# Thoughts About Cante Flamenco



## Strange Magic

One of my loves is traditional cante flamenco, usually a singer and a guitarist sitting closely together, perhaps a small coterie of friends and relations together around a table, able to offer encouragement, rhythmic clapping, palmas, as seems best, and to express their appreciation of particularly moving expression on the part of the singer. The idea is to convey emotion, or the simulacrum of emotion, from singer to the small world immediately around her or him. The guitarist, or tocaor, provides a constant sympathetic and complementary accompaniment to the cantaor/cantaora, often looking closely into the singer's face to ensure that the rapport is tightly maintained-- it's a remarkable pairing. The guitarists, who are seemingly numberless throughout flamenco Spain, are almost stupefyingly skilled at the technical aspects of guitar play, yet this amazing virtuosity is, in the best accompanists, kept in tight check to better "romance the stone" of the singer's utterances. The singers themselves most often do not have, and are not judged upon, the quality of their voices--by the standards of Western art song or popular song, their voices, and appearances, are rough, "untrained", ragged--but rather upon their knowledge of the various forms or palos of flamenco, their mastery of many of them, and their ability to move their audience to empathy and/or admiration.

Sung flamenco, authentic cante, is an acquired taste. When I would play my flamenco albums in my room, my mother would ask when the chicken-strangling would be over. Yet the stories that revolve around the greatest singers of yesteryear--people like Manuel Torres, for example-- tell of people rending their clothing, crying uncontrollably, actually leaping through windows, while under the spell of his singing (such behavior often fueled by alcohol, to be sure). Anyway, what draws me into this world of cante flamenco is this experience of raw emotion, or often also of exquisite performance of the classical palos by both singer and guitarist, even in those cases where the emotional component is subdued, and the goal is to render a piece in a more detached manner. I just love it, and have since about the age of 15.

I have relocated this post here from another part of the Forum (some will recognize having seen it before), as it serves reasonably well as an introduction to why I have long cherished traditional cante flamenco, and it will serve as an excuse for me to post some observations about flamenco and some examples of flamenco song, and to welcome others to comment as they choose. More to come, as time and circumstances permit.


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## Strange Magic

*Some Books About Flamenco*

There are not many books published about flamenco in English, and often such books are either self-published or are from very small houses that may flash in and out of existence. A good place to search is Amazon, especially as used books. Herewith are some books that will take the reader a goodly way into understanding and possibly appreciating this fascinating music, and especially the singing which is at the center of flamenco:

_The Art of Flamenco_, D. E. Pohren. Several publishers, from 1962 to 2014. Donn Pohren's book remains the best guide and introduction to traditional flamenco yet published. Pohren became obsessed with flamenco, moved to Spain, married a flamenco dancer, started and operated an inn for others wishing to experience the art at close range, and wrote several of the classic books on the subject. If you can afford only one book on the subject, this is it. Hardcover and paper.

_Lives and Legends of Flamenco_, D. E. Pohren. A history and many short biographies and critiques of scores of the better-known singers, guitarists, and dancers of traditional flamenco. Pohren offers more insight into how flamenco performance is, or ought to be, appreciated. The author, recently deceased, had strong views on what constituted proper flamenco, but one always knew where Pohren stood on these matters of taste. I have the self-published 1964 edition, hardcover.

_Flamenco_, Claus Schreiner, Editor. A series of excellent essays on aspects of flamenco written by German aficionados. 1996, Amadeus Press (paper). First published in German in 1985.

More anon.


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## Strange Magic

*More Books*

_The Flamencos of Cadiz Bay_, Gerald Howson. First published in 1965; currently or soon to be available in paper from The Bold Strummer. Howson, an Englishman eager to learn flamenco and to experience the "flamenco lifestyle", got employment in Spain as a teacher of English, and finally ended up in Cadiz, which, along with Jerez and the barrio in Seville known as Triana, was long recognized as one of the three centers of flamenco in Andalusia. Howson befriended the legendary Gatidano singer Aurelio de Cádiz, and, aided by Aurelio's patronage, was able to fulfill his dream. The book provides a rich account of the erratic and unpredictable lives of the flamencos of that day.

