LISTENING GUIDE. BASIC FLAMENCO
And where shall I begin?
Flamenco-world.com, August 2009
Have you just discovered flamenco?
Well, put your curiosity to the test and start to get to
know the immense musical world which lies behind that first
‘ay’. Flamenco is a type of music over two centuries
old and there are recordings preserved from the early 20th
century. Since then, hundreds of records - from wax cylinders
to digital compact discs - have shown the evolution, preservation,
variety, and above all else, freedom of this appealing genre
which stars vocals and guitar. Flamenco’s flexibility
makes it easy for you no matter what your favorite sound
is, since its doors are open to jazz, pop, rock and world
music. Nor do you have to be an expert, or know how to distinguish
between the styles, or know the encyclopedia; just pay attention
to your ears and make use of a bit of help. Here is a basic
guide.
|
• An album by Paco de Lucía
• An album by Camarón
• A compilation of today’s flamenco
• An old-time anthology
• ‘Antología’ by Carmen
Linares
• An album of today’s guitar: Vicente
Amigo, Cañizares, Gerardo Núñez
• Something which breaks the mold: ‘Omega’,
‘Voz de referencia’, ‘Tauromagia’
• A crossover: Pata Negra
• A chart hit: José Mercé,
Niña Pastori, Estrella Morente
• The film ‘Flamenco’ by Carlos
Saura
…
|
|
Your usual music is probably pop or rock.
And suddenly, a vocal twist, a guitar chord or a rhythm
have made you wonder what that different thing was that
was playing. Yes, there is every indication that it’s
flamenco. You’ve heard that it’s something for
connoisseurs, that you have to be in-the-know… but
even so, are you a pop connoisseur? No, there are simply
groups, songs or styles which you like, you listen to, you
enjoy. Why shouldn’t it be the same with flamenco?
Moreover, from what you’ve heard, you think they’re
open, modern musicians, aren’t they?
And then some. There are currently several
groups active which start off with flamenco and color it
with some musical influences or others. And it might be
easier for you to start with them. Ojos de Brujo, for example,
allows you to get to know the bulería but with a
funky sound, with splashes of electronic music and hip hop
on albums such as ‘Techarí’. La Shica
mixes up some flamenco rhythms, a lot of quejíos,
a little copla and another bit of jazz on her ‘Trabajito
de chinos’. Pitingo sticks in classical cantes by,
for example, Fernanda de Utrera, between his ‘soulerías’,
a hybrid of bulería and soul. From Jerez, Los Delinqüentes
have taken over the street-flamenco-rock from the mythical
group Pata
Negra and from their influential buddy Kiko Veneno,
whose discs are of recommended listening, or at least the
albums ‘Veneno’, ‘Blues de la Frontera’
and ‘Un ratito de gloria’. The two members of
the Jerez group, plus Kiko himself, Muchachito Bombo Infierno
and Tomasito formed the group G-5 last year, with an album
-‘Tucaratupapi’ - and a tour which knocked up
a notch the mixture of the jondo, rock, rumba and streetwise
music. By the way, Tomasito solo is one of the main heterodox
flamenco artists. A singer, bailaor and much more, he applies
his jondo charisma and his rock spirit to discs like ‘Y
de lo mío, ¿qué?’, an album which
reflects his vibrant live show. But the father of that new
flamenco with Jerez roots is Diego
Carrasco. Any of his albums invites you to get to know
the thousand and one faces of the bulería, but with
an author’s trademark and ways approaching more current
types of music. The fundamental one, believe me, is ‘Voz
de referencia’.
Jazz lovers also have the road cleared
to reach flamenco. ‘Sketches of Spain’ by Miles
Davis in 1960 was a milestone, preceded by encounters between
flamenco artists and jazz players in the United States like
the ones starring guitarist Sabicas with El Negro Aquilino
on sax back in the ’40s. The mixed label ‘Jazz
flamenco’ entitled the double album which saxophonist
Pedro Iturralde recorded in 1967 with Paco de Lucía.
