I kind of had a spiritual moment last night and I'm using the word "spiritual" with a dual meaning. I have owned the subject LP for quite sometime. I bought the LP used from god knows where because I *knew* that Carolos Montoya was one of the world's great guitarists and the LP was an RCA Living Stereo. Even though I have owned the LP for years, I had never played it until last night. Partly because I really wasn't sure what condition the LP would be in when I played it and partly because I wasn't sure what to expect from Carlos Montoya.
So last night I head down to my stereo room for a listening session and for some reason, the LP "The Incredible Carlos Montoya" was in front of one of my stacks of LPs laying on the floor in front of the LP shelves. How it got there I have no idea. It certainly wasn't on my list of LPs to pull off of my shelf for listening to last night. But there it was, and Carlos was looking at me from the cover. Here is the picture of the cover:
So there I was sitting in my listening chair with Carlos Montoya staring at me from the cover of the "Incredible Carlos Montoya." I felt like I was being given a message that I had to play this LP. So, I get up and remove the LP from the jacket and see it is a black label RCA dog LP. The LP appears to be in good physical condition, but not great. I gave it a spin on my VPI 16.5 RCM and put it on the table and cue it up. So first of all, yes, this LP has more surface noise than I like (and I don't like any surface noise), but my-oh-my does this LP sound great. This is a live LP and it's basically Carlos Montoya playing Spanish/Flamenco guitar. The speed and beauty of Carlos' playing has to be heard to be believed. I can hear where Pete Townsend got some of his influence as a guitar player. You can easily hear any modern speed guitar player from any rock genre in the playing of Carlos Montoya. This guy is phenomenal. The actual recording is outstanding and when the audience claps, it's some of the most realistic clapping sounds I have ever heard from a live audience. It's real flesh on flesh and bone.
So maybe just maybe, when musicians pass on and their spirit still hears you playing music over a good stereo system, they want to hear their music over your system and want to see your reaction. Carlos would have been proud and maybe was proud. I have a new found interest in flamenco guitar playing and if anyone has examples of great flamenco guitar playing on LP, please let me know.
So last night I head down to my stereo room for a listening session and for some reason, the LP "The Incredible Carlos Montoya" was in front of one of my stacks of LPs laying on the floor in front of the LP shelves. How it got there I have no idea. It certainly wasn't on my list of LPs to pull off of my shelf for listening to last night. But there it was, and Carlos was looking at me from the cover. Here is the picture of the cover:
So there I was sitting in my listening chair with Carlos Montoya staring at me from the cover of the "Incredible Carlos Montoya." I felt like I was being given a message that I had to play this LP. So, I get up and remove the LP from the jacket and see it is a black label RCA dog LP. The LP appears to be in good physical condition, but not great. I gave it a spin on my VPI 16.5 RCM and put it on the table and cue it up. So first of all, yes, this LP has more surface noise than I like (and I don't like any surface noise), but my-oh-my does this LP sound great. This is a live LP and it's basically Carlos Montoya playing Spanish/Flamenco guitar. The speed and beauty of Carlos' playing has to be heard to be believed. I can hear where Pete Townsend got some of his influence as a guitar player. You can easily hear any modern speed guitar player from any rock genre in the playing of Carlos Montoya. This guy is phenomenal. The actual recording is outstanding and when the audience claps, it's some of the most realistic clapping sounds I have ever heard from a live audience. It's real flesh on flesh and bone.
So maybe just maybe, when musicians pass on and their spirit still hears you playing music over a good stereo system, they want to hear their music over your system and want to see your reaction. Carlos would have been proud and maybe was proud. I have a new found interest in flamenco guitar playing and if anyone has examples of great flamenco guitar playing on LP, please let me know.
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