Uprooted
Matt Sellick and friends
Independent (mattsellick.com)
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(Excerpt; read full review here)
Younger flamenco guitarist/composer Matt Sellick’s fourth solo album is also superb. Having moved – aka uprooted – to Toronto from Thunder Bay, Sellick builds on his own original intense flamenco sound in collaboration with some of his favourite Toronto musicians here, including Jesse Cook with whom he tours internationally. Sellick plays solo on the opening Quiet World highlighted by technically challenging fast runs with slight spaces between phrases, as if two musicians were playing. Upbeat High Park is a happy-fast flamenco guitar walk/dance in the park grounded by electric bass (Dan Minchom) and rhythmic cajón and palmas (Matias Recharte). Cook is featured on Soot and his characteristic guitar strums and fast melodious solo lines add his personal touch to Sellick’s rocking earworm flamenco sound. Full-band sound is surprisingly created with just Sellick’s guitar and Marito Marques’ percussion in the faster duet Going Home. Colourful high- and low-pitched guitar alternating melodic phrases and strums above drums build intensity to the accented closing. Saxophonist Chelsea McBride is also featured on one track.
Thank you to Jesse Cook and Matt Sellick for admirably expanding and recording their uplifting flamenco guitar sounds during these difficult COVID pandemic times.
