To learn more about the music, click here.

This is our introduction to two contratsing forms which work beautifully together. They're a great first step in flamenco.

This is our introduction to flamenco' most exciting form.

Meanwhile, here's a sample:

Mojácar is an ancient village overlooking the Mediterranean in southern Spain. While at an artists’ retreat at Mojácar, Stephen was asked to perform a concert of original music. This music is the result of that request.

Inspired by Flamenco innovators, influenced by great Brazilian artists, shaped by the possibilities of the guitar itself, this music is a very personal statement made loud and strong by the contributions of some extraordinary artists.

Note: If you bought our earlier release, "Naranjas Amargas," then these titles will be familiar to you. This CD is a re-recording of the ten tunes on that album. Bigger, Better, Basser.

Fastango:

This piece is very special to me since it's the first piece I composed in this style. The underlying form is a Flamenco Tango played very fast. Hence the name. The underlying harmonies are standard Tango hamonies, E-F, Am-G-F-E. I just extend them some passing harmonies such as quartal chords.

Felag Mengu:

The name of this piece is an inside joke. Some scholarly texts on flamenco speculate that the word "flamenco" is a corruption of Arabic words meaning "fugitive peasant." This seems far-fetched to us, but a convenient way to refer to the way this tune combines the underlying Arabic "beledi" rhythm, played by Johnny on the darabuka, and the tango in 'tono taranto' that Paulo and I play on top of it.

Que Lindo:

This tune is in tribute to one of my all-time guitar heros and the man who inspired me to take up the nylon string guitar, Brazilian great Laurindo Almeida. I was privileged to know Laurindo not long before he passed away and found him to be a deeply beautiful soul.

Gracia Sencilla:

I wrote this simple samba in about half a hour one evening while sitting on the couch. The title (Simple Grace) is a reminder to myself to keep it simple and not to over play the piece.

Rumba La Fuerza:

The title of this piece (The Force) is a flamenco name given to Katerina during a flamenco dance theatre production at the Fountain Theatre. Although it pretends to be a simple flamenco rumba, you'll hear some borrowed Brazilian rhythms during the bridge section and a few tritone substitutions borrowed from jazz.

Toca'o:

For this piece, both Johnny and I work as drummers as I slap on the guitar strings at the 12th fret. With the guitar capoed at the 5th fret and my holding chords on the 7th and 9th frets, this means that the tapping generates a lot of hamonics to make the melody. I never actually play the opening melody in the traditional sense. It just arises out of these harmonics.

Rumba Salsera:

This may be the piece we play most live simply because whenever possible we'll close a show wth a rumba everyone can dance to. We were lucky to have Miguel Rivera join us for the first guitar solo which, as I remember, he did in one take.

¡Ya Lo Tengo!:

This underlying melody of this tango comes from a moment in Carlos Saura's film "Carmen" when the singer Marisol and guitarist Paco de Lucia are sitting on the side of the practice stage working on a tango. The simple, syncopated line Marisol sings has always appealed to me as the essence of this form.

Naranjas Amargas:

This is a decidely American take on the traditional Flamenco form bulerías. The underlying count of the bulería, 3+3+2+2+2 is often reflected in a Latin 6/8, a pattern familiar to most of us in Bernstein's song "America." Katerina and I use both versions of this pattern throughout this piece. The title refers to a sense memory of mine from our time in Mojácar. We were there in late fall and orange trees full of fruit were everywhere. The rural code held that you could have any fruit you could reach from the road, so I tried some oranges from some trees near the path on which we walked to the village. As you can imagine, by that time of year they were very bitter. This has nothing to do with the song. It's just a memory I enjoy.

Al Que Quiere:

I wrote the opening guitar solo to this piece when I was 20 and all I wanted in life was to be able to imitate my guitar hero, Brazilian great Baden Powell. I didn't come up with the rest of it until I needed to fill it out for that concert in Mojácar. We added Johnny's drums late at night during the last hour of the last day's recording. I may have just been giddy at the point, but I remember jumping around with delight as he laid down this wonderful track.

Steve, Paulo and Mauricio in the booth

Katerina's rhythm nest

Johnny gets ready to hit, slap, and pound a few close friends

Paulo playing shortstop, between 2nd and 3rd bass.