Jose De Castro

Jose De Castro - Moments - 2011 - Favored Nations

Moments is an all-instrumental work featuring 10 songs, all composed, arranged and produced by Spanish guitarist Jose De Castro, His fourth all-instrumental CD, Moments features stellar musicians such as Jose Vera on bass and Enzo Filippone on drums, with featured appearances by Jacob Sureda and Alex Garcia. The CD was made in one of the most active times in Jopi's career, as he juggles important tours, endorsements and recordings. As always, the versatility as in styles as in sounds is present all over the CD, reminiscent in places of Michael Lee Firkins's self-titled Shrapnel debut, as well as some of Johnny A's more recent output on Favored Nations. Moments is a top to bottom K.O., as Spain's groove meister raises the bar yet again. - Posted by & © Laurie Monk © http://www.truthinshredding.com/2012/01/jose-de-castro-moments-new-cd.html

Many Spanish guitarists have released good, instrumental, rock, metal and fusion guitar-oriented records. Sadly, many of these albums receive little or no exposure. Check out the work of Tony Hernando, Tony Baena, David Garcia, Manu Herrera, Porty (Antonio Portillo), Robert H. Rodrigo and David Valdes, all great guitarists who deserve a wider audience. Jose De Castro is a great musician and in-demand session player. He tours constantly and is a brilliant stage musician. José has said that "If you work as a pop guitarist on tours and recordings, you can earn a lot of money. If you try to play jazz, blues, heavy metal, then everything changes totally and you have to do alternative things (such as give classes) to earn your living". The all instrumental "Moments" is an eclectic mix of acoustic, funk, fusion, blues and many more elements and is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Some of José's influences include Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, Brent Mason, Eric Johnson, Andy Timmons, Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Joe Satriani, Jake E. Lee, Paul Gilbert and Vinnie Moore. Check out Jose’s “Conversation” and “Live” albums on this blog, and buy his great “Un Poco De Lo Mío” album and promote real music [Tracks @ 256-320 Kbps: File size = 97.9 Mb]

TRACKS

On The Road (6:20)
Three Monkeys (4:36)
Lazy Blues (4:32)
I Can't Stop (3:44) *
So Good (5:13)
A.A. (6:01)
Kick The Snare (3:56)
Time After Time (2:52)
Dirty (5:20)
Follow The Moment (3:48)
Soul (3:43)
The Only One (To Gary Moore) (3:21)

All tracks composed by Jose De Castro

* N.B: An audio analysis of “I Can't Stop” on this album gave me the information – [“Missing frame headers at 0:36.75, and 1:32.83: *** Warning: this file has one or more missing frame headers and might be corrupted”]. Do not let these audio glitches spoil your enjoyment of this album. In fact, the faults are miniscule, and you would probably not even notice anything unless you were carefully listening out for them. We haven’t all got the aural discernment of Donald Fagen! No disrespect to you Don. BTW, When’s the new Steely Dan album due? Maybe a little less touring and more recording would go down well with many of your fans? Lol

MUSICIANS

Jose De Castro - Guitars
Jose Vera, Alex Garcia - Bass
Jacob Sureda - Piano, Fender Rhodes, Melodica
Enzo Filippone - Drums

BIO

Jose de Castro “Jopi ” is a professional guitarist and music producer from Madrid. He´s been playing since he was ten, studying classical guitar, harmony, choir, and music theory. At the age of seventeen, fascinated by the electric guitar he joined several rock bands, performing with some of them in Madrid´s music scene, winning important contests as the “Trofeo Villa de Madrid”. Later on, he begins to play as a professional guitarist in some orchestras and bands on a national level while working as a music teacher in various modern music schools,“Ritmo y Compás” among them, where he taught until 2002. In that year, his first instrumental album was released, entitled “Un poco de lo mío”(A bit of my own); written, arranged, and produced by himself. It contains nine songs with a rock sound adding funk, pop, and fusion elements. His debut album as a soloist received excellent reviews from the Spanish press (Guitarra Total, Guitarrista, etc.) and the international music press (Guitar World, Vintage Guitar Magazine). The CD was sold in Europe, the US and Asia. This fact, along with his great talent and sensibility as a musician, made him a house name in music sessions as a recording player as well as a live guitar player on demand. He has worked since then with a great number of Top 40 Spanish artists as a musical director, sometimes also as a music producer and composer for some of them. The live concerts with his own band begin to be appreciated not only by guitar players but all kind of musicians too. This acknowledgement of his work lead several brands of instruments, amplification and effects to take a look at him as a reference for their products, performing clinics, demos and masterclasses throughout Spain. In 2004 releases his second CD "Music Guitar Box", in which play musicians such Simon Phillips (Toto, Jeff Beck…) and Melvin Davis (Chaka Khan, Steve Lukather, Lee Ritenour…) as well as usual musicians from the Spanish music scene such Maurizio Sgaramella, Denis Bilanin and Enzo Filiponne. This album shows the evolution in his playing through several music styles, always from a rock approach, showing a great balance between virtuosity and musicality. In 2006 his third CD "Conversation” is released in full swing professionally speaking, along with important tours and recordings. In this year he also becomes one of the reference musicians for the prestigious guitar brand "Suhr Guitars". In 2006, the name of the band and its members is established as "José de Castro Trío" with Jose Vera on bass and Enzo Filippone on drums and they tour successfully around Spain. As a result of this intense live experience he records in 2007 his fourth CD called "Live" on the 21st and 22nd of November at the “Rigoberta Menchú” theater in Leganés, Madrid. This is a double CD that shows the energy of the band on stage and is released in 2009. In 2008 and 2009, before this release, they perform concerts with Joe Satriani, Scott Henderson and Michael Landau during their tours around Spain and he´s invited to play at the "Guitar Day" in Milan and Madrid with Paul Gilbert. Along with this international recognition he´s also invited to the NAMM'08 and '09 in Los Angeles (California), this time with Guthrie Govan, Reb Beach and Rob Marcello. In 2010 along with several clinics, masterclasses and live concerts with his Trio in Spain and Europe (Italy, Romania, Germany, Belgium and Holland) and due to the word of mouth as a music producer, he designs and assembles the “JDC music studio” in Madrid. It´s a personal studio in which he brings his mastery as a guitarist and a producer to music projects. If you want to know more about it:http://www.josedecastro.net/estudio_es.html During the year 2011 he writes and records his fifth CD “Moments” with his usual Trio joining forces this time with Ron Saint Germain (U2, Jimi Hendrix, Living Colour, Muse, Michael Jackson,Red Hot Chili Peppers…) in the mixing and Joe Gastwirt (Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty, Yes, Grateful Dead…) in the mastering. In 2012, after a great musical dedication as a producer, composer, arranger and performer he´s chosen by the prestigious guitar brand Fender as the first spanish endorser to perform with its guitars and amplifiers. At the end of 2012 he also writes a guitar method book “Guitarra para torpes”, publish by Anaya along with drawings of the well-known spanish cartoonist Forges. © 2010 MOOER All Rights Reserved http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sSnZLahVYUcJ:www.mooeraudio.com/en/artists_show.asp%3FMsgID%3D34+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie