Customer Reviews

Jácaras! 18th Century Spanish Baroque Guitar Music

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This excellent recording treats us to a different baroque. Not the extremely elaborate fugues, chorales, and operas most people immediately think of when they hear "baroque". Many of the pieces are dance music, but not the kind of dances you would find in Bach cello, violin or lute suite. This is music someone can actually dance to. Even though the music is definitely baroque, some of these pieces sound like flamenco (like Jacaras por la E), and some other sounds like South American music (La Jota sounds somehow like "pajaro campana").

A discussion of the Alfabeto letters that show up in the titles of the pieces would have been nice; when you see "por la E" or "por la B" Murcia did not mean in the key of E or in the key of B. He was reffering to the names of the main chord in each of the pieces by an old guitar-chord naming system.

Highly recommended.

First I purchased "Luz y Norte" with The Harp Consort, dir. A. Lawrence-King (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472 77340 2) and got obsessed with the music. Wheather sad or jolly I have had to listen to it. And "!Jacaras!" came next. Beautiful playing, so sensitive; and all musicians are absolute masters! This is the addiction I have no option but follow. Try it for yourself.

I'm no expert on Baroque guitar music; I just know this is extravagantly wonderful music, performed with brio. It sounds so fresh & contemporary (think Gypsy Kings) that it's hard to believe it was composed almost 300 years ago. And my 3 & 5-year-olds really enjoy it. This has been our soundtrack for getting to kindergarten all month.

I've had this CD about 5 years. I put it on
and play it, and play it, ... and finally decide
that I should play something else. I like to play
it while I am concentrating on something.
It seems to get the blood flow through the
brain cranked up.

From the cover:
"It appears that the devil brought these
lewd bailes out of hell..." - 18th century
English music critic about Spanish guitar.

Ron McConnell

European baroque meets rythms from Africa and the New World. All of it played by masters including the incomparable Paul O'Dette.