ZLOTNICKI: Don Quijote; Fandango; Vertical ; Waltz; Five ; Six; Alegria; Intro.
Martin Zlotnicki
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Don Quijote, the title track opens this album, and is melodic, slightly unusual in its sound world, but friendly in spite of the fact that you won’t have come across this style of writing before. At times it is almost old – fashioned and then in the next moment it carries on in quite a different sound which gets your interest.
Fandango does not begin like the dance rhythm you might be expecting, although it does gradually get there as it continues, and the Flamenco standard strumming of a G chord, then an F, and then an E even appears here too, along with some very fast solo lines, which is very much the Flamenco influence here.
Vertical continues in almost the identical vein as the previous piece, with flamenco strums, very fast runs and little melody lines that could actually be picked out.
Waltz is a tremolo piece in style and for a moment sounded like it was going to become Recuerdos de la Alhambra of Tarrega for a moment. Then in the middle it develops into a proper waltz although still somewhat unusual in its construction and sound world. The piece develops into a number of complex sections as it continues with little if any part repeated.
Five is a single idea that lasts only seconds before Six enters, which makes me wonder why he bothered to put such a short line onto his recording, giving it a separate track?
Six is another complex piece full of open voiced strums interwoven by slightly spooky sounding solo lines that have a constant one note repeated above them.
Alegria is in a style that again I cannot describe, just as it is being full of flamenco styled strums, solo runs and moments that are completely different, with all these different ideas interwoven into what is finally a complex piece that is difficult to categorise.
The final track Intro is again very strum based, with a long line of a melody on top that continued unchanged throughout the entire 3 and a half minutes.
His playing is very good, and as I have already said very Flamenco – based, and the recording was clear and faultless, but the pieces themselves left me feeling as if they were lacking. They seemed to have no real direction, but just seemed to go on, and then stop. You may feel entirely differently, especially as this album can be found in a number download sites. So give them a try first, before jumping in and buying them!
Chris Dumigan
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