Michel Camilo & Tomatito: Spain again (2006)

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Michel Camilo & Tomatito: Spain again (2006)

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Michel Camilo & Tomatito: Spain again (2006)
jazz, flamenco | FLAC, tracks, no cue, no log | 250 MB, RS

"Spain Again" reunites Spanish flamenco guitarist Tomatito with American jazz pianist Michel Camilo. Camilo is a classically trained prodigy whose influences range from Art Tatum to Keith Jarrett, while Tomatito reigns as one of his country's brightest stars, citing Paco De Lucía as one of his key inspirations. The success of this collaboration does not lie in the differences between their musical heritages, but rather in the common ground these two masters forge within the parameters of this recording. Although virtuosity is certainly not something both musicians are lacking, one never senses that the two are competing with one another. Instead the listener hears a deep and profound camaraderie between the two which amicably encompasses the music on this disc. The delicate interplay and intuitive sensitivity the artists share recalls the seminal sixties collaborations between Jim Hall and Bill Evans. Throughout their adventurous melodic excursions and thrilling improvisations, Tomatito and Camilo never lose focus of the inherent beauty of each composition.

The fact is that most flamenco-jazz meetings are third-rate flamenco and seventh-rate jazz. The genres are utterly different, the time-conceptions in each tradition especially are utterly different (and paramount), and everyone emerges sounding worse than they do in their home genres. Since few jazz critics know enough about flamenco to intelligently comment, and vice-versa, the enterprises usually get applauded when they should be simply avoided. These Camilo/Tomatito discs are the only truly successful such collaborations I know, and the new one is just as glorious as the last.