_Queen of the Gypsies_, Paco Sevilla. Sevilla Press, 1999, paper. Paco Sevilla is one of the best historians of flamenco writing in the past 20 years. Queen of the Gypsies is his biography of Carmen Amaya, the Queen of flamenco dance, but also an unparalleled account of flamenco in the first half of the 20th century, including the all-important role of traveling-troupe flamenco--people such as dancers Carmen Amaya, José Greco, La Argentina, but also well-known guitarists like Carlos Montoya, Mario Escudero, and Sabicas-- who did so much to introduce flamenco to the world outside Spain. An outstanding book.

_Seeking Silverio_, Paco Sevilla. Sevilla Press, 2007, paper. This is what Paco Sevilla calls a "flamenco novel" but it is best described as an "enhanced biography" of Don Antonio Chacón, widely regarded as one of the greatest singers of the earlier years of flamenco. Sevilla pens a wholly-believable account of the flamenco of the last quarter of the 19th century and of the Andalusia of that time--the sights, sounds, smells, customs. The book serves as a prequel to his Carmen Amaya biography, but is very enjoyable in its own right.

Enough of books, but I find that my enjoyment of any of the arts is hightened by any and all additional input, and I get such input usually from books.


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## Strange Magic

*The Palos: Some Ways of Classifying*

There are scores of song styles or forms in cante--_palos_--Donn Pohren lists about 60-70. Of these, only a little over a dozen account for the vast bulk of performance. The palos can be divided by seriousness/joyousness of their subject matter/lyrics into 3 categories: cante jondo or grande, cante intermedio, and cante chico. Cross-cutting against this classification scheme is one that identifies the palos as being largely of gypsy (gitano) origin, or of non-gypsy (payo), or "Andalusian", origin. Thus we have cante gitano, and cante andaluz. This latter way of distinguishing the palos of flamenco has resulted in many decades of argument as to who " invented" flamenco, gitanos or some other mix of Arab, Berber, Jewish, Celtic, Church or whatever influences. Nobody actually knows. I regard cante flamenco as being like a rope consisting of two equally strong strands twisted inseparably together to form a whole that is stronger than its parts. But the proponents of "gitanismo", led by the great gypsy cantaor Antonio Mairena, have long battled the payo school, which was represented by the equally renowned payo cantaor Aurelio de Cádiz. This argument now has turned to mutual charges of racism in Andalusian flamenco circles; the idea being that it is racist to deny gitano primacy in the evolution of flamenco, and also racist to affirm it. A conundrum. How would the Blues be dealt with? In my further discussions of the palos, I will note where each palo is in these two classification schemes, as the subject comes up as a matter of course in flamenco discussion.

I plan to offer an example or two of each of the 14 palos that seem to me to represent most cante performance. I will list them here first by whether they are jondo, intermedio, or chico, and then add a G or A to show their possible origin as (maybe) gitano or (maybe) Andalusian/payo:

Cante Jondo Palos--Soleares, Siguiriyas, Martinete, Serrana, La Caña, all G. Saetas, A.

Cante Intermedio Palos--Fandangos Grandes, Malagueñas, Taranta, all A. Tientos, G.

Cante Chico Palos--Alegrías, Bulerias, Tango Gitano, all G. Fandangos de Huelva, A.


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## Strange Magic

*Bulerias: Cante Chico, Cante Gitano*

As may be clear from the listing of the palos, the alleged gitano palos seem to occupy the emotional extremes of cante--those that deal with the greater sorrows of life, the cante jondo forms, and those that express great enthusiasm, joy, festivity-- the cante chico ones. In contrast, the cante andaluz palos are more to the middle of the emotional spectrum, and are more often sung in a mood of reflection, but we see the usual exceptions to these generalizations....