And from then on it was used to refer to the work of musicians
such as saxophonist Jorge Pardo and bass player Carles
Benavent, who continue to open up paths, collaborating
with jazz greats like Chick Corea (listen to ‘The
ultimate adventure’ from 2006) and releasing albums
as fundamental as the two ‘Vientos flamencos’,
‘Las cigarras son quizá sordas’ and ‘2332’
by Pardo, as well as ‘Fénix’ and ‘Agüita
que corre’ by Benavent… plus their contributions
to De Lucía’s sextet. The saxophonist and bass
player form a basic trio with Tino di Geraldo which has
just recorded ‘Sin precedentes’, a good disc
to take a first step from the instrumental perspective.
There are pianists from here such as Chano
Domínguez, with albums like ‘Mira cómo
viene’ and ‘New flamenco sound’. There
are also those from abroad who associate with flamencos
from here, as is the case of Dominican Michel Camilo, who
has recorded the popular ‘Spain’ and ‘Spain
again’ with guitarist Tomatito; and venerable Cuban
Bebo Valdés, who went against the odds when he allied
with cantaor Diego el Cigala on ‘Lágrimas negras’.
The trumpets of latin jazz also ring out such as that of
Jerry González side by side with ‘Los piratas
del flamenco’. Among the more recent projects, Valencia-born
saxophonist Perico Sambeat is now on tour with his ‘Flamenco
Big Band’. But first, it’s better not to overlook
collective proposals such as ‘Jazzpaña’,
with an orchestra conducted by Vince Mendoza, and drummer
Marc Miralta’s ‘NY Flamenco Reunion’.
Pure coexistence.
| Flamenco
and other worlds |
|
Flamenco is a world music which has been
mixed with other types of world music. And that friendly
nature makes things simple for those who like ethnic sounds.
There’s a fundamental album with Hindu music; ‘Yerbagüena’
by Pepe
Habichuela and the Bollywood Strings Band. Cantaor Lebrijano
has seen perfectly eye to eye with Arab music on albums
like ‘Encuentros’ and ‘Casablanca’.
And also from the other side, discs have also bounced back
such as ‘La Chekara y el flamenco’, the fruit
of collaborations by the Tetouan Orchestra with artists
like Enrique Morente. Ketama approached Africa in their
early days, forging discs like the two installments of ‘Songhai’
together with the voice of Toumani Diabate. And Son de la
Frontera journeyed to Latin America to import the Cuban
tres and adapt it to the flamenco legacy of influential
guitarist Diego del Gastor. Their albums ‘Son de la
Frontera’ and ‘Cal’ stem from that dialogue.
Now then, there are few bounds in music.
You’re sure to be familiar with two
names, since they’ve made the charts for years now
with a kind of flamenco which many have tagged as ‘legible’.
José Mercé was a classical cantaor, born in
the family of Los Sordera, who triumphed by the hand of
Vicente Amigo (we’ll talk about him later) with ‘Del
amanecer’, a turning point for today’s flamenco
because it gave rise to an artist of the masses and to new
audiences for the genre. Arrangements close to pop and song-style
cantes were the key for him. And he still sticks ‘serious’
styles on his records such as soleá and seguiriya.
Niña
Pastori shared the top slots with the Jerez-born artist,
but due to her age she caught on quickly with the teenage
crowd with romantic songs por tangos and bulerías.
María, discovered when she was a little girl by Camarón,
goes on faithful to her formula, although on her latest
‘Esperando verte’ she sings por soleá
and por minera, at the same time as she adds ‘wah-wah’
to her tangos. There was as much repercussion as they have
from ‘Me voy contigo’ by Remedios Amaya which,
produced by Vicente Amigo too, sold 150,000 copies. And
surprisingly, it was also achieved by Granada-born cantaora
Estrella Morente with a very traditional album but which
managed to captivate thousands of listeners: ‘Mi cante
y un poema’ is now a basic.
