The flamenco guitar surely represents the most accessible area of flamenco for the international public. Its analogy to classical guitar, the exotic quality that comes from unusual percussive techniques and modal harmonies, and its popularity as a concert instrument have favored a certain degree of taste on the part of the international public for this instrument which is usually associated with passion and with Spain. That's what the designers at Virgin must have had in mind when they had the bad taste to decorate the front and back covers of this record with typical picturesque nineteenth century illustrations of Andalusia, or with the corny dancer dressed in black with a Cordobés hat set against the background of a flame-colored female dancer.

An uneven content tries to musically illustrate that passion is alive and well and fashionable. A good selection of soloists: from Paco de Lucía's opening, as if to provide the obligatory reference point, to his contemporaries Enrique de Melchor and Pepe Habichuela, his "disciples" Cañizares, Tomatito, Vicente Amigo, Rafael Riqueni, and Gerardo Núñez, the age of Lucía dominates the CD. The first revolution that Paco de Lucía brought to solo guitar playing was essentially rhythmic and the record goes overboard with this: bulerías, rumbas, alegrías, bulería por soleá, tanquillos, jaleos... more than "Cantan las Guitarras" (guitars sing), it should have been called "Bailan las Guitarras" (guitars dance). We've even got the patriarch Juan Habichuela in a bulería where he updates his classic falsetas with Tomatito as accomplice. Rhythm dominates everything nowadays, and flamenco as well, but the flamenco guitar isn't just rhythm, and its appeal also resides in the warm sound of its freeform melodies. In this sense, it's a pity that the choice of pieces ignores this other facet of the guitar. Perhaps a second volume with this feature wouldn't be a bad idea, for man does not live by rhythm alone. Two out-of-place pieces with the singing of Luis "El Zambo" accompanied by Moraíto Chico, and the gypsyfied blues singing of Raimundo Amador complete this selection of flamenco guitar
soloists.