{"id":41561,"date":"2009-06-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/bajo-el-sol\/"},"modified":"2009-06-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-19T00:00:00","slug":"bajo-el-sol","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/bajo-el-sol\/","title":{"rendered":"Bajo El Sol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nuevo Flamenco has been around since the 1970s.\u00a0 A mixture of flamenco, Latin-American rhythms, jazz and pop, Nuevo Flamenco remains a pertinent part of the contemporary smooth jazz scene.\u00a0 In his 2008 album Bajo El Sol, <\/i>Texan guitarist Russ Hewitt brings this longstanding style to the 21st century.\u00a0 A veteran rock \u2018n\u2019 roller, Hewitt assembles world-renowned musicians Walfredo Reyes Jr. on drums, Rafael Padilla on percussion, producer Bob Parr on bass and famed flamenco guitarist Alfredo Caceres on rhythm guitar. \u00a0Being his breakthrough flamenco album, Hewitt\u2019s impressive guitar skills shine.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the album\u2019s homogeneity makes it ultimately boring.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I have no doubt that Hewitt is a skillful guitarist.\u00a0 His ability to play traditional flamenco, mix it with pop sensibilities and still bust out a competent jazz solo is impressive.\u00a0 Take the opening track, which shares the same name as the album. Hewitt flawlessly executes an infectious melody over a samba-pop groove without making it sound disjointed.\u00a0 Particularly consequential is when Hewitt breaks out into a full-on montuno (Latin rhythmic pattern), bringing his listeners into the complete range of Latin musical styles.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Taken individually, all the songs on this album are decent.\u00a0 But as an album, it is difficult to distinguish one from another.\u00a0 It seems that Hewitt was so determined to break into the Nuevo Flamenco scene that he forgot that the human brain can only take so much of the same thing.\u00a0 To be fair, Hewitt tries<\/i> to incorporate different styles of music.\u00a0 (He describes his music as \u201cLatin world\u201d and states that it was inspired by his travels through Europe, Turkey, China and Egypt).\u00a0 Regardless, whether he is playing the Egyptian sounding \u201cByzantine,\u201d the hauntingly unrequited \u201cOjos Bonitos\u201d (which sounds inspired by the Moorish influence on traditional Spain) or the upbeat \u201cPalma De Mallorca,\u201d they all have the detrimentally similar quality of simply sounding like a pop band featuring a flamenco guitar player.\u00a0 This is partially because the band does not create enough distinction for the \u201cworldly\u201d qualities to be apparent.\u00a0 Also, all the arrangements are strikingly similar: flamenco melody, guitar solo, flamenco melody, with little variation.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There are two things saving this album from being in the \u201clisten to it once and forget about it\u201d category: the enigmatic production by Bob Parr and the hip rhythm guitar by Alfredo Caceres.\u00a0 Parr\u2019s production is both tasteful and innovative.\u00a0 He creates a mood that appropriately fits around Hewitt\u2019s guitar.\u00a0 Parr knows what sounds the songs require and mixes the instruments perfectly to emphasis the emotional aspect of each composition.\u00a0 Plus, some of his drum sounds are brilliantly original.\u00a0 Caceres\u2019 rhythm guitar adds great depth and beauty to each song, and his rhythmic variations are the most fascinating part of the album.\u00a0 If anything, Bajo El Sol <\/i>makes me want to listen to Caceres\u2019 solo music.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Even with Parr\u2019s brilliant production and Caceres\u2019 enriching guitar skills, Bajo El Sol <\/i>still falls flat conceptually.\u00a0 It is difficult to get to even the fourth song without thinking that it sounds exactly like the first three (there are ten songs total).\u00a0 Essentially, it is an album that is immediately impressive but quickly repetitive.\u00a0 It is ultimately a valiant but forgettable work, leaving the listener hoping that Hewitt\u2019s talent will come across as more enigmatic and thought-provoking in the future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":29938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8414],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-41561","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-russ-hewitt","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41561"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41561"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}