Artist: Juan Martin
Genre(s):
New Age
Discography:
Through The Moving Window
Year: 1991
Tracks: 9
A aboriginal of Andalucia, Spain, acoustic guitar ace Juan MartÃn is a professional of what Spanish musicians refer to as nuevo flamenco -- that is, flamenco that is contemporary and expansive kind of than completely traditional in its approaching. Nuevo flamenco is not straight-ahead flamenco whatsoever more than than jazz-rock unification is straight-ahead jazz; rather of being carbon paper copies of flamenco's traditionalists, Spain's nuevo flamenco artists have adjust out to spread out flamenco's borders. That isn't to say that MartÃn (whose last name is marked Mar-teen) hasn't been touched by flamenco's traditionalists -- actually, straight-ahead gypsy dancing and the Spanish classical guitar tradition make been on-going sources of brainchild to MartÃn, whose major influences have included Paco de LucÃa, Tomatito, and the majuscule Andrés Segovia.
Simply MartÃn's influences don't stoppage at either traditional gypsy dancing or Spanish classical guitar. While MartÃn is flamenco-oriented, he is non a flamenco purist -- instead, the broad-minded musician/composer views gypsy dancing as something that can buoy be combined with anything from jazz to Brazilian samba, Afro-Cuban salsa, and Argentinean tango. Latin America, in fact, is a major source of intake for MartÃn -- and that willingness to merge Spanish and Latin American esthetics is reflected in song titles like "Republic of Cuba y España" ("Republic of Cuba and Spain") and "Bossa Rumba." MartÃn's production (which is largely merely non altogether subservient) has something for Paco de LucÃa and Tomatito aficionados, simply it too has something for Joe Pass admirers as well as fans of the tardy Brazilian guitar virtuoso Laurindo Almeida (wHO was one of the first guitarists to combine samba with nerveless jazz and is among MartÃn's non-Spanish influences).
MartÃn began building a catalog in the '80s, when he recorded a few albums for RCA's Novus label (including Through the Moving Window and 1986's Painter in Sound). Novus was essentially a jazz pronounce in the '80s and early '90s, just fifty-fifty though MartÃn wasn't jazz in the exacting sense, he had sufficiency nothingness influences to go in -- and in any case, MartÃn has, over the years, crossed paths with jazz greats ranging from tenor and treble saxophonist Wayne Shorter to Brazilian isaac Merrit Singer Flora Purim and her percussion-playing married man, Airto Moreira. MartÃn provided some albums for the Alex label in the early to mid-'90s, and the former '90s and early 2000s launch him transcription extensively for the independent Flamenco Vision label. By early 2005, MartÃn had at least 16 albums in his catalogue.
