Dave Martone - Nacimiento

Dave Martone is known for his work on the Fusion and Metal genres by working with artists such as Greg Howe, Marty Friedman, and Glen Drover in which they performed together on a live album entitled Live at Metalworks, that was shown online and around 63 countries and 25,000 people watched the two of them doing their performances. This year, Dave is going back into his musical roots of the nylon string guitar.

Nacimiento released on the Magnatude label which is a sub-label for Magna Carta Records, sees Dave covering TV, Film, and Hard Rock, by making it an enthralling escapade. And Martone himself goes into the different areas with a classical/flamenco sound. Since I enjoyed what he did with the Metalworks sessions and knowing how brilliant he is in his virtuosity on the instrument, his acoustical sounds takes it into a higher level.

Martone also plays Cajon and Percussion. And he brought along David Spidel on Bass, and Mike Michalkow on Percussion also. His amazing flamenco adaptations between the themes for Rocky, The Godfather, Spider-Man, and legends Aerosmith’s Dream On, gives it a mind-blowing yet mid-tempo twist of showing Martone at his best. The opening track of 11 11 11 starts off with a gentle classical introduction and then it kicks off into a joyful dancing sensation as Dave and his crew have a blast into the air.

Then, he goes through some intense playing as he goes through lead and rhythm on the nylon strings that will jaws-dropping momentum! I love what he does throughout the romantic beauty on Besame Mucho. It just makes your heart go out for him to nail the flamenco structures and have a tango duo, dance throughout the composition in beats per minute while his touch of Mason Williams’ Classical Gas is honest and true to the original. It’s him alone along with his instrument and you can imagine Mason himself being in awe of Dave’s touch of the piece. 

The thunderous and dynamic electricity of Malaguena, had me on the edge of my seat. I can always imagine this piece being used in one of the dramatic action sequences with the guns blazing going out of nowhere and the music itself captures the intense momentum for the good guy to go out for the win.

This is my seventh time of listening to Dave Martone’s Nacimiento. I have to say he has nailed it at the exact right momentum this year. He can pull a lot of twists and turns with unexpected moments that have just taken me to other areas in the classical and flamenco areas he brought to the table. And I imagine to see where Dave will go to next in the sounds of either Hard Rock or Classical Music.