We will begin the review of the palos with one of the most well-known and loved, the exciting Bulerias. The first example has Bernarda de Utrera as cantaora, and Diego del Gastor as tocaor, in an outdoor village or "pueblo" setting, somewhere in or near the town of Morón. Diego del Gastor and the sisters Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, and some other local singers were prime exemplars of a simple, direct, exciting and very authentic pueblo flamenco that captivated the American expat Donn Pohren, who made Morón flamenco famous in his books and attracted dozens of young Americans and other non-Spaniards to the town and to Diego del Gastor to learn his version of real flamenco. This is the real deal.





The second Bulerias is sung by the legendary Terremoto de Jerez in his prime, with his favorite guitarist Manuel Moreno "Morao" accompanying. Terremoto later grew obese and drank far too much, a fate suffered by many cantaors. The poet García Lorca wrote of such: "The heart gets most of them...a strange and simple people, they sing with their eyes fixed on a point on the horizon...and then they burst, like giant cicadas..."


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## Strange Magic

*Siguiriyas: Cante Jondo, Cante Gitano*

We turn now away from the gaiety and energy of cante chico and Bulerias, and to its polar opposite: the stark, tragic world of Siguiriyas, the most jondo of the several gitano palos. Unlike its close companion, Soleares, which tends to being more declamatory, the pain expressed by the darker, starker Siguiriyas is more in the nature of being wrenched from the singer. The dialect is the Andalu of Andalusia, which is not easy to understand in normal speech, and is rendered even more so by the conventions of flamenco song. The key to recognizing the various palos is to pay attention to both singer and guitar--the unique patterns that are common within each palo eventually become ingrained in the memory, and one need only hear a few moments of most palos to know which is being offered. In the various palos, short cadenzas, or _falsetas_ are played by the guitarist in between the verses or _coplas_ of the palo--evident in these two examples of Siguiriyas:

The first is proof that traditional cante still lives here and there. The cantaora is the gifted daughter, Estrella Morente, of the cantaor Enrique Morente. The guitarist is Juan "Pepe" Habichuela. I feel no shame in the tears that well in my eyes when I hear this music.





The second offering is sung by the then-young but renowned gitano cantaor Antonio Nuñez, aka El Chocolate, recently deceased. The guitarist is Eduardo de la Malena. The particular song here is one made famous long ago by the greatest of gitano cantaors, Manuel Torres.


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## Strange Magic

*Malagueñas, y Taranta/Taranto: Cante Intermedio, Cante Andaluz*

Having briefly examined the extreme ends of the emotional spectrum with some cante gitano, we now gravitate toward the somewhat more moderate world of cante andaluz. The emphasis in these palos is somewhat less on direct expression of emotion and more on vocal control and phrasing--more of an Art Song approach. The cante andaluz palos lend themselves more toward being listened to, say, in a garden in the last of the day's sun as dusk creeps in, and one seeks respite from the _Sturm und Drang_ of cante gitano, perhaps with a glass of wine in hand....

Malagueñas is the most prominent of the many palos from the vicinity of Málaga. This example is sung by José de la Tomasa; the toque is provided by Ricardo Miño. It is far and away my favorite version of this palo, and is exquisitely both sung and played.





The Taranta is the best-known of the mining-themed palos of eastern Andalusia. The subject matter of these strange-sounding songs is mines, mining, miners, and the dangers and terrors of that profession: "A miner cried out, in the bottom of a mine: Ayy, what loneliness I have! And although I have a lamp, I cannot find my way out." This example is sung by Carmen Linares; the guitarist is Rafael Riqueni.





Flamenco dancers wished to dance to Tarantas, but the absence of a defined beat in that palo led to the development of the Taranto, which does have a slow, steady measure that lends itself to a stately dance. Here is a Taranto sung by La Paquera de Jerez, a renowned gitana cantaora. The guitars are those of Juan Maya and Manolo Sanlucar.





Many of the cante andaluz palos are even more of an acquired taste than are the better-known cante gitano forms, and take some time to appreciate. But they offer rich rewards to those with the attentiveness to give them ear several times.


