Salsa Flamenca

Album Review

The two musicians who make up the duo Young & Rollins met in a music store only a few months before they began performing together in public. Their collaboration was an instant success, as they branched out from traditional flamenco guitar music to include rhythmic elements of other styles, like salsa, blues, jazz, and reggae. Salsa Flamenca continues and builds upon this trend, bringing a fresh sound to contemporary flamenco music while not wandering too far away from its traditional core. The music is passionate, romantic, refreshing, and soothing all at once, with only occasional forays into cliché, like the rain stick employed in "Midnight Rendezvous" to add an aura of mystery that instead makes it sound like a bad cue in a movie soundtrack. Even though "Midnight Rendezvous" is spoiled by that intro, the song saves itself by ramping up to become one of the most technically interesting on the album, proving that even following its worst moments, this album can manage to entrance listeners and make them forget its occasional sins.