Chick Corea and Diego el Cigala collaborate on the record, released by Nuevos Medios

Flamenco-world.com, January 2006

Nuevos Medios surprises us once more, knocking today's flamenco up another notch. And it does so with ‘Sumando’, a record made on equal terms between bass player Carles Benavent and guitarist Josemi Carmona. Both musicians have spent about two years exchanging audio files recorded at their respective home studios, until they shaped up nine compositions among which illustrious collaborations can be heard such as those by Chick Corea and Diego el Cigala. Some of them have already been premiered live by the guitarist of the Habichuela family, who with this project begins a solo career following the breaking-up of Ketama.

Carles Benavent and Josemi Carmona

When he was in the middle of recording, Carles Benavent already explained in an interview given to Flamenco-world.com that “Josemi Carmona and I promised each other years ago that we had to do an album together. And one of those years we took an oath and we're doing it. It has to be flamenco style for sure. They're our stories, our themes. I like his stuff and he likes mine. We pass things on to each other: I give him a song of mine with the bass and he gives me another with his guitars. At the end we'll decide who'll come and collaborate, if a voice is needed, any other instruments, percussion or whatever we think of”.

And ‘Sumando’ is the result. “In the tandem formed by Carles Benavent and Josemi Carmona, the most crucial experiences of contemporary Spanish music meet”, according to Nuevos Medios. And the thing is that if the bass player was, among other great projects, a member of no less than the Paco de Lucía Sextet; Josemi Carmona was a member of Ketama, one of the most successful new-flamenco groups.

The quality of both musicians is the indisputable strength of ‘Sumando’, “where the composition and the performance are exquisitely balanced”. The record company's press release adds that “the nine songs on the album never stray from flamenco's rhythm and emotion and have the apparent ease of a well-wrought work”.

“The intimate ambience of the recording did not impede the approaching of two first-rate guests, Madrilenian cantaor Diego el Cigala and American pianist Chick Corea”. Joining them are percussionists Bandolero, Chaboli, Piraña and Juan Carmona Jr., drummer Tino di Geraldo, Paquete on voice and Joselín Vargas on clapping.

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