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## Strange Magic

*Serrana y La Caña; Martinete: Cante Jondo, Cante Gitano; Saeta: Jondo, Andaluz(?)*

Four of the less-heard palos: one at least of great beauty (Serrana), another of unparalleled harshness that is almost shocking in its disinterest in any semblance of euphony (Martinete). We will begin with the Serrana, a palo thought to have evolved from the much older La Caña.

In 2007, an Italian-produced biopic of the Renaissance artist Caravaggio was released. I never saw it, but on some message board someone posted a short clip from the film and asked what was the haunting music heard in the clip. I watched and listened and was able to immediately identify the piece as a Serrana, titled Serenata, by the esteemed cantaor El Niño de Almaden, with Pedro Soler accompanying, and so notified the poster. It is a lovely piece, and works well, even though a flamenco palo in an Italian film. Here is that clip; the Serrana begins at about 3:55 and ends at about 6:50.





Some flamenco scholars believe La Caña to be one of the oldest palos of flamenco. It is distinctive in the ending of each copla with a ritualized, repeated (in threes) series of sung Ehes. While most cantaors know La Caña, the gypsy Rafael Romero is most closely associated with it. Here he is accompanied by Perico el del Lunar, the gifted son of a gifted guitarist father of the same name.





Some palos are sung without any accompaniment at all, they are sung "a palo seco", originally indicating time being kept by striking the floor or the ground rhythmically with a walking stick, but later including no accompaniment at all. The Martinete is an exclamation of grief and pain: "With the weariness of death, I crept to one side; with the fingers of my hand, I tore at the wall...". Many were originally sung as gypsies worked at forges, doing metalwork. This is uttered by Manuel Agujetas, regarded as a master of this palo.





The Saeta is what is sung during the Easter week procession in many Andalusian cities and towns. Statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are carried through the streets, with bands of drums and trumpets. The procession will stop at certain places, there will be silence, and the Saeta, the "Arrow of Song" will pierce the silence like the cry of some strange bird, recounting the suffering of Christ and Mary. It is thought to be of liturgical origin by some; others differ. Some--many--times it will send chills down the spine. This is sung by Manuel Mairena, the gifted son of famed cantaor Antonio Mairena--flamenco is often handed down through generations in the same family.


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## Strange Magic

*Intermission: 1950s Recordings of Cante--What Was Available?*

My interest in cante flamenco was born in the 1950s, largely as the result of seeing dancer José Greco and his troupe on the Ed Sullivan Show on American TV. Greco usually would have a singer or singers, and something in their delivery, a suggestion of exoticism and wildness, appealed strongly to me. Flamenco albums were few at the record store, but the non-Spanish audience for cante was well served by what was available: a mix of traveling-troupe and recorded-in-Spain cante and some baile (dance) of very high quality. I bring this up because I will be using some examples of this 1950s cante from those recordings, that have found their way onto YouTube, because it is some of the finest realized flamenco combining cante, dance, and guitar. I will list some of the most important LPs of that era, some of which served to bring a knowledge and appreciation of cante flamenco to a huge audience outside of Spain. These recordings are still of enormous value and interest today.

The Hispavox/Westminster "Anthology of Cante Flamenco", with many singers, all accompanied by Perico el del Lunar. 3 LPs. This recording put cante flamenco on the map. Historic.

"A History of Cante Flamenco", sung by Manolo Caracol, accompanied by Melchor de Marchena. 2 LPs. A legendary singer (and guitarist).

Several albums on the Spanish Montilla label; one (Serenata Andaluza) with Sabicas and singer Enrique Montoya and dancer Goyo Reyes, has my favorite Alegrías, both sung and danced. Alas, not available on YouTube.

And two final gems of 1950s cante, only selectively available on YouTube--

"Festival Gitana" on Elektra, with Sabicas, Diego Castellon, and Mario Escudero on guitars, and singers Enrique Montoya and Domingo Alvarado. This wonderful LP had superb examples of Bulerias, Fandangos, Siguiriyas, and Tientos, this last I will feature in the section on Tientos and Tangos. This was available on CD at one time, under the title of "Fiesta Flamenco" (sic).

