I am giving lessons daily in Napa, Vacaville and Fairfield Calif. Let me know if you want to have a full one hour lesson. All levels taught. Lessons are at my studio or at your home.

I am proud to help promote a new flamenco documentary. http://bit.ly/TvUK0V http://kck.st/QnB2mZ Please if you can help out by backing their Kickstarter, or watching/buying the film please do. As you all know flamenco is my passion and I want to shed insight into the wonderful people behind the music. TJ

I traded in my Hermanos Conde blanca for a Tomas Delgado, Candelas blanca, 650 scale, cedar top, Alegria model, 2002. Beautiful guitar with great flamenco tone. Plays like butter and quite loud. More info soon. TJ

I am now set up for doing mixes and mastering. Please contact me if you need any music mixes or re-mixes done. I have great gear and plenty of experience. I can also do acoustic guitar tracking and vintage style vocal tracks. Very reasonable rates. Located in Napa Calif. Cheers !

New song sorta

Here is a Ukulele song on Baritone Uke. Composed in about 15 minutes, just a song I wrote while on break at school.



http://alonetone.com/flamenco4me/tracks/off-the-bench

All my old links from GarageBand website are dead as they bit the dust. New links to my music can be found here.



http://alonetone.com/flamenco4me

Tim

Review of Ojos De Brujo CD Techari

Review of musical group Techari.

This group is a mix of flamenco,world, hip hop and reggae. The basic structure is flamenco but they mix rhythms of other cultures to great effect.

Here is a song by song review.

"Color" A pop/weather report style song with lots of palmas keeping you off balance. The road twists through Stanley Clarke style bass riffs, choppy guitar parts, hip hop, salsa, and a mind bending tabla interlude.

"Sultanas De Merkaíllo" By far my absolute favorite song of theirs. Way way infectous rhythm with salsa conga bell meeting the great alzapua mid-passage driving to greater things. Oh yeah !!

"Todo Tiende" Nice tabla rumba intro. Hard to stay sitting down with this song playing. Nice groove cuts a swath through the spanish night air. Then we take a left turn to old morocco returning to the gypsy caravan. Whew !

"Runalí" Oh yeah this one pulls on my ear, pulls me in tight to the music. Swaying
lyrical vocals call me up to the dance floor as the music fills me with good vibes. " Bartender send me another rum and cola please" Afro drumming shakes hands with tablas, nice light touch on the guitar.

"El Confort No Reconforta" Heavy techno groove brings us into this song. Dreamy
vocals contrasting hip hop undercurrents lace this one. Not flamenco but a great
song.

"Tanguillos marineros" A nice throwback to one of my favorite styles. This has
tabla and tar drumming to add a worldly edge. Nice guitar and vocals throughout

"Silencio" another one of my favorites. Heavy world beat with sampled music added in.
Nice use of tablas here adds a raga beat. The vocals remind me of Paco de lucias 2nd to last "Lucia" cd. Oh yeah this one grooves.

"No somos maquinas" Nice dreamy intro leads into jazzy middle section.
Staccato vocals give an urgency to drive the song along to a Chick Corea piano style section, very nice.

"Bailaores" Another great rumba reminicent of gipsy kings cerca "Este Mundo when Tonino was still a flashy young guitarist. Greatdanceable song.

"Corre lola corre" Al dimeola meets Tonino Baliardo. Gipsy kings guitar
with a jazzy feel. This would be a great song for a movie soundtrack.

"Feedback" A jazzy rumba with Chick Corea and Iranian overtones. Nice groove throughout, good alzapua thumb action leading into a raga ending.

"Piedras vs. tanques" a technorumba worthy of some serious booty shaking. Some rock overtones, with a splash of "Azucar Moreno" for good taste.

"Respira" Starts out as a solea, slides into a Paco de lucia style groove cerca his Zyrab period. Lots of "scratching and sampling on this track. Good dancable song.

"Nana" a nice tarantas opening that goes into a zambra/heavy middle east- east indian middle section. Nice vocals from Marina, guitar reminds me of Sabicas. Not a traditional
flamenco song at all but played with much feeling.

I will keep a lookout for this band next time they come around.

Andy Culpepper flamenco CD review

Okay after a few listens I am ready to let you in on my opinions.

1st song : Sol Y suelo

A very nice modern style tarantas. Very reminiscent of Paco de lucia circa mid 80s. Played with much grace and style.
Clean playing and tremolos, dripping with emotion.

2nd song : November (tango)

Slow style tango, usually played fast for Juergas. This unique tempo gives the real feeling of the Sacromonte caves
where the gypsies live. Nice rasgeados, nice accents, great golpes. Andalucia would be proud.

3rd song : La voz de mi guitarra (solea)

Opening with the solitude which characterizes the thematic style of solea. Moves into furthur introspection, separation
and societal despair. Nice chordal chromatic progression at the end summarizes the fall into hope and loss. Ole'

4th song : Cascadilla (alegrias)

A cheerful rendition of gypsy verve and exploration. Nice minor key passage with purposeful playing. Not at all contrived
as with so many guitar artists. Returns to major key with accelerando with ease. Great triplet rasgueo in this section.
Modern chords at the coda impart a freshness to this ancient form. Nice.

