North America may have first been exposed to 'El Condor Pasa' thanks to Simon and Garfunkel, but until you've heard a virtuoso like Nayo Ulloa blow it on the Andean bamboo flutes, you've missed the real deal...
                            Read more...
                        

                            
Exotic in the first sense of the word, entertaining in every sense...Nayo switches with amazing rapidity from one unusual ethnic instrument to another. With equal virtuosity he goes from the Charango and the Kena to the Sikus...Nayo's exuberant Kena solos [are] in the style of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw...
                            Read more...
                        

                            
Delicate Andean flute brings a modern tone to Peruvian classics in 'Loma Prieta', presenting Nayo Ulloa's first new album in ten years. 'Loma Prieta' features not the usual Andean panpipe set, but a notched Kena flute: this lends it a lively and often rollicking countenance in clear contrast to the usual traditional Andean panpipe sound.
If you think Andean music 'sounds alike', take a listen to Nayo Ulloa: his lively rhythms trill, warble, add shakers and other percussion, and guitar for a multi-faceted embellishment.
Many who reflect on Andean music think the pan flute is the same as the Kena; not so. The Kena's unique sound adds a timbre and trill very different--and just as lovely and authentically South American.
                            Read more...
                        

                            
Nayo Ulloa is considered one of the great Peruvian virtuosos of the Quena, the pre-Colombian recorder-like flute. 'El Condor Pasa' is one of the many Andean folkloric pieces featured on this new CD, as well as more 'Latin' numbers (flavored with strains of samba and flamenco). All in all, a fine mix of standards and original compositions which, while not breaking with convention, are nonetheless brilliantly performed.
                            Read more...