"Danzas Flamencas" on Decca, with José Greco dancing, The incomparable Manolita de Jerez and Rafael Romero singing, and an unidentified guitarist--perhaps Miguel Garcia, perhaps Triguito. This disk offers world-class Soleares, Bulerias, Fandangos (all three of which are in the YouTube clip that I will offer as an example of Fandangos), Tientos, Zambras, and La Caña. Sadly, this outstanding recording has never been transferred to CD, for it is one of the finest recordings of flamenco performance incorporating song, dance, and guitar.


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## Strange Magic

*Tientos y Tangos: Cante Intermedio y Cante Chico; Cante Gitano*

Here we present Tientos and Tangos together, as they are very clearly related: Tientos being a slower version of Tangos, or Tangos being a faster form of Tientos. As is often the case in flamenco lore, the authorities are divided as to which came first--some say Tientos, with Tangos evolving as a speeded-up, less serious, happier offspring, or the reverse, with Tangos maturing into a more grave and somber palo, dealing with more grave and serious subjects. As you listen to the two palos, you will immediately hear the similarity of structure--indeed, the two palos are often combined, with several coplas of Tientos then switching into and concluding with the faster rhythm of Tangos--these combined versions are often called Tientos y Tangos. First, two presentations of Tientos....

The first is from the LP _Festival Gitana_, with Sabicas, Diego Castellon, and Mario Escudero on guitar and the cantaors Enrique Montoya and Domingo Alvarado. What created the power and intensity of this recording was, in my opinion, the bringing together of two competitive singers singing alternate coplas and thus each striving for and reaching depths of emotion unusual for either, under the stimulus of working with the then-acknowledged master of flamenco guitar, Sabicas. The result was amazing.





Next is a Tientos sung by Rafael Romero, "El Gallina" as he is called, with guitar accompaniment by Perico el del Lunar _hijo_, as sons are usually labeled; his father, also Perico el del Lunar, would be referred to as _viejo_, the Elder. Rafael Romero excelled at many of the lesser-known palos as well as forms such as Tientos, and was a major contributor with Perico _viejo_ to the historic Westminster/Hispavox anthology.





Finally a marvelous example of Tangos Gitanos, sung by Chano Lobato. The guitarist is El Poeta. Flamenco artists are very rarely known by their birth names. Almost all assume pseudonyms by which they are known throughout the flamenco community. For instance, Perico el del Lunar _viejo_ was born Pedro del Valle; his nom de guerre means Pete, He of the Large Facial Mole (removed long ago).


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## Strange Magic

*Soleares: Cante Jondo, Cante Gitano*

Soleares is the most widely-sung and widely-appreciated of the jondo palos, as it combines both reflective and declamatory opportunities for both singer and guitarist. It can be danced to, with great effectiveness--moreso than its companion in profundity of expression, Siguiriyas. In any case, if one is to be considered a competent, let alone great, flamenco vocalist, one must have mastered Soleares. Audiences will want to hear any singer's interpretation of this key palo. The topics are usually love and anguish: "I used to think love was just a plaything; now I see one goes through the agonies of death." "I am living in the world devoid of hope; it is not necessary to bury me, as I am buried alive." "If I poured all my anguish into the streams, the waters in the sea would rise to the heavens."

The first Soleares is sung with great effect by Estrella Morente, whom we heard previously singing Siguiriyas. The guitarist is Juan Habichuela, the brother of the Pepe Habichuela of the Siguiriyas previously referenced.





The second example is that of Terremoto ("Earthquake") de Jerez, with Manuel Moreno "Morao" again as tocaor. Terremoto was born Fernando Fernández in the _barrio Santiago_ of the city of Jerez de la Frontera, one of the wellsprings of flamenco. He began as a dancer but decided to try singing, and was an immediate success; he is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of gitano cantaors.
.




