Between 1968 and 1974 Fosforito and Paco de Lucía recorded ‘Selección antológica del cante flamenco’ on four long-play records for the Belter recording company. Fortunately for flamenco-lovers, there is a recent re-edition from Karonte, now in two compact disks. After the Ducretet-Thomson anthology of 1954 (Hispavox, 1955) which led to a reevaluation of the traditional repertoire and the recuperation of forgotten styles, nearly all the major artists of the era recorded their own anthology: Manolo Caracol, Antonio Mairena, Porrina de Badajoz, Pepe Marchena, Juanito Valderrama... Even Carmen Linares recently contributed her own anthology of female cante and José Mercé also dreams of leaving his particular version of the jondo flamenco repertoire for all posterity.

If each one, by definition, highlights the personality of the singer and shows just how flamenco is subject to individual interpretations fed by a fixed repertoire of traditional melodies and rhythms, the Fosforito and Paco de Lucía work stands apart for various reasons. In the first place, because it brings together two of the most important artists of the era: young Paco de Lucía, in full process of evolution towards his renewal of traditional guitar-playing based on the strength of his virtuosity; Fosforito in the full majesty of his rhythmic renovation of traditional cantes. Herein lies the extraordinary interest of this anthology: the meeting of two artists joined by the same revisionist rhythmic reading of flamenco.

If Mairena showed a certain pedagogic inclination, if Caracol was trapped by the power of his personality as was Marchena by his baroque dead-end labyrinth, if Porrina or Valderrama attempted to join the renewed interest in old forms with the lyricism of the so-called “ópera flamenca”, the anthology which heralded the future and set the pace was that of Fosforito and Paco de Lucía. The compás just so, the phrasing with clean accents, the flamenco “sound”...all became fixed in the major part of flamenco and jondo repertoires, never shunning the lyricism and drama of the genre. Nowadays cante is almost excessively dominated by compás and rhythm which seem to suffocate lyrical intent with all the clicking, just as in earlier times lyricism and melodic arabesques seemed to dilute any rhythmic backdrop. If the ideal flamenco is the intelligent balance between rhythm and lyricism, the anthology of Fosforito and Paco de Lucía is, without any doubt, ideal.

In addition to affording the opportunity to listen to Fosforito’s cante in all its splendor, this anthology has an added interest for guitarists. It proposes model falsetas for the accompaniment of cante, short but like good verses, full of content, the falsetas played by Paco in his first period. The majority, based in turn on the personal and above all rhythmic reinterpretation of other older falsetas, today form part of the public domain of flamenco guitar-playing, with falsetas that have been, and continue to be reinterpreted in an endless variety of ways and are considered “popular creations” by young guitarists.

A must-have anthology for anyone approaching flamenco in search of quality, authenticity, personality and sincerity.