Juan Jose Carranza Flamenco De La Costa CD

Montreal-based but Costa Rica-born, Juan Jose Carranza is the sort of perfectly competent, eminently listenable, but not particularly spellbinding musician who ekes out a living on the world music festival circuit and some of the hipper nightspots. The 11 original tangos and rhumbas on his 1998 debut, Flamenco de la Costa, showcase a fluid and percussive guitar style that carries the tunes even on those tracks that feature an unobtrusive rhythm section, but an unfortunately limited melodic and chordal palette keeps the songs from taking off. However, there are two surprising and engaging vocal tracks that suggest a more fruitful artistic direction for Carranza. Settings of works by the novelist Federico García Lorca, "Corazón Malherido" and "Romance de la Luna, Luna," reveal that Carranza has a delightfully rough, sandpapery voice with a playful sense of phrasing that plays off the rhythms of his guitar. These are by far the two most interesting and memorable tracks on this otherwise pleasant but slight album. ~ Stewart Mason

Juan José Carranza was first introduced to flamenco as a teenager in New York City when he met a gypsy musician who taught him a complex guitar technique known as rasqueado. This chance meeting ignited Carranza's passion for flamenco and eventually prompted him to seek the life of a traveling musician.Returning to Costa Rica, his country of origin, Carranza lived on the beach while performing in bars and restaurants. His travels took him throughout Central America, Mexico and Europe including Germany, Holland and Spain.Along the way, Carranza learned from encounters with other flamenco players and gypsies and honed his skills as a musician. Over the years, Carranza has developed a highly percussive right hand strumming technique which reflects the influence of Latin American rhythms and his role as a soloist and improviser