Although it might now sound cliché,
flamenco can’t be understood nowadays without Camarón
and Paco
de Lucía. Thirty years ago, the cantaor and guitarist
revolutionized flamenco, marking a turning point between
the genre’s past and future. And a good way to begin
is to listen to their albums, since they have just the right
balance between tradition, innovation and an overflowing
performance quality-personality. You could count in the
hundreds, or perhaps thousands, the people who have become
flamenco enthusiasts upon listening to ‘Almoraima’,
‘Entre dos aguas’ (from the album ‘Fuente
y caudal’), ‘Sólo quiero caminar’,
‘Como el agua’, ‘Volando voy’ (from
‘La leyenda del tiempo’) and ‘Soy gitano’.
Ah, for those who have made up their mind and seek a deep
plunge into either of the two, here are the ‘integral’
box sets, sometimes at a nice price.
Not long ago Matthew Bellamy, guitarist
of the popular group Muse, said in an interview with a Spanish
weekly publication that he learned his first chords by listening
to Camarón. And that has happened to many guitarists
in the world, even to Eddie Van Halen. And the thing is
that the appeal is huge which is aroused by both the technique
and the emotion of flamenco and Spanish guitar wherever
it goes. Classical maestros like Sabicas
– who shares the glory of the same generation as Niño
Ricardo - observed the effect of their toque on the huge
audiences in the United States, an international legacy
taken over by the aforementioned Paco de Lucía, colleague
of the same generation as another great toque figure: Manolo
Sanlúcar. His intellectualization of flamenco guitar
is not incompatible with the legibility of his albums such
as ‘Tauromagia’ and ‘Locura de brisa y
trino’.
But a lot more came later on. On the contemporary
scene, you have to get to know Vicente Amigo’s personal
delicacy and the ability of his scores to reach the masses.
Albums like ‘Vivencias imaginadas’ and ‘Ciudad
de las ideas’ are on the list of basics. Gerardo Núñez
started off with the Jerez school to reach the world with
records like ‘Calima’. And situated between
the ‘Paquera’ school and Spanish classical is
Cañizares to make music bursting with creativity
and technique that is captured on albums such as ‘Noches
de imán y luna’, which is joined by commitments
to Spanish classical like the laborious ‘Iberia. Albéniz
por Cañizares’. Tomatito is able to rub shoulders
with latin jazz players, but above all else, to make felt
his personal commitment to guitar’s rhythmics and
tone, always wrapped up in a group. He is heard thus on
albums like ‘Guitarra gitana’ and on the compilation
(with a live bonus track) ‘Tomatito. Anthology’.
And the youngest ones are shaking things up, each in his
own way. José Manuel León, Juan Antonio Suárez
Cano, Antonio Rey and Juan Diego are to be taken into account.
| Compilations
and anthologies |
|
One way to determine your tastes, to nibble
a bit and listen with broader scope is to choose a compilation.
There are ones with today’s flamenco, with old-time
flamenco, with cante, with guitar and even by styles. ‘Con
poderío. Nuestro mejor flamenco’ is a double
selection of songs from EMI’s archives, by current
first-rate artists such as José Mercé, Remedios
Amaya, Arcángel, Mayte Martín… and
also with some references to now mythical flamencos of the
past like Manolo Caracol and La Niña de los Peines.
Another multinational, Universal, has different
excerpts from its huge archives split up in different installments
of the compilations ‘Pa saber de flamenco’,
headed up by Camarón and Paco de Lucía. The
first three volumes provide a general review of flamenco
in the past three decades, while the fourth volume focuses
on the mixtures of flamenco with other genres. There are
two installments devoted to the most popular styles: ‘Pa
saber de bulerías’ and ‘Pa saber de tangos’.
And moreover, a guitar volume running from the early days
until today, from Ramón Montoya to Raimundo Amador.
The discs ‘Flamenco for beginners’ and ‘El
flamenco es universal’ are also options to begin with
the more contemporary. To get to know the old-time stuff,
it’s better to listen to albums like ‘Grandes
maestros del flamenco’, with cantes and cantaores
from the first half of the 20th century, or ‘Quejío’
with classics such as Antonio
Mairena, Terremoto and Fernanda.