The third selection is from the landmark 1950s flamenco LP, _Danzas Flamencas_, with Manolita de Jerez singing and José Greco dancing a shorter and more exclamatory and dramatic Soleares. José Greco, of mixed Spanish and Italian ancestry, was born in Montorio, Italy, but moved with his parents to Brooklyn, New York at age 10. It was in Brooklyn that he learned to dance flamenco, and rapidly became a world-class bailaor working with notable traveling-troupe star dancers such as La Argentinita and Pilar López. Possessed of a healthy egomania--"All women want to be loved by José Greco, and all men want to be José Greco."--he could be, when he chose, a quite remarkable and tasteful dancer, never moreso than on this great LP. Note that there are three selections on the clip-- the first is the Soleares, but the following Bulerias and Fandangos are world-class, and I will reference that Fandangos in the discussion of that palo.


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## Strange Magic

*Fandangos y Fandangos de Huelva: Cante Intermedio, Chico; Cante Andaluz*

_Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?_

Herewith we examine both the Fandango and its merrier cousin, the Fandangos de Huelva. The relationship between them resembles that of the Tientos/Tangos pairing, with Fandangos being the slower, darker palo, dealing with love, thwarted love, pain, death--the usual subjects for such utterances: "Your love is like a bunch of grapes; first they refresh, then they intoxicate." "A woman was dying, her children surrounded her and the smallest said to her, 'Mama, look at my face. Don't die yet...'". Along with Tarantas, Fandangos are the most jondo of the Cante Andaluz palos. They have always been among the most favored by singers.

We begin with Terremoto and Morao. The declamatory nature of Fandangos, with the characteristic descending scale at the end of each copla is well-heard here.





Next are Fandangos sung by Agujetas, who is the last of the great gitano cantaors of an earlier generation still singing (and still alive). His appearance is one of the fiercest in flamenco. His accompanist is David Jones, aka David Serva, an American drawn to Spain to learn flamenco guitar at the feet of Diego del Gastor. Serva is perhaps the most accomplished non-Spaniard to master flamenco accompaniment. He speaks the Andalu dialect fluently.





We end with my favorite Fandangos, again from the _Danzas Flamencas_ LP. It is the final palo in the YouTube clip, following the Soleares and the Bulerias, and sung by the incomparable Manolita de Jerez. The guitarist is unknown, but is likely Miguel Garcia or Triguito. Note the explosive ending of each of the four coplas. 





After the intensity of Fandangos, we turn to the lighthearted Fandangos de Huelva, which present a picture of gaiety and cheer quite unlike the gloomier Fandangos Grandes. Castanets are not part of flamenco, being associated with "Spanish dance" instead, but they are occasionally heard in Fandangos de Huelva (but not in these examples).

First we will hear the cantaor Roque Montoya, "Jarrito", sing the Fandangos de Huelva, with an unknown accompanist. Jarrito was one of the key singers on the seminal Hispavox/Westminster anthology.





We finish with La Paquera de Jerez, and an unknown accompanist. Agujetas said not long ago that he, El Chocolate, and La Paquera were the only three real flamenco singers left. Now he is entirely alone.


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## Morimur

Camarón, Camarón!


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## Strange Magic

*Alegrías: Cante Chico; Cante Gitano*

As we began this look at the most often sung palos of cante flamenco, we started with the excitement of Bulerias. We will end with the joyous rhapsody of the beloved Alegrías of Cadiz. Cadiz, or Cai as the gatidanos call it in their dialect, has long had a tradition of great cante and superb singers. It is the home of a family of related palos called Cantiñas, of which Alegrías is the best known. They are sunny and tuneful, and are often danced. As an aside, some of the other towns of Andalusia have distinctive names similar to Cai, for Cadiz. Thus we have Serva for Sevilla, and Grana for Granada. Most of the lyrics, or _letras_ of Alegrías are about love, and the beauty of Cadiz: "I can't think straight when I see you on the street. I can't think straight, and I keep looking at you." "When you come with me, where am I going to take you? For a little walk alongside the great sea-wall." "How my Cadiz shines. See how beautiful! On a little piece of land stolen from the sea."

