Special Feature. ‘Encyclopedia
of Flamenco Styles from A to Z’
“Why does everybody know
what a twist is?”
S.C./ Flamenco-world.com, June 2007
And why do so few know what a
bulería is? The question hasn’t been set
forth by a brainy ‘flamencoholic’, but by
Spanish comic El Gran Wyoming, a great enthusiast and
protector of artists such as Diego el Cigala. “Flamenco,
my dear friends, is still continuing its struggle for
normalization today. Why does everyone know what a twist,
blues, rock&roll, and reggae are, and they don’t
know what a bulería is?”. But José
Manuel Gamboa and Faustino Núñez are there
working hard for the ‘Encyclopedia of Flamenco Styles
from A to Z’ to help clear up the matter. And as
usual in those authors, laying their stakes on quality
and accessibility. Well then, to make it easy... it was
about time.
Click the
image to enlarge
Excerpt from
"Enciclopedia
de los estilos flamencos AZ "
José Manuel Gamboa and Faustino
Núñez, the authors of ‘Camarón,
vida y obra’, belong to that new generation of revealers
who a few years ago started to refute that generalized
belief that you have to “understand” flamenco
to enjoy it. One offered the didactic album-book ‘Cante
por cante’. The other, ‘Comprende
el flamenco’. But they were just sneak previews
of a much more ambitious project, the ‘Encyclopedia
of Flamenco Styles from A to Z’ which is now coming
out. As Gamboa explains, “the idea for this Encyclopedia
came from a long time ago. Both Faustino and yours truly
had written didactic works, but incomplete. What’s
more, we wanted to write a book together, but each of
us was forced to do it separately. We’d been looking
for a long time for a record company with depth in its
catalogue to propose the Encyclopedia as you can now see
it. And it was Universal who accepted the project”.
Great artists
The involvement of a record company of
such dimensions was decisive. “Thanks to Universal’s
archives, which include labels such as Philips, Polydor,
Fontana, Mercury and Triumph, it’s been possible
to offer samples of true artistic entity, since the catalogue
of styles is performed by top figures”. In cante,
Gamboa highlights Caracol, Antonio
Mairena, Fosforito, Paquera, Terremoto, Perla de Cádiz,
Camarón and Carmen Linares. In toque, Sabicas,
Niño
Ricardo, Melchor de Marchena, Paco de Lucía,
Manolo Sanlúcar, Serranito, Niño Miguel,
Tomatito… In baile, Rosa Durán, Mario Maya,
Raúl… And there are even groups like Ketama
and Pata
Negra.
Click the
image to enlarge
CD from
"Enciclopedia
de los estilos flamencos AZ "
But the Encyclopedia isn’t just
a compilation of recordings by a handful of good artists.
As Faustino Núñez points out, the main objective
was to satisfy a pressing demand in flamenco: “One
of the most sought-after desires by enthusiasts is to
clarify the guidelines in order to differentiate the styles
from one another, and I think those types of guidelines
appear amply in this edition”. And although there’s
a book with the exact explanations, the main clarifications
lie in the twelve discs in ‘digipack’ format
which are included in the box set, by the way, a collectors’
item.
A useful repertoire
José Manuel Gamboa clarifies that,
“on the one hand, it was a matter of offering an
exhaustive collection of samples of flamenco styles, but
without going to the extremes of arduous flamencology.
I mean, seeking the usefulness of the catalogue and not
the rarity”. And he adds that “we wanted the
cantes which were offered to be the ones which you can
hear at festivals, on the radio, on albums, etc., and
not variants of family heritage”. The novelty of
this work lies in the fact that “for the first time
in an anthology, examples have been included of solo baile
and guitar in each style, when there is a particular repertoire
of the same”.
In total, there are 247 cuts brought
together in the Encyclopedia. So it isn’t hard to
imagine the supreme effort it took to do the casting.
As Gamboa reveals, “choosing the music was particularly
arduous and took us months, even though we knew the catalogue
like the back of our hand. But, of course, one thing is
to rejoice in it, enjoy it, and another is to give it
an anthological sense”. The difficulties have been
considerable, since “it hasn’t been this record
company’s custom – and the diverse firms it
encompasses – to polish the question of styles.
That is to say, on hardly any album is it pointed out,
if it’s done at all and if it’s done well
– that there are plenty of errors (in that sense
back then at the time we corrected all of Camarón’s
discography) -, something beyond the generic style
which is performed –soleá, seguiriya... -,
but not the corresponding variant. So it all had to be
listened to again for the selection”.
Click the
image to enlarge
Excerpt from
"Enciclopedia
de los estilos flamencos AZ "
Another obstacle to overcome was that
of defining the standard: “This company always opted
for flamencos with great artistic personality, so it gets
complicated when offering samples of the cantes which
are representative, which don’t get too far away
from the, shall we say, classic model. But we wanted an
artistic anthology, which had plenty of first-rate performances.
So combining everything aforementioned, moreover aiming
for the range of flamencos offered to be as broad as possible,
covering practically all of the artists who recorded for
the company, has turned out to be really complicated for
us”.
Rarities
And even though they had Universal’s
huge catalogue, they had to manage to complete the repertoire.
Although it sounds unbelievable, “there are some
cantes - few, to tell you the truth -, which were never
recorded there”. They wanted to record them with
Merenguito,
but a problem with the cantaor’s health –
which he’s already recovered from - hindered it.
Gamboa relates that “we then resorted to BMG/Sony,
who gave us the pieces we were missing. And we ourselves
contributed certain original records when the master recordings
didn’t appear which belong to Universal, but have
vanished into thin air. There, for example, is that first
tablao album, recorded by Philips in 1956, with the Zambra
group. We’ve found the first recordings by Pansequito,
contributing unknown pieces by Sernita...”. There’s
a reason for each and every one of the 247 cuts chosen.
The book of little tricks
The Encyclopedia’s entire soundtrack
is accompanied by a 200-page booklet (CD-size), with very
juicy contents. Faustino Núñez describes
it like this: “The book contains a historical introduction,
the description of every parameter which flamenco music
is governed by and the commentary of each style with the
listening guide for each cut. In the book, the styles
aren’t in order from A to la Z, but by the styles
grouped in families. An index at the end of the book helps
us to quickly find the style guide we want to look up”.
To which Gamboa adds that this “historical-musical
story of flamenco, in short, tries to help those interested
to differentiate between the styles in themselves, offering
different little tricks. We know well that it’s
hard to learn to differentiate between cantes and for
that very reason, any clue contributed is welcome”.
Click the
image to enlarge
Excerpt from "Enciclopedia
de los estilos flamencos AZ "
As El Gran Wyoming said, “flamenco
is something which is here amidst us; let’s enjoy
it, let’s rejoice in it, let’s be privileged
witnesses and, as such, let’s rise up above that
ambience of mediocrity, my dear friends”. And that’s
what Gamboa and Núñez are up to, the tandem
which has made possible what until a short time ago seemed
far away: dare to ask, since there are now those who answer
you without looking at you, wearing an expression on their
face of ‘what does this ignorant guy think’.
To do so, as Gamboa concludes, it was only necessary to
have “good will, discretion and flamencological-anthological
joviality. ¡Son, son, para que tú la
bailes! ¡Son, son, para mostrarlas al viento!”.
