Salsa Flamenca

Pay with

About Salsa Flamenca

Product Description On Salsa Flamenca guitarists Dan Young and Lawson Rollins offer a dynamic, electrifying performance. The duo's energetic guitar stylings blend flamenco motifs with Latin jazz, classical, reggae, blues and even rock-style phrasing, all at blinding speeds and all with breathtaking skill. Review As the album title suggests, the duo draws from both Afro-Caribbean and Spanish traditions, yet it also tosses acoustic blues riffs, funk bass lines, pop melodies and Brazilian rhythms into the mix. --Mike Joyce, Washington Post Rarely we find a debut album in which every song is as musically vibrant and masterfully performed. Salsa Flamenca is one of this year's best, an album to be treasured. --Marietta Berre, The Latin American Folk Institute Young & Rollins is a first class act, and their new release Salsa Flamenca is a tour de force of musical enjoyment and freshness! Their jazz guitar sound is unique, original, and certainly one of the most memorable salsa adventures you could hope for! These guys are good, and so are the compositions! --Lee Prosser, Jazz Review.com About the Artist Through their internationally popular recordings, televised concerts, and live performances, Young & Rollins have established themselves as one of today's most innovative Latin guitar groups. Dan Young and Lawson Rollins began collaborating after a chance meeting in a Washington, D.C., flamenco guitar shop in 1998. They came from different musical backgrounds - Lawson started out as a classically trained guitarist before moving into Latin American guitar styles, while Dan holds a degree in jazz from the New School University in New York City - but they immediately realized that they shared a similar musical vision. Both had a profound love of Latin music, particularly the Brazilian, salsa, and flamenco traditions, as well as an appreciation of the contemporary developments in those genres. But in their own work, they sought to move beyond the often confining boundaries of musical genres. "Basically, we're about breaking down these artificial barriers that have evolved in music. We've tried to open ourselves up to a diversity of influences and to explore new paths for creative expression," Dan explains. Lawson agrees: "Working together has really forced us to combine elements of our very different musical backgrounds and has resulted in a natural fusion process. Young & Rollins is really a hybrid of different styles that joins our enthusiasm for experimentation with a respect for different musical traditions." Soon after meeting, Lawson and Dan began playing together, and their unique sound attracted a loyal following. Focusing on originality and experimentation, they mainly perform their own compositions, which draw upon an eclectic mixture of salsa, Latin jazz, blues, samba, bossa nova, flamenco, and classical styles. Their work is noted for its complex arrangements and unexpected melodic development, performed with bold virtuosity and improvisational flair. Through collaborations with several acclaimed musicians, they expanded to a quintet format, in which percussive rhythms and bass lines highlight the fast-paced interplay between the two guitarists. In the spring of 2000, Young & Rollins signed an international recording contract with the Los Angeles-based label, Baja/TSR Records. Their debut recording, Salsa Flamenca, was released later that summer to critical acclaim. The prestigious Latin American Folk Institute declared Salsa Flamenca "one of this year's best, an album to be treasured" and wrote, "Rarely do we find a debut album in which every song is as musically vibrant and masterfully performed." After receiving such praise - as well as significant radio play both nationally and internationally - Salsa Flamenca went on to enter the Billboard top 25 charts in October, 2000. A half hour concert of music from the album recorded in 2001 continues to be broadcast on U.S. television stations across the nation, atte