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| Guitarist Spiros Exaras "La Ruta" Hits Home with Immigrants' Journey - Music/Video! "La Ruta" was created by world renowned classical/jazz composer/guitarist Spiros Exaras with lyrics by Jeremy Ryan and was sung beautifully by Nancy Ticotin. The song was inspired by all people who dare to risk their lives for a better future. It is a survival story of a mother with her little daughter, trying to cross the "Rio Grande", from Mexico to the United States. It's Spiros' latest release along with his 9 albums, 2 EPs and 2 Singles. His signature album 'Phrygianics' was released by Blue Note and his collaboration 'Old Waters New River' with Cuban virtuoso pianist Elio Villafranca has put Spiros at the top with world-class guitarists. Spiros was the guitar choice for Mariah Carey, Shirley Bassey and Mark Murphy. CREDITS : Spiros Exaras : all guitars, cajon and keyboards Mathias Kunzli : percussion (except cajon) Brendon Phelps : cello Nancy Ticotin : vocals Produced by Spiros Exaras and Jeremy Ryan Arranged by Spiros Exaras Recorded by Jeremy Ryan Additional vocals recorded by Dave Kowalski Mixed by Cooper Anderson Vocals mixed by Chris Sulit Mastered by Phil Magnotti Spanish translation by Nancy Ticotin, Fransisco Lalama-Maigon and Susan Ramirez. Video credits: Craig Ruttle - photography and Spyros D. Orfanos - liner notes. The song was released in 2020 by Polyglottal Music. PRESS QUOTES : "I have travelled all around the world many times and I was lucky enough to work with and hear a lot of great guitarists of different styles. One of them is Spiros Exaras. I heard him playing for the first time…and he blew me away. The sophistication and eloquenceone can hear, as it is clear to me, that Spiros Exaras' way of executing guitar is compelling and beautiful." —Superstar Guitarist Al DiMeola, 2016 "Exaras demonstrates his well-developed skills as both a composer and improviser on guitar on this CD [Phrygianics] . His ten originals offer up compelling structures of rhythm, melody and harmony. " —Jazzimprov, 2001 "With Phrygianics, Exaras and his Ensemble accomplish the Olympian task of forging a Jazz/World Music combination worthy of the Gods themselves." —Jazz Review, 2002 "The first Greek who hit the studio of the legendary Blue Note." —Moody (Greece), 2008 "Besides having great personal integrity as a human being, SpirosExaras is the kind of musician who you never get tired of hearing play. In fact, each time you hear him play it's like witnessing a miracle." —Producer Mike Millius, 2009 "Shakespeare famously claimed that there's nothing new under the sun. But if he heard this [Exara's]combination of Greek and Cuban music, he would be forced to reconsider. This is the mash-up of the year yet the integration of these two distinct musical cultures is handled with effortless fluency, almost as if Athens and Havana were sister cities."— The Daily Beast, Review of Old Waters New River, 2014 "Whether or not great talent automatically attracts mentors and muses, fans of international guitarist and composer Spiros Exarasshould be as thankful as he is for the people [who] have guided him into and through his musical career." —The National Herald, 2014 "[Exaras] involves radically and indirectly in jazz Greek rhythms sounds and melodies. And he does it in a magnificent way! The result is spectacular, as exactly in the world compositions of Al DiMeola and Pat Metheny. In his CD Phrygianics his compositions and improvisations are astonishing….I guarantee that Spiros Exaras impresses with his musical ideas. What he does is not like anything we have heard."—Piotr Iwicki, Gazeta Wyborcza, (Warsaw), 2007 write your comments about the article :: © 2021 Jazz News :: home page |