*** 1/2 GERARDO NUNEZ, “Calima,” Alula

Flamenco music is Spain’s combination of jazz and blues. Filled with sizzling instrumental improvising, surging rhythms and passionate vocals, it also is music that fuses well with other improvisational and rhythmic expressions. And guitarist Gerardo Nun~ez puts it all together in this compelling new recording with a set of pieces that range from stunning traditional flamenco to spirited, multi-guitar work with Strunz & Farah to jazz-based interaction with pianist Danilo Perez and bassist John Patitucci.

This kind of fusion, usually described as “nouveau flamenco,” began to emerge in the ‘80s and ‘90s in the work of Paco de Lucia, Paco Pen~a, flamenco-rumba performers the Gipsy Kings, and Strunz & Farah and Ottmar Leibert. It may bother flamenco purists, but it has kept the music spirited and alive.

It’s hard to imagine how anyone could respond other than enthusiastically to Nun~ez’s rapid-fire traditional flamenco playing on “Plaza de Arenal” and “Plazuela” (both passionate soleas). On the lovely “Salmedena” and “Tabaco y Oro,” his starkly simple but sensuously emotional themes begin with flamenco and move into the realm of uncatagorizable musical expression.

Fusion comes front and center on two superb tracks: a driving jazz encounter with Perez and Patitucci on “Calima,” which, appropriately, means “heat,” and a nouveau flamenco romp with Strunz & Farah on “Sancti Petri.” That the memorable pieces were composed by Nun~ez is testimony to the breadth of his skill. Perhaps most important of all, this is music which, regardless of its origins, is filled with universal appeal.

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