
With his latest release, Best of Esteban, one of the world's most prolific composers and guitarists of our time has not merely created a retrospective. Instead of a simple cut-and-paste collection, the man once known as Stephen Paul took a handful of concert favorites and returned to the studio to reinvent them. The result is a fiery, blues/rock/flamenco melding of the songs that have made him a beloved icon in classical and modern guitar playing. Trademark songs like Fuego Malagueña - a reworking of Malagueña from 2001's All My Love have, as the title denotes, been given extra fire, fusing more rock influence into his atmospheric flamenco-based performance. Runaway, Del Shannon's classic, is also seeing life in a completely new way. That song brings back a lot of memories for people who were around back then, Esteban says, seeing it as a bridge to younger audiences as well. Another song bringing back more recent memories is Mediterana, an Eastern-based song in which he plays sitar, backed by the Indian percussive tablas and dumbuk.
1) Besame Much Interlude
2) Besame Much
3) Fuego Malaguena
4) Alicante
5) Porto Alegre Interlude
6) Porto Alegre
7) Here Comes the Sun
8) Mediterana
9) Fernando
10) Enter the Heart
11) Only Love
12) Runaway