Musica Urbana - Iberia
SKU
28-IMT5062239.2
Musica Urbana is one of the great bands of the Spanish progressive scene. Their fairly well known first, from 1976, is a stone classic.
This is their much less well known second release, and which has been hard to find for decades now. I don't personally rate it quite as highly as their 1st, but I don't rate much quite as highly as their first....!
Joan Albert Amargos: keyboards, sax, clarinets, whistle
Carles Benavent / bass, mandolin, cuica
Jordi Bonell / electric guitar, spanish guitar
Salvador Font / drums and percussions
Matthew Simon / trumpets, flugelhorn, oboe
Jaume Cortadellas / picolo, flutes
with
Aurora Amargos / castanets
"2 years after their eponimous debut Musica Urbana released their 2nd and last album Iberia. The musical concept remained the same: fusing Jazz-Rock with Classical and Traditional Spanish music, and this album deepens in that direction but with a bit less Rock and more Contemporary Classical music in the mix. I wrote about this outstanding band's history in the bio and in my review of their debut album so I am not going to repeat here.
By the time of this 2nd album guitarist 'Luigi' Cabanach had left the band and was replaced by Jordi Bonell, and they got re-inforced by Jaume Cortadellas playing assorted flutes and Matthew Simon playing trumpets, flugelhorn and onoboe.
All the compositions are again by band leader Joan Albert Amargós with one track co- written with bassist Carles Benavent.
Those wanting their Prog to have a clear link to Rock may have trouble with this band and this album in particular, but if you are a Fusion lover or an open-minded progger able to appreciate Classically oriented composition, you have to listen to this band (both their albums), they are trully outstanding.
Another 5 stars without hesitation."-progarchives