Adios America

One of the most exciting and unusual musical encounters to have taken place in recent years: Plácido Domingo, world-renowned opera tenor, met Pablo Sáinz Villegas who Domingo hailed Villegas as, “The master of the guitar”. Upon meeting on stage in June 2016 at a benefit concert marking Domingo’s seventy-fifth birthday held in Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium before an audience of 80,000 enthusiastic spectators. The high point of this magical night of music was “Adiós Granada” from the one-act zarzuela Emigrantes by Tomás Barrera that dates from 1905. Afterwards Pablo Villegas spoke of the great energy and inspiration that he felt as a result of this encounter.

The Complete Album Collection is Paul Simon's Complete Recorded Works – minus Simon & Garfunkel, of course, along with "Slip Sliding Away" – and, as a whole, it is a mightily impressive body of work, showcasing an artist who remains restless and curious four decades into his career. The package is handsome, presenting each CD as a mini-LP, the sound is terrific, the price is affordable, and the scope is complete, so The Complete Album Collection is in every way an upgrade over the previous The Complete Studio Recordings.

These instrumental performances by guitarist Lex Vandyke concentrate on guitar interpretations of Latin-American tunes and songs. The relationship between Latin America and the guitar is a long-standing and important one: the instrument came to Latin America with the Spanish conquerors and, when mixed with other musical elements notably those of African origin became crucial to many of the major styles of Latin music.