5th song : Sentimentos (tarantas)
A very traditional tarantas. The song of the miners. Gypsies were enslaved and sometimes employed to work in the mines far
from their friends and families. This form is key to understanding the complexity of gypsy life. Andy conveys every desire
and hope, the utter despair of not only being of a race exploited but of those forced from their homeland. Great playing.

6th song : Rusted truck (bulerias)

I love bulerias I must say, my lifeblood comes from bulerias. The complex rhythms found in this style are hauntng. It is a
compound time meter of essentially two measures within a measure repeating throughout the song. Each measure is a different
time meter, kind of like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time then switching to brushing your teeth
and combing your hair. Try it ! The playing here is lively and fresh. Perfect compas like riding in the back of the car on
a long trip when you were a kid watching the telephone poles go by at 55 mph. Beginning has a very juerga feel. Makes you
think Diego del gastor is sipping a bit of "tinto" somewhere close by. Good alzapua in mid section. Nice fadeout with
modern simultaneous alternating thumb and picado patterns. Sabes tocar la bulerias.

7th song : Garcia lorca (sequirias)

For those unacquainted, Federico Garcia Lorca was the father of flamenco poetry. No song could be played without thinking
whether or not he would approve of the intent behind the paying or singing. Similar to the bulerias in rhythm, actually it
is a reverse image. It takes many years to achieve mastery of this style. Golpes tap out the meter and rasgueos accent the
feeling. After the intro very nice alzapuas with clean execution yet able to convey the urgency of this style. Played
somewhat in the style of manolo sanlucar back in the 60s. Most current players bling this style up with garish and useless
frills. Andy is to the point and never strays from the task at hand. Bravo.

8th song : Philadelphia (solea)

This begins with a very modern harmonic use of chromatic octaves. Then there is a more traditional mid section with great
picado and rasgueos. More clean triplet rasqueos in the end. Sweet.

9th song : Two lakes (bulerias)
This starts in solea form then transmutes to the faster bulerias. Killer harmonic octave glissandos take us to a modern
presentation of my fav song form. Poignant pulgar work late mid section before more octave chords. Slight accelerando at
the coda. Played out with modern 7th chordal bridging.

Final track : Painting (granadinas)

Next to bulerias my favorite form is the granadinas. Another song of the miners. Taking deep into the depths of the
mines Andy digs a shaft of graceful hammer-ons and pull-offs. Shimmering notes like gravel that threaten workers fall unto
bottomless pits of human emotion. Really nice tremolo mid section ending with clean picados. We are taken up the mountains
of the Sacromonte in search of new beginnings.

Overall this is a great album worthy of any aficionados collection or even those who are unfamiliar with flamenco will love
it. The recording is very good, the tone of guitar speaks of spain. I highly recommend this CD.


Asta luego,
TJ

New Microphone

Hi,
Traded a bunch of my mics for a condenser microphone. I am hoping to make a bunch of new recording soon. Right now my guitar pickup is dead, and no cash to replace it. At the same time my amp is broken so I have to do all recordings acoustically right now.


Anyway the mic is a Rode NT2, the original version. It is made in Australia and sounds fantastic. I have used a Shure SM-58, SM-57, an EV- PL-76, an EV-PL-77B, a AKG C 451, a Shure BG-41, and an AKG 414 buls in the past. This microphone is quite sensitive and captures all the details the other mic missed or blurred. I hope to be posting new recordings soon.

I am running this mic through a Bellari RP220 tube mic preamp with a Voodoo lab upgrade. Very nice sound, smooth and old timey but with a nice sizzle on the top end.
My compressor is a Bellari RP583, tube optical compressor again with a Voodoo lab upgrade. Very smooth and airy.
Finally these get fed into a Teac A-3440 tape deck for that tape compression.

The Teac goes into my M-Audio Delta 2 in 2 out sound card. My recording software Sonar cakewalk version 8.

I use mainly outboard effects with a few software plug-ins.

Found a new flamenco sheet music site

http://www.ctv.es/USERS/norman/

Cheers !

Out of school for a few weeks

Just got out of my music finals. What a bear taking all these classes but I am learning a lot about music. I never thought I would be able to go back to school and get a degree in music but I am struggling though.

Last monday night I had a concert where I sat-in with a live jazz band. The band were absolutely amazing. The crowd was amazing as well even though I could barley hear myself on the monitors, it felt good. Hopefully I will be doing more of these in the near future.

I will be starting work on an album soon. Not mine but I will be collaborating with another musician who has several records out now. It is a latin based group. Unfortunately my amplifier died and my acoustic guitar pickup is shot as well. Oh well, I need to scrape up some money somehow.

Now I have some free time I will be giving guitar lessons again. Please email for more info. Very reasonable rates.

That's all for now.