We begin with an Alegrías sung by the perfectly named La Perla de Cadiz, for decades the queen of Gatidana cantaoras. She is accompanied by her favorite tocaor, Paco Cepero. 




And for a complete experience of Alegrías, we conclude with this stirring example of both cante and baile. The singer is Talegon de Córdoba, the two guitarists are the brothers Juan and Pepe Maya, and the bailaor is yet another brother, Manuel Maya, aka "Manolete". ¡Olé!


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## Strange Magic

*Some General Thoughts About Flamenco*

The Primacy of Cante: Most authorities agree that cante was the first element of flamenco to appear, organizing itself out of a welter of gypsy, Arab, ecclesiastical, indigenous Andalusian, whatever roots. Guitar and dance were quickly added as adjuncts to and servants of cante. When a well-known cantaor was coming to town, posters would announce who, when, where, but the name of the accompanying guitarist would usually be missing. And until recently, the centrality of cante to flamenco was asserted by virtually all aficionados--it was absurd to speak of flamenco in its broadest sense as being unaccompanied guitar or guitar and dance, other than as occasional interludes between the singing of the palos. We cannot speak of lieder or of opera without the singer. Similarly, we ought not consider flamenco without its beating heart of cante.

The Cult of the Guitar: However, once one encounters a wider and non-Andalusian audience, it rapidly becomes clear that the raw voices, exoticism, slurred and indecipherable Andalu dialect, and overt emotionalism of sung flamenco is grating to most ears. Hence the much more accessible charms of the guitar and flamenco dance have become central to the popular notion of flamenco; also most aficionados these days are either guitarists or wannabe guitarists who are most appreciative of the virtuoso guitarists of yesterday and today: Sabicas, Paco de Lucia, etc. Hence the greater dominance today of toque and baile over cante in flamenco. Yet back in the heyday of cante's primacy in Andalusia, the wealthy _señoritos_ would hire the cantaor of their choice for the evening's entertainment, and the cantaor would then select the guitarist as his accompanist--it was understood by all that the role of the guitarist was to interact with and to complement the singer, and the best and most authentic flamenco today remains the singer, the song, and the guitarist.

Flamenco is not a Folk Art: While flamenco may have arisen, at least in part, from folk song, it has been almost always a paid professional form of entertainment, not unlike the gypsy bands in many European cultures. In _The Brothers Karamazov_, Dmitri Karamazov is always calling for the gypsy band to enliven his various alcoholic and amorous sessions in the taverns and inns. In Andalusia and beyond, the adventurous wealthy became excellent devotees of flamenco, and would hire the cantaors, who in turn provided the guitarists and maybe some dancers, with the _señoritos_ supplying location, cash, liquor, and perhaps feminine companionship. But certainly flamencos respected and treasured their music and performed for themselves in private _juergas._

I may have other notions about flamenco and post them here from time to time, but for now I hope that some TC members might find what I have set down in this Article of some interest. As far as becoming better informed about flamenco, I again recommended the books referenced above, and I especially recommend repeated listening to the examples of the palos I have provided until one gets familiar with each one's identifying note patterns, rhythms, etc., and also looks for more examples on YouTube. It is astonishing how much superb cante is preserved on YouTube from the 1930s onward.

And I welcome others' posts on this subject--I Love Cante Flamenco!


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## Strange Magic

Morimur said:


> Camarón, Camarón!


Indeed, a remarkable and transitional cantaor. I appreciate his earlier work with Antonio Arenas and with Paco de Lucia; but as they (Camarón and PdL) both wandered farther away from traditional cante, I found their art less satisfying.


