of two words: Soleá (Flamenco’s mother song) and Angeles  (Los Angeles). The album was recorded in both Los Angeles and Seville, Spain and Margolis’s band, Sir Sultry, has been a featured music pick in the LA Weekly.  Margolis, as bandleader and composer, sees it as his responsibility to work towards bridging the two musical cultures in a modern, cohesive fashion that never ceases to excite listeners.

View album video trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QUK_C779Rc&feature=youtu.be

After having lived 11 years in southern Spain performing with Gypsy artists and having lead sold-out international tours, the 36 year-old Margolis arrived in Los Angeles with a mission to further bridge the musical cultures of Spain and American Jazz and Blues.  “Soleángeles” is Margolis’s first album to be officially released with this purpose and is truly a remarkable work where he features some of the USA’s top jazz musicians as well as the collaborations of his Gypsy Flamenco artist friends from Spain.  

The album, as a compositional work, blends deep Flamenco rhythms and harmony with the improvised and “open” instrumental solos typical of jazz.  In the compositions, Margolis allowed for each instrument to take on personalities both within world music and American jazz and blues.  He composed and arranged the music to find common ground between Spain and the USA, creating a sort of “stepping stone across the Atlantic,” as he calls it.  At times within the music, the guitars and pianos accompany the saxophone or flute the way they might play to a flamenco singer.  In other moments, powerful vocalists from both the USA and Spain sing soulful renditions of their cultures.
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