Grafitti - Carlos Franzetti

Advantages: Rustic, Powerful, Emotive
Disadvantages: None, unless you have a problem with late 70's sound quality

...A Flamenco tour de force. To Flamenco-lovers, Carlos Montoya is a legend. He educated the rest of the world about various Flamenco styles, leaving his native Spain in the 1930's. Settling in the U.S.A, he would then shape a very specific style with the influence of Jazz. I think that most of the Jazz influence can be distinguished through Carlos Montoya's playfulness. He enjoys discharging lightning-fast tempo in various parts of his pieces and has the ability to then pick up where he left off with ecstatic simplicity. This album was released in 2004 under Pazzazz Records. Originally, the tracks were recorded in 1979 (all of them). 13 of the 15 tracks are by Carlos himself. The remaining 2 are both traditional; or at least traditional-based. Another great factor is that these tracks maintain the slightly coarse recording sound... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good quality guitar playing with superb vocals
Disadvantages:

...This was the first album by Carlos Santana I bought and I have to admit I found it very addictive. I found that the best two songs on the album are 'Smooth' which features Rob Thomas and 'Maria Maria' which features Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessias. 'Smooth' was the first single to be released from the album which spent a long time in the UK charts this year. 'Maria Maria' is the latest single to be released from the album and has a larger emphasis on his guitar playing skills. This is a brilliant album which also includes vocals from Dave Matthews, Lauryn Hill, Mana, Eagle Eye Cherry and the superb Eric Clapton. I bought this CD for £9.99 which is outstanding value for a top album which has won variuous music awards. A good quality album for anyone looking to buy a new CD.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average off topic

Advantages: Highly original realisation, still sounds fresh today
Disadvantages: None

...I first encountered Wendy Carlos' brilliant electronic realisation of Beethoven's Ninth symphony (entitled "March From A Clockwork Orange") way back in the early 1970's, when a clip from the movie was shown on the BBC's "Film Night” (the part where the anti-hero Alex ambles through the music store, dressed in the “height of fashion”, and looking for willing young ladies to join him in the bedroom ). I was completely bowled over by Anthony Burgess' vision of a moribund future Britain, brought to the screen through Stanley Kubrick's chilling and occasionally shocking visuals, combined with Carlos’ groundbreaking Moog synthesizer soundtrack. This album contains all of the synthesizer music Wendy arranged and/or composed for the movie. Most of it was used by the director, some tracks were altered in some way... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful