One of the most under-rated guitarists in San Diego, Israel Maldonado, performs at Winston\u2019s on Feb. 19. Beginning at 6 p.m., he\u2019ll host the venue\u2019s weekly open jam session. Maldonado is a full-time musician and a gifted guitarist in electric or acoustic styles. His electric lead work is both fluid and biting, but it\u2019s particularly in acoustic mode that he shines, with his particularly inspiring samba and Bossa Nova fretwork. Unfortunately, his public performances are rare. Instead, Maldonado has a schedule full of mostly private performances such as weddings, corporate events and so on. Likely the only reason Maldonado hasn\u2019t been more in the public eye is his devotion to craft over business. “The thing about me is that I don\u2019t knock on doors,” he said good naturedly. “I\u2019ve been working for so long that I\u2019m asked to play a lot of these private parties. So I haven\u2019t really been asking to play anywhere. I don\u2019t really have the go-getter attitude,” he joked. “If I did knock on doors, I\u2019m sure I would be doing better. I have to ask myself, do I spend time looking for gigs or do I practice and try to make music? I\u2019m struggling with trying to juggle both,” he said. Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Maldonado was already heavily into music by the time he moved to Carlsbad at the age of 14. “I started performing in a kids band in Tijuana at age 7; my mom and my uncle Felipe were huge influences and inspiration,” he recalled. Now a Point Loma resident, Maldonado has performed with numerous top-flight groups which specialize in Latin sounds, including San Diego Music Award-nominated bands such as Sambrasil, Sol E Mar and Agua Dulce, recording and touring nationally. As glamorous as that sounds, he notes things don\u2019t always go according to plan. “I fainted one time when I was in Iowa playing with Agua Dulce after going on a run that same day in super-humid weather,” he laughed. Currently he plays mostly solo dates with occasional performances from his band Puente and a trio, Tres con Todo. He also DJs. “I prefer band shows, but what pays the bills are the solo gigs,” he commented. Although he had appeared on several releases as a member of a band, with his own projects, to date, Maldonado has released only an EP, “Triste Distancia” and an album, “Grateful,” writing all of the music on both. “I really should have more of my own music out,” he said. “I\u2019m like the most underachieving musician in San Diego, probably. I\u2019ve never really gone into the studio, and no one\u2019s ever asked me to,” he said. “I\u2019ve always kind of been floating on my own, you know what I mean?” With such a variety of gigs on his schedule, which might range from a sales meeting of Realtors to a family gathering across generations, he also has a large set of covers at the ready, depending on venue and event. He notes his band\u2019s biggest crowd pleaser isn\u2019t a song but a rhythm. “It\u2019s when we play a samba drumming section at the end of our show,” he said. Even after decades of making music, Maldonado remains driven to improve on his craft. “Sometimes it\u2019s hard to devote the time I should to the business side of things,” he said. “I\u2019d rather be spending that time working on a riff, working on something musical. What motivates me is learning new songs and putting on better shows.” He remains focused on why he loves music in the first place. “Entertaining people,” he said. “It\u2019s like having a superpower sometimes.”?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most under-rated guitarists in San Diego, Israel Maldonado, performs at Winston\u2019s on Feb. 19. Beginning at 6 p.m., he\u2019ll host the venue\u2019s weekly open jam session. Maldonado is a full-time musician and a gifted guitarist in electric or acoustic styles. His electric lead work is both fluid and biting, but it\u2019s particularly […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":275797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Gifted guitarist Israel Maldonado\u2019s jam session at Winston's","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}