Dawn

Javier Limón, from Madrid, is best known as a flamenco guitarist and producer for the likes of Paco de Lucía and Buika. He's a hitmaker who popularises flamenco without ever bastardising it, and is equally at ease with jazz, pop music or the massive Iberian/Latin crossover umbrella known as ‘tropical.’ This makes him the ideal partner for Mexican jazz singer Magos Herrera. Dawn combines two original songs with Spanish, Portuguese and English-language covers from a range of sometimes surprising sources, including ‘Wild is the Wind’, best known for its David Bowie and Nina Simone incarnations, and the AntÔnio Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes composition ‘O que Tinha de Ser’.

Limón knows when to keep a low profile, mostly using his guitar solely for slaps and plucking percussion – whether on the catchy, warm-blooded title-track, which the pair wrote together, or on a version of Johnny Mercer & Hoagy Carmichael's ‘Skylark’, in which Magos’ breathy, rich voice is displayed in all its glory. While this is very much a jazz-led album, it keeps vocal solos to a happy minimum. Pared down to an almost minimalist state, the songs are nonetheless powerful and always engaging. Given flamenco's reputation for letting rip, Limón is to be praised for his iconoclasm and craft.