Esteban Alvarez releases “La Bikina”

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/estebanalvarezmusic/

Composer and classically trained pianist Esteban Alvarez is making a lot of noise with his new song “La Bikina,” from his new album Piano Meets Mariachi at the moment, but the road to stardom for him has not been the easiest of paths traveled. Born and raised in San Jose, Costa Rica, Alvarez has been playing piano since adolescence. He taught himself how to play and compose on a keyboard that his father brought home one day when he was a boy, and from there, nothing could contain his attraction to the fine arts. Studying music and physics at the University of Costa Rica, Alvarez was chosen at just 20 years old to conduct and arrange music for the Escazu Folk-Music Band at SIVO in Central Europe, no small achievement for a man of such a young age. This led to a full scholarship to Baylor University the following year where he would major in classical piano performance and study directly under Dr. Terry Lynn Hudson and Dr. Vincent DeFries. His abilities on the piano were evolving into something much stronger than even his closest mentors could have predicted, and after graduating from Baylor with honors, it was on to the highly regarded jazz program at the University of North Texas. He became a staple in the jazz ensemble and was clearly the brightest mind in his class. Relocating to Austin, Esteban has been recording, writing and performing his own imprint of classical music even before leaving school, and in “La Bikina,” we get to see what all of his hard work was for.

Piano Meets Mariachi probably wasn’t recorded to redefine what classical music is going to sound like for Latin audiences, but it certainly does a good job at doing so nevertheless. For once we can have a true mariachi record that can feature jazz elements and accents from pop, standards, folk and classical music without coming off as a watered down attempt at making a commercially savvy hybrid. I don’t know about anyone else, but isn’t that something that fans of mariachi have been craving since the turn of the century, when many critics complained that the style had reached a creative plateau?

Alvarez doesn’t have to try very hard to sell us on his inventiveness, and that’s the magic in a short instrumental track like “La Bikina;” it lets the musicians’ hands do all of the talking. Robert Moog once said that “When a pianist sits down and does a virtuoso performance, he is in a technical sense transmitting more information to a machine than any other human activity involving machinery allows.” Is it Alvarez’s relationship with the piano that makes him so capable of expressing his emotion and message to us in this medium? Is it the piano’s exceptional magnificence that is allowing us to see the magnificent side of Alvarez? Perhaps the other way around? Whatever the case may be, Piano Meets Mariachi is my choice for piano album of this latter portion of the 2010s, if for no other reason than its amazing portrayal of a musician’s undying love for his instrument.

I-TUNES: itunes.apple.com/us/artist/esteban-alvarez/727835327

Clay Burton

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The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina – Act 3

CD BABY: store.cdbaby.com/cd/themerrymakersorchestrina

The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina is a trio based out of the New York City area and led by singer/songwriter/guitar player Ryan Shivdasani. The band has altered their lineup since the recording of this full length, but there’s little question listening to Act 3’s thirteen cuts that nothing will change about Shivdasani’s creative vision for the band’s music. It isn’t easily classifiable. It’s close to say that Shivdasani’s musical loyalties lie with terse, often angular guitar driven art rock with minimal clutter and an elevated lyrical quality, but you can’t quite pin Shivdasani and the band’s songs down – they take some surprising, label defying turns along the way that makes it clear they are far more than just another power trio revolving around a central figure’s guitar work. The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina’s album Act 3 shows that there are many more acts to come for this talented songwriter and his equally talented band mates.

“Together” may seem like a relatively improbable opener thanks to its crazed pace and fiery temperament, but it becomes clear that The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina want to get Act 3 off to a fast start and there’s simply no other song on the album that would have worked as effectively in this spot. It has a strong punk rock bite and Jack Redford’s bass playing has every bit of the energy this sort of track demands. “Particle Craze” and some of the album’s later songs sound profoundly influenced by bands like Television, early Talking Heads, or Richard Hell and the Voivoids, while manifesting its own unique character. We get the first hint of his lyrical acumen with this tune, but that really emerges in full with the album’s third song. “Watched You Out My Window” tells a story in a way that few songs on Act 3 do and has great subtlety in doing so. Shivdasani’s guitar work hinges on a melody that sets the song’s overall emotional tone while the lyric doesn’t show all its cards at once.

