Published on Nov 24, 1998
I have always been a sucker for good guitar work. Even if I
wasn’t particularly fond of a song, if it had a guitar line that
was well-played, I’d lock in on the radio and listen to it.
Especially pleasing to my ears is good classical, Spanish or
Flamenco guitar work. Having taken classical guitar lessons in
college, I now watch some of these players master their instrument,
and it both moves and frustrates me to tears. (It surprises me,
then, that I have yet to add anything from the likes of Andres
Segovia to the Pierce Archives – I just don’t find myself in the
classical aisles of Best Buy that much these days.)
Add Luis Villegas to the list of guitarists, then, that I would
go out of my way to listen to and watch. Listening to his
recently-released disc
Cafe Olé, I can imagine his lightning-fast fret work
on his nylon-string – and, frankly, I’m envious.
Assembling a crack team of bandmates to bring a Latin swing to
the music (including drummer Gregg Bissonette, who’s best known for
his work with David Lee Roth and Joe Satriani), Villegas plows
through thirteen songs that are guaranteed to make you groove in
some way, shape or form. Centered around his lead lines (and
occasionally a vocal provided by rhythm guitarist Roger Espinoza),
this music challenges you not to want to get up and dance.
From the opening moments of “Baby Elephants,” Villegas and crew
capture your attention with their own mixture of Spanish and
Flamenco works, with just a splash of American flashiness in the
playing. When Villegas runs the length of the fretboards on some of
his solos, it sounds like he would be just as comfortable holding a
Les Paul. But Villegas never sounds like he’s trying to be flashy,
nor does he forget the roots of his playing, as heard on the
rapidly-picked notes on “Spider Hugs”.
Throughout
Cafe Olé, I didn’t hear a single piece that seemed to
be lacking, or that didn’t capture my interest and attention along
the way. Tracks like “Don Quixote” and “S.O.B. (South O’ The
Border)” highlight how musically tight this group is, and even the
addition of vocals to “Chiquilla” and “Mas y Mas” just serves to
make the sound that much richer. Especially interesting is the way
Villegas and Espinoza trade lead and harmony rhythms on the title
track – remarkable!
Of course, many people who aren’t familiar with this style of
music might not be willing to give an album like
Cafe Olé a fair shot in the CD changer. And that,
kids, is a shame; anyone who appreciates the fretboard pyrotechnics
of a player like Eddie Van Halen would surely find something
special in Villegas’s performances as well. True, he’s not as
concerned about playing two thousand notes in a solo. No, his solos
are more rhythmically oriented, and help to bring out the natural
beauty of his compositions – they just happen to have some of the
flash that the heavy metal generation would approve of.
Cafe Olé is one of those albums that, if given a fair
shot by the mass market, would aesthetically be pleasing to fans of
many musical genres. Villegas and his band easily prove that they
have the talent worthy of stardom. Now, all they need is the chance
to win you over – and, believe me, they’ve earned it with this
disc.