American pop music is in a very transitional phase in its long and storied history right now, and it shouldn’t really come as a shock to anyone that during this time, we’re going to be hearing a lot, and I mean a lot, of really strange, confusing music that doesn’t really fit the context of our current pop culture very well. As one decade dies and another is given life, there is always a change in the guard from one generation of pop stars to another, and this moment in history is no different than any other. Except for the fact that artists have never had the set of tools that they’ve got at their disposal, almost universally, in today’s music industry. The soundboard is just another one of the instruments, and the artist is now the engineer of his or her own wall of sound. Many are taking a stab at using these tools to expand music to places it’s never been before, but few are making the kind of impact that composer and pianist Esteban Alvarez is, and you don’t have to look any further than his new single “Has Amado Una Mujer de Veras” for proof.
Esteban Alvarez has been pushing the limits of the underground for a hot minute now, and personally, I feel like he’s only a few minor adjustments away from being a serious contender in the international music scene entering the future. With the kind of talent that he’s already shown us in his short but ambitiously effective career, it isn’t unfathomable to imagine him completely taking over the world with the sound that he generates from his heavy schooling in the art of making calculated jazz, classical and avant-garde music. He’s a one man orchestra who comes appointed with the brains and the brawn to see his work all the way through to the finish line, which honestly isn’t something that I can say about many – if any – of his closest rivals and competitors. And indeed, when you come up through a scene as competitive as the one that Alvarez has, you don’t have contemporaries. Only competitors.
It says a lot that in the brief time that he has been making professionally produced music, Esteban Alvarez has eliminated any question as to whether or not he can maintain a charismatic sense of confidence as a musician while also striving to do things that no one else has ever tried. In covering a Bryan Adams song, he shows any remaining enquirers just how in-depth a performer he can be, and as far as I’m concerned anyone who is new to Latin music would find this particular track to be a perfect introduction to the beautiful complexities and intricate nuances that make the genre so amazingly special. Longtime fans of Esteban Alvarez and new, intrigued listeners alike are going to go crazy over his latest handiwork, and right now it’s hard to see anything but good things awaiting this musician in the impending years to come.
Find more Esteban Alvarez on his FACEBOOK
RELATED ARTICLE: https://www.steinway.com/artists/esteban-alvarez-calvo
-review by Jodi Marxbury
