Zztop Fandango 2025

Blessed with their first full-fledged hit album, ZZ Top followed it up with Fandango!, a record split between a side of live tracks and a side of new studio cuts. In a way, this might have made sense, since they were a kick-ass live band, and they do sound good here, but it's hard not to see this as a bit of a wasted opportunity in retrospect…

New Jersey rockers Fandango were dogged by misfortune and misadventure throughout their inglorious career, and are now best remembered for launching the career of well-traveled vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, later of Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen, Deep Purple, and other A-line bands. Turner had already been involved in a few amateur groups in the early '70s, but it was with the formation of Fandango in 1975 that he would officially go pro, joining guitarist Rick Blakemore (no relation, huge coincidence), keyboard player Denny LaRue, bassist Bob Danyls, and drummer Abe Speller in the lineup that finally graduated from countless club gigs to a record contract with RCA.

Although Joe Lynn Turner had sung in local bands for many years, Fandango was his first professional group, formed around 1975/6. He was lead singer with them (and co-wrote most of their material with keyboardist LaRue), on all four of their studio albums until he was headhunted by Blackmore to join Rainbow.

Blessed with their first full-fledged hit album, ZZ Top followed it up with Fandango!, a record split between a side of live tracks and a side of new studio cuts. In a way, this might have made sense, since they were a kick-ass live band, and they do sound good here, but it's hard not to see this as a bit of a wasted opportunity in retrospect. Why? Because the studio side is a worthy successor to the all-fine Tres Hombres, driven by "Tush" and "Heard It on the X," two of their greatest songs that build on that album by consolidating their sound and amplifying their humor…

Flamenco singing and 'fandango' here looks serious, popular and committed in 'El Cabrero' voice. Still in his maturity as a singer retains his thrust, his claw and his proximity to the listeners. Social and lyrical feeling, strength and transparency, commitment and truth in his message always let you enjoy her singing. In this CD, one of the first of his discography, provides a sample of his mastery of the 'fandango'.

The Spanish and Portuguese influence in Domenico Scarlatti’s rhythms and, perhaps to a lesser extent, melodies are distinctive features of his keyboard style. Sophie Yates has chosen these evocative gestures in Scarlatti’s sonatas as determining characteristics of her recital Fandango – Scarlatti in Iberia. In fact, only four of the 13 items in her programme are by Scarlatti himself, the remaining pieces being by José Larrañaga, Seixas, Sebastian Albero y Añaños, and Soler, whose colourful ‘Fandango’ concludes her disc. Readers who know their Scarlatti will not need to be reminded either of the bold originality or of the wonderful variety of colours and sentiments present in his harpsichord sonatas.