Tomas Michaud	Website:	www.TomasMichaud.com
	Genre(s):	Flamenco, Smooth Jazz, Spanish Guitar, Latin, World Music
	Instrument(s):	Flamenco / Acoustic Guitar
	Trademark(s):	Sublimely Progressive, Refined, Stylistically Creative, Smooth, Romantic, Passionate
	Album(s):	New World Flamenco Jazz
	Collaborations:
Translate This Page To: Deutsche Francaise Espanol Italiana Português Russian Chinese Korean

Deeply soulful, softly passionate, and inspiringly uplifting, Tomas Michaud's 2004 release, New World Flamenco Jazz, is an innovative excursion in Flamenco guitar fused with smooth jazz and world music flavorings. The album is fueled with an artistic vision that applies Flamenco guitar motifs to a elegantly colored tapestry framed with soothing Latin beats, smooth jazz rhythms, refined instrumental texturing, and a thoughtful measure of subtly exotic international stylings.

The album opens with "Seville", a lightly sweeping wind with a Caribbean feel, moving with subtle, well-conceived changes that carry the listener over the ocean, beaches, and through tropical island forests. The romantic interlude, "French Kiss", follows set to caressing Afro-Cuban rhythms that pulse to the heartbeat of contentment. The earlier imagery shifts to a nighttime rendezvous at an oceanside cafe amidst a picturesque setting with the soft wind sweeping softly through the listener's hair, offering soothing comfort. Michaud pours out imploring melodies in his tactful entreatment that give way to a warm and moving sax solo by Wayne Ledbetter. The tempo is picked up a notch on "Moroccan Lullaby", a Latin-spiced, smooth groove that moves in small steps to the (gently) punchy bass lines of David Margen. Michaud matches the jumpy groove with a snappy, melodic theme with an exotic air that plucks out harmonic intervals answering the petitioning bass lines.

"Whispers of Paradise" is perhaps the most beautiful track on this CD. Tender, sophisticated Latin rhythms pulsate as Michaud weaves a tapestry of unending, finely spun melodic themes whose lyricism runs like the silky threads of the delicate cloth from each carefully-crafted stitch to the next. The tempo is again stepped up a grade for "No Reason Why", another soft jazz groove arrangement that is suspended with a smooth jazz guitar rhythm that breaks several times to poignant changes that are given wings with the tactful Hammond organ voicings that give this piece its distinguishing character. The mix of smooth jazz, Latin beats, Spanish guitar phrasings, sustained Hammond organ voicings, and assertive sax leads on this track form a delicate balance of savory auditory delight. The upbeat tempo and uplifting atmosphere continues on "Beautiful Little Moment". Reasuring guitar rhythms open this arrangement and yield to Michaud's poetic melodies whose persuasive beseeching entreaties the listener with romantic pleas. Once again, as is done throughout the tracks on this CD, Michaud sustains his expressive, melodic lyricism the duration of this graceful, touching arrangement.

Opening with three simple, articulated triadic arpeggios that flow into the eloquent chordal themes voiced by Michaud's guitar that answer these inquiring arpeggios, "Awakened by an Angel" is a contemplative arrangement with a dreamy, ethereal quality like the memory of a time in your life that may have been touched by magic. The pensive opening section succumbs to softly pulsing rhythms on guitar carried by temperate Latin beats enounced by hand whisked percussions. Michaud again spins a web of finely-laced melodies that wind continuously through this composition. Spirits rise to a state of carnival-like atmosphere on "La Vida Maravillosa", a lively, festive interlude that breaks away with a number of well-designed changes in key and groove bound by inspiring bridges that together keep this upbeat fiesta swinging in joyful, near blissful exuberance. The pace is pulled down to a sultry, entrenched movement by the beguilingly hypnotic sax lines of Ledbetter that initiate "Winds of Time". The languid mood is protracted the duration of this arrangement that is marked by Michaud's tender melodies that fall dreamily from his guitar like soft leaves on a gentle breeze into a flowing spring.

With another escalation of contrasting tempo, "Hoping and Wishing" snaps the listener out of the dream-like state that "Winds of Time" subdued them into. This arrangement is a smooth jazz groove that deploys casually swinging sax riffs to swing the groove. Michaud at first feeds the swing with his themes matched to the sax and then balances the swing with his disarming melody lines. This back and forth pattern continues with the arrangement oscillating between the complementary swing groove and melodic interlude sections. "Eyes Like the Moon and Stars" is a romantic piece that softly sways against the cultivated rhythms of the suave percussion, pulsing bass lines, and the seductive phrasings of the refined piano. The album winds down with the final track, "Voodoo Love". This composition blends smooth jazz rhythms on the guitar with synthesized keyboards that are voiced in a drifting, echo-resonant tone that serve as a backdrop for Michaud's enigmatic melody work that he bestows with an otherworldly character befitting the arrangement's title.

New World Flamenco Jazz delivers the promise of its title. It contains a subtle fusion of Flamenco, smooth jazz, and world music formulated with an innovative and progressive vision that caringly manages the amalgamation of these stylings to ensure the end product is fluent. In fact, the resulting fusion is so suave that it requires effort on the listeners part to discern the integrated elements. It is a natural integration of pleasingly compatible elements that Michaud has achieved on this pleasantly aromatic album. This sublime blending of stylistic elements is truly an elegant realization of world fusion. Michaud's arrangements on this album are soothingly peaceful, charmingly romantic, enticingly gracious, and poignantly passionate. The effortless accessibility and universal appeal of his music on this album makes it suitable for a wide-ranging, general audience. It is perfect for relaxing on the weekends, fine dining by candlelight, or even for the headphones on the job. But mostly, this music is intended for romantic occasions where its lyrical charms can define the right mood for the moment. For listeners that are searching for music that has a subtle flare and exotic nuances for these settings, New World Flamenco Jazz by Tomas Michaud comes highly recommended.

Copyright 2001 - 2006 Christopher Ruel. All Rights Reserved. www.ChrisRuel.com