American Matador

Marc Bonilla | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 17, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Reprise Records
• ASIN: B000008DNN
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,602 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. American Matador

2. Get off the Fence

3. Streetalk

4. A Whiter Shade of Pale

5. The Vanishing Road

6. Mephisto

7. Wake the Baby

8. Under the Gun

9. Vette Lag

10. Prélude

11. In the Blue Corner

12. I Am the Walrus

13. A Whiter Shade of Pale [Instrumental]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME GUITAR - AWESOME CD, August 5, 2004

By 

HANS D HARMS (runaway bay, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: American Matador (Audio CD)

Another guitar virtuoso that combines awesome technique with the ability to compose stirring and emotional musik. The playing is second to none and shows restrain were it is called for. Bonilla doesn't decent into noodling and every note has a valid place that serves and enhances the composition. If you like HOEY / TIMMONS / FIRKINS / ZAZA or anything of that nature, you will love this CD.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid 2nd effort, though "EE Ticket" is better, November 22, 2007

By 

Dave Chambers (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Matador (Audio CD)

First, please read my review of Bonilla's "EE Ticket" album - that one is a MUST buy. Now that you've read that review...
This is a good album, and if you liked EE Ticket you'll like this one. But after EE Ticket, Matador is a bit of a letdown - it feels like Bonilla had a half an album worth of stuff and needed to stretch it. The "good half" is just as fresh and inventive and invigorating and amazing as "EE Ticket". But the "other half" isn't quite as good, and feels like filler, and leaves you wishing he had been able to create more genuinely stuff. "I Am The Walrus" isn't as good as "Commotion", and we didn't really need 2 versions of "Whiter Shade of Pale" (in fact we didn't need EITHER version). Bonilla sings on one song ("Wake the Baby"), and he's surprisingly good. Glenn Hughes sings "Walrus", and I don't really care for him. In fact, despite Bonilla's strong work on "Wake the Baby" I would prefer the album to have NO vocals - one of the great things about "EE Ticket" was that it's purely instrumental, and "Matador" makes you realize that the instruments are so good that you don't want any vocals with his music.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, Graceful Rock, September 30, 2003

By 

David R. Bannon, Ph.D. - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Matador (Audio CD)

This is a solid piece of rock that lifts the listener through a variety of moods and textures. It isn't just Bonilla's virtuosic skill as a pure player that is so impressive; it is, even more, the range and scope of sheer sound that he coaxes, cajoles and rips out of his instruments.

Bonilla, who produced the release and wrote most of the songs, has a graceful, powerful hand that creates music at once moving, inspiring, and exhilarating. It's hard to pick a standout piece as the quality of the album is so high. His title track ("American Matador") shows Bonilla's remarkable range in a thrilling metal instrumental with prog rock and flamenco roots. "Get Off the Fence" (an ode to Harley-Davidson), "Mephisto" and "Vette Lag" fill ears with indelible sonic images. Glenn Hughes' vocals on "A Whiter Shade of Pale" mix well with Bonilla's deft delivery of rock-charged soul music; this blues metal mix is even more apparent in his haunting "The Vanishing Road." Bonilla himself steps up to the microphone for brutal insight into the insanity of societal violence ("Wake the Baby"). Would that all rock records were made with the same care, the same passion and invention. David R. Bannon, Ph.D.; author, "Race Against Evil."