This is the debut CD of New York guitarist Jon Diaz. Jon plays acoustic, fretless and prepared guitars. The music on the CD is mainly instrumental with some sparse vocal parts. This CD could be categorized as world fusion with small hints of jazz. Many other musicians help Jon on this recording adding; flute, accordion, violin, cello, piano, guitar, tabla, voice and percussion. Circling From Above consists of 11 tracks ranging in length from two to six minutes long and total running time of just over 42 minutes long.
The overall feel of the CD is relaxed and laid back. You will hear a range of styles in his music from; Middle Eastern, Indian, British Folk, European folk and more. Jon seems to focus on writing songs, with attention paid to all instruments and the roles they play in the song. In many songs he just plays a supporting rhythm guitar part while the main melody is played by flute, accordion or tabla. Some of the tracks on the CD reminded me of other acoustic guitar players, for instance, the song "King Arthur" has a sound and a finger picking style similar to an Adrian Legg song. The songs "Sahara Dreaming" and "Griot" have a spacious vibe the reminds me of Michael Brook's style. On "Los Gatos" Jon plays in a technique comparable to Michael Hedges where he plays a bass line on the lower strings of the guitar and the melody on the upper strings. The songs "The Dance Within" and "Towner" have a Steve Tibbetts feel with the use of tabla in the songs. In all the examples mentioned above Jon's guitar playing is subtler than the guitarists that I have compared him too.
So if you are looking for some nice relaxing music with a world flavor this CD would be a very good choice.
Track Listing
1. Circling from above
2. Sahara dreaming
3. The dance within
4. King Arthur
5. Moroc
6. Towner
7. Griot
8. The Scroll
9. Los gatos
10. The last dance
11. Turtle raga
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