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
more »