Two cantes by Camarón at the Torres
Bermejas tablao are also recovered
Flamenco’s discography recovers
more recordings from the seventies
Niño Miguel, Porrina, Chato de la
Isla and El Indio Gitano, on sale again
Flamenco-world.com, June 2006
Little by little, flamenco is recomposing
its record archives. Once more it is the old record company
Philips’ turn, and more specifically, the forgotten
jewels of the label Fontana. Once polished up, a dozen old
vinyl records now repackaged come out once more –
two by two and by author – in a collection of nine
CDs. Besides two cantes by Camarón de la Isla recorded
at the Torres Bermejas tablao, complete albums by guitarist
Niño Miguel are recovered and by cantaores El Indio
Gitano, Porrina de Badajoz, Ramón el Portugués,
Luis de Córdoba, El Chato de la Isla and El Funi,
released between 1969 and 1980. The accompanying guitarists
go from Ramón Montoya to Paco de Lucía, with
Antonio Arenas, Ramón de Algeciras and Pedro Peña
in between.
Camarón de la Isla still has surprises
in store. The re-release on CD of the album ‘Una noche
en Torres Bermejas’ uncovers two little-known recordings
by the cantaor from San Fernando: the tientos ‘Que
un toro bravito en su muerte’ and the seguiriyas ‘Si
acaso muero’. He shares the album with other masterful
voices such as those of La Paquera de Jerez, Bambino, Fosforito
and El Chaleco. Another curiosity of this series of records
recovered from the Philips archives is the CD by El
Niño Miguel, which consists of the then-vinyl
albums ‘La guitarra de Niño Miguel’ (1975)
and ‘Diferente’ (1976). Among the 19 songs included
in total, none of the guitarist’s greatest compositions
is missing, among them, ‘Vals flamenco’, ‘Lamento’
and ‘Brisas de Huelva’.
The other seven albums correspond to great
cante voices from the past few decades. There are those
of now deceased maestros such as El Chato de la Isla, accompanied
on guitar in these recordings from 1969 and 1971 by Paco
de Lucía and Ramón de Algeciras. By Porrina
de Badajoz, an anthology is dusted off of twelve cantes
with Ramón Montoya on guitar recorded in 1969. That
same guitarist and Antonio Arenas do the job on the other
album included on the CD. And by El Indio Gitano, the album
recorded in 1971 can be heard again with toque by Antonio
Arenas, Manolo Heredia, Serranito and Enrique Escudero;
and the one he recorded alone the following year with Juan
Habichuela on guitar.
Also returning are vinyl records from the
early stages in the career of now veteran maestros like
Ramón
el Portugués and Luis de Córdoba. By the
Extremadura-born cantaor Ramón el Portugués,
an album is re-released from 1971 with Antonio Arenas and
Manolo Heredia on guitar; and another from 1973 originally
entitled ‘Canta Ramón el Portugués’.
Tangos extremeños, jaleos, fandangos and bulerías
make up the bulk of this repertoire of twenty-three songs.
Also along orthodox lines updated at that time was Luis
de Córdoba in ‘María del amor’
(1979) and ‘A las ermitas’ (1980).
The series of re-released albums is completed,
for the time being, with the CD ‘En Lebrija’,
which gathers the recordings, carried out in 1971 in the
Seville-area town itself under the management of El Lebrijano,
of two pillars of Lebrija cante: El Funi and El Juanata.
Back in 2004, several other albums from the Philips archives
came out again, on that occasion by artists like Niño
de Barbate, Sabicas, Niño Ricardo, Terremoto and
La Paquera.
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