“East of Eden” is cut from the same cloth as the album’s second song but with a much more deliberate tempo and a stronger focus on melody. There’s a balance here, however, between melody and atmospherics that’s missing from much more direct melodic efforts like the previous tune. The lyric is definitely just as strong as before and tells a very different story than “Watched You Out My Window”, but there’s every bit of the same insight into character as we enjoy with the previous song. Shivdasani and the band whip together some real menace with the song “Enemy” and it makes the same sort of deep impact we heard with the last two tracks. The chiming lilt of “Slip Away” blends country and folk influences together in a charming way that’s perfectly in keeping with what’s come before and benefits from one of Shivdasani’s best vocals.

The rhythm section really shines on the tune “Anarchy” and it has a pleasing retro sound with some flourishes along the way and a stormy ending that marks this as the band’s own. There’s a lot of great lyrical content in this track and Shivdasani delivers with more playfulness than you might expect going into it. “Blood Country” comes at you from the same place we heard with the earlier “Particle Craze” and other tunes along the way and gives us a lyric that provides listeners no comfort at all. There’s some light production touches influencing this song, like many of the others, and it makes this one particularly effective. “Wait Behind” ends Act 3 on a laid back, melodic note with a warm Shivdasani vocal. The Merrymaker’s Orchestrina will impress a lot of listeners with this release and you’ll be hard put to not find something on this album that will get under your skin and stay there. It’s one of 2018’s best releases.

SPOTIFY: open.spotify.com/album/4nVCsOykvkuBMzinHtU69g

Clay Burton

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Conor Gains – Compass

URL: www.conorgainsband.com/

Conor Gains’ solo debut Compass opens with the song “I Know” and, from that song alone, listeners will rest easy realizing they are in confident and capable musical hands. The blues and jazz influences powering the ten song collection are cut with a tangible nod to soul and R&B in the way that Gains, one song after another, holds listener’s attention thanks to his penchant for writing and singing over deeply felt, atmospheric grooves. “Walking Alone” opens in a spartan manner with warm, tactile guitar accompanying one of Gains’ finer vocals before the drums enter and the song launches in earnest. There’s a light presence of backing vocals deepening the song’s soulful qualities, but Gains is more than capable of single-handedly carrying the song’s emotional demands. Brief passages of lead guitar punctuate the song at key dramatic points without ever overstepping its mandate.

“Dance Like It’s Your Birthday” mixes pure R&B stomp with a strong blues influence. The vocal presentation is highlight from the first and ends up being one of the best aspects of the song and achieves a particularly rousing quality during the track’s chorus. There’s a quick guitar rave up opening “Ordinary Love” segueing nicely into a slow burn torch song complete with stylish backing vocals and understated percussion. Gains’ singing glides through the changes and brings a gentle lift at specific points that widens the song’s reach. Each of the ten songs on Compass shows him to be a master of mood who never over-exerts to achieve effects. Instead, he makes his presence felt with an effortlessness that wins you over from the first. There’s even a smattering of rap vocals added near the song’s end.

He proves expert with gradual transitions as “I’ve Been Looking for Your Heart” builds from a muted opening to a stormy, impassioned conclusion without ever striking a false note along the way. Gains has the phrasing talents of a much older singer and certainly much of that can be attributed to a passion for perfecting his craft, but it’s just as much innate skill. “In My Head” has some tasteful, yet wonderfully bluesy piano playing matching every bit of the intensity in Gains’ singing. There’s a glowering intensity, even a low key menace, accompanying this tune that’s impossible to ignore and it revolves around the aforementioned piano and Gains’ show stopping vocal. It’s a mightily impressive way to start the album’s second half.

“Back to You” shifts the album’s musical gears slightly with an acoustic based tune. It has a palpable live feel to the performance, despite the flawless backing vocals, and reaches some rousing pinnacles along the way. There’s a surprising hint of Bon Iver’s influence in the massed vocals and clear focus on ambient production during the song’s first half, but it isn’t a pronounced thing. Compass’ longest song, “Miracle”, keeps Gains working in relatively low key musical surroundings and embraces his blues influences once again while bringing an impressive horn section to bear on the final result. The album’s second to last track “Darkness in the Light” continues to explore the more pensive edge of his songwriting, but Gains and his collaborators once again confound expectations during the song’s second half and push the envelope some. Compass concludes with another comparatively lengthy piece, “Mexico”, which blends more of his patented talent for soulful grooves with an evolving roots rock sound build around the guitar and never pushing too hard on listeners. This is a fully immersive and rewarding musical experience that bears repeated listens.

YOU TUBE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD0U5ZTpxJo

Clay Burton

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