Listen To:


Selected MP3s of guitar instrumentals, jazz, big band, and classic easy listening from the original vinyl.

Welcome to Guitars & All That Jazz

Welcome to Guitars & All That Jazz

Guitars & All That Jazz was a radio station that webcast via Live365 for 11 years, ending in June 2011. The playlist consisted of guitar instrumentals, jazz, big band, early rock 'n' roll, lounge music and classic easy listening.

I hope to share some of this music with you via this blog. Most of it will be taken from the original vinyl (LPs and 45s) , cassettes and the occasional commercially unavailable CD.

Here's hoping you'll find something to enjoy. Please note files are available only for a limited time.

I urge you to purchase the digital version of the albums featured, either on CD or via download, wherever possible.

Listen to the Music
There are now two music streams. Click the appropriate player to the right.
1. Guitars & All That Jazz: Five hours of the best in jazz, guitars and other instrumental gems. New songs are added weekly.
2. Tiki Shores: Music to sweep you away to a tropical isle, a South American dance floor or a bossa nova on the beach at Rio. About 4.5 hours of classic exotica music, Latin rhythms and bossa nova.
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Friday, October 11, 2013

Carlos Montoya - From St. Louis to Seville


Guitarist Carlos Montoya (1903-1993) was the driving force behind the acceptance of flamenco as a serious form of music. Traditionally, flamenco was used to accompany gypsy folk singers and dancers, but in the late 1940s Montoya became the first flamenco guitarist to tour with symphony orchestras and perform his own guitar recitals. He often included blues, jazz and folk tunes in those performances.

So we come to this 1959 LP for RCA Victor, From St. Louis to Seville, split evenly between jazz and blues influenced numbers and flamenco.

Flamenco is not really my cup of tea, so let's consider the pop side of the LP, which includes a version of the standard Blues in the Night. This Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer tune served as the title song for a 1941 film.

Montoya's version is certainly interesting, with the guitarist in a bluesy jazz mode in the first half of the tune then morphing into flamenco just past the halfway point. The transition doesn't really work for me, but I'll leave it up to you to decide whether this interpretation of Blues in the Night holds together.

Blues in the Night



The complete From St. Louis to Seville LP is included in Flamenco Fury, a two-CD set released last month by the U.K.-based Jasmine label. The album is also available as a download in the U.K. and Europe but not in the U.S. or Canada, so far.


There is an iTunes download album available in North America called The Very Best of Carlos Montoya that includes the tracks on From St. Louis to Seville, but it seems to me to be of dubious origin.

Here's Montoya's take on St. Louis Blues, from the original From St. Louis to Seville LP.


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