BBC announced that world-renowned Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia has died aged 66 in Mexico, reportedly of a heart attack while playing with his children on a beach. R.I.P.!
Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez (21 December 1947 – 26 February 2014) was a Spanish flamenco guitarist, composer and producer. A leading proponent of the New Flamenco style, he was one of the first flamenco guitarists who has also successfully crossed over into other genres of music such as classical and jazz. Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton, authors of Guitar: Music, History, Players, describe de Lucía as a “titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar”, and Dennis Koster, author of Guitar Atlas, Flamenco, has referred to de Lucía as “one of history’s greatest guitarists”.
De Lucía was noted for his innovation and colour in harmony and his remarkable dexterity, technique, strength and fluidity in his right hand, capable of executing extremely fast and fluent picados. A master of contrast, he often juxtaposes picados with rasgueados and other techniques and often adds abstract chords and scale tones to his compositions with jazz influences. These innovations saw him play a key role in the development of traditional Flamenco and the evolution of New Flamenco and Latin jazz fusion from the 1970s. Read more Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia died at 66
“Taming the Dragon” it’s the debut album from the electric duo Mehliana made of Brad Mehldau (synthesizers, Fender Rhodes and piano) and Mark Guiliana (drums and electronics). Because the dense electronics this have a powerful jazz-rock sound, but it’s a vividly groovy, experimental and breath taking experience throughout with space-rock inspired soundscapes and exciting jazz improvisations. There is an extremely refreshing balance between all the flavors, sounds, elements and moods of the album. Mark Guiliana delivered some extremely tasty drums while Brad Mehldau added dimensions and colors. A perfect mixture of passion, energy and experimentation with tasty melodies, meditative searching and emotions.
Zardonic never kept secret his soft spot for metal. He had previously some noisy and contorted collaborations with several bad-ass metal artists and definitively he will keep having this kind of violent audio clashes. His powerful metal roots are clearly detectable on his early demos, early demos which also now are made available!
While I’m drowning in a sea of absolutely boring music day after day, this pretty British sounding French band made my day and Monday. It’s a cool mixture of reggae, funk, punk-rock and accidentally some electronica. Smooth, groovy and nicely done. And genuine in a world of fake and plastic. Simply it feels right. Maybe it’s not revolutionary, it will not turn your world (and pity life) upside down, but it will keep you going. And although by default I would reject any mixture of punk with pop, this “Little Armageddon” sounds more convincing then most of the modern American self-declared punk products.
I loved the Havana Club rum, it was one of the finest drinks we could have back in the 80’s. Now by remixing a track you have the chance to travel to one of the world’s music capitals to produce and record original tracks with a selection of Cuba’s finest musicians under the expert guidance of DJ Gilles Peterson.
Audiotool teamed up with Moogfest to find the best producer on Audiotool.