With the aim of recapitulating, avoiding
losses and honoring the roots, anthologies have been made
for fifty years now. Which, in passing, are good guides
for those who are getting started in this business of flamenco.
Of the most recent ones, ‘Antología. La mujer
en el cante’ by Carmen Linares is a ‘must’,
inspired by female cantaoras of all time but with today’s
best guitarists and the unmistakable voice of the ‘lady
of cante’. Further back in time, the key lies in the
double CD ‘Antología del cante flamenco’,
the first of its kind, originally released back in 1954.
Antonio Mairena recorded his ‘Antología del
cante flamenco y cante gitano’ in 1965. In 1982 ‘Magna
antología del cante flamenco’ came out, which
brought together the most select cante at the time, as well
as voices and styles which had been nearly lost, and which
is now presented in a luxurious box set with ten CDs and
a book explaining the origin of each cante. And all of them
are currently in print and perfectly presented.
Once you’re more into the swing of
things and your ears are more used to soleares, strumming
and quejíos, you might dare to tackle the records
which our ancestors used to listen to on radios and gramophones.
There’s unanimity in one figure in that era: La
Niña de los Peines. The Sevillian cantaora is
considered the best of all time. You can listen to her deeply
with the integral box set ‘La Niña de los Peines.
Patrimonio de Andalucía’. And also in synthesis
on restored records like ‘La Niña de los Peines.
Grandes figuras del flamenco. Volumen 3’.
Antonio Chacón, Manuel Vallejo and
Manuel Torres also provide ‘information’ about
those beginnings recorded on slate, an era when Manolo Caracol
and Pepe Marchena emerged. There are several very interesting
albums entitled ‘Grabaciones discos pizarra’.
But they aren’t the oldest ones. The oldest flamenco
you can listen to is ‘Cilindros de cera’ (‘Wax
Cylinders’), with cantes from the early 20th century
recorded by El Mochuelo and El Sevillano, among others.
Any flamenco album, including those of
fusion, have songs tagged with strange words like ‘bulerías’,
‘seguiriyas’, ‘fandangos’ or ‘tanguillos’.
They are the so-called flamenco styles. And it’s a
real challenge and nearly a game, depending on how you take
it, to learn to distinguish them. To do so, of great help
is a method in disc-book format entitled ‘Cante por
cante’, in which the listener is offered all the tricks
allowing you to distinguish one style from another in a
simple way. Another similar method is presented with more
musical appreciation, ‘Comprende el flamenco’,
also with a paper manual and disc which is moreover in several
languages. A very useful box set which is at the same time
a splendid compilation of classical and today’s flamenco
is the box set ‘Enciclopedia de los estilos flamencos
A-Z’ which, with 12 CDs and an explanatory book, exhaustively
reviews each flamenco style with first-rate musical examples
and written explanations, all of it in alphabetical order,
that’s to say, from the alboreá to the zorongo.
It wouldn’t be a bad buy to start off with.
| And
‘Flamenco’ by Carlos Saura |
|
And if it’s nice to listen to, it’s
even nicer to listen to and see. There are surely thousands
of people who have gotten to know this artform through a
film: ‘Flamenco’ by Carlos
Saura. Premiered in 1995, it is a genuine panorama in
motion of the flamenco prevailing over a decade ago, including
the more veteran maestros back then such as La Paquera,
Fernanda, Chocolate…; as well as acclaimed figures
like Paco de Lucía, Manolo Sanlúcar, Morente,
Menese, Agujetas, Manuela Carrasco, Merche Esmeralda, María
Pagés…; and then up-and-coming talents such
as Farruquito, Potito and Belén Maya. All of it with
Saura esthetics with panels, rehearsal space, neutrality,
contemporaneity, proximity, light, like in his trilogy side
by side with Antonio Gades: ‘Carmen’, ‘El
amor brujo’ and ‘Bodas de sangre’. In
fact, I myself came in there with my friend from Japan.
Are you coming?