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## Strange Magic

One of the very best on-line resources for reliable information about flamenco is the blog of Brook Zern, who has forgotten more about flamenco than I will ever learn and know....

http://www.flamencoexperience.com/blog/?cat=66


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## Strange Magic

*Jaleo, and a Correction*

_Jaleo_ is the general term for the various ways that both onlookers and participants in a flamenco setting add to the atmospherics of the performance. There are, first, expressions of encouragement or appreciation from within the group such as "así se canta", "ole", etc. There is rhythmic clapping, or _palmas_; finger snapping, or _pitos_, an art that Carmen Amaya brought to perfection; rhythmic rapping of the knuckles on a tabletop (there is a name for this, but I do not recall it); and _taconeo_, the tapping of heels on the floor.

One also becomes aware, especially in the slower palos, of a thumping or tapping accent coming from the guitarist-- this is _golpe_, the striking of the guitar body usually by the ring finger to accentuate a particular run of notes. If the guitar is not fitted with a striking plate or _golpeador_ to receive the blow, you may see a worn area on the guitar just below where the tocaor's hand is usually positioned. Golpe is one of the hallmarks of flamenco guitar playing, _muy flamenco_!

I must correct an obvious error in my remarks about Jarrito's Fandangos de Huelva: he is clearly accompanied by castanets.


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## Strange Magic

*Farruca: Cante Chico; Granaina y Mediagranaina: Cante Intermedio, Cante Andaluz*

The Farruca, like the Mediagranaina, is somewhat of a later arrival to the flamenco family. It is thought to have entered Andalusia via the port of Cadiz from Asturias and then dispersed throughout the area. Long a favorite of dancers, it offers rich opportunity for display of footwork and form, especially for male _bailaores_. Here it is sung by Antonio Cuevas, accompanied by Paco and Angel Cortes, and superbly danced by the renowned Mario Maya. Mario Maya is not to be confused with the equally gifted dancer Manuel Maya "Manolete".





The Granaina and the Mediagranaina ("half-Granaina") are from Granada, and, like many Cante Andaluz palos, evolved to offer opportunities for singers to display their vocal artistry. The Granaina was popularized by the great payo cantaor Don Antonio Chacón. He was so fond of this sort of palo that he created the Mediagranaina as yet another vehicle for his talents. I myself, though, have some difficulty in telling one from the other palo. But they all share the Andaluz trait of the descending scale that closes each. Note the family resemblances to Fandangos, Tarantas, and Malagueñas, all of which reveal common descent from some more remote ancestor--some say of Arab or Berber origin. We begin with Mediagranaina y Granaina sung by Curro de Utrera, accompanied by Luis Calderito.





Next we hear Enrique Morente, the father of Estrella Morente, sing Granaina. Toque is provided by El Bola.





Finally a Mediagranaina, sung much as Don Antonio Chacon himself might have done. This is from a 1950s LP with Pepe el Poli singing and toque by the legendary Carlos Montoya, aided by Pepe Bandajoz.


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## Strange Magic

Thoughts on the recent death of one of the greatest gypsy cantaores in the history of flamenco. I included examples of Agujetas singing both Martinetes and Fandangos in my review of the palos of flamenco. The following is found on Brook Zern's wonderful blog.

Flamenco Singer Manuel Agujetas - Obituary by Manuel Bohórquez - translated by Brook Zern
by Brook Zern

Flamenco Song's Last Cry of Grief

By Manolo Bohorquez

from El Correo de Andalucía, December 25, 2015

A flamenco singer has died. Not just any singer, which would be terrible news. No, one of the greatest masters of Gypsy song (cante gitano). Yes, Gypsy, because that's what Agujetas always was and always wanted to be. His father, Agujetas el Viejo, was also a singer, a Gypsy from Rota with a sound that came from centuries ago, metallic, dark as a cave, that put you in the last room of the blood. Manuel de los Santos Pastor, or Agujetas, who died this morning in Jerez, was the only one who remained of those Gypsies who took the song from the marrow of his bones, a singer who only had the song, who felt alone since the day he was born and who sang so he would not die of solitude. Unsociable, a strange person among strange people, as were Manuel Torres and Tomás Pavón [perhaps the two greatest male flamenco singers who ever lived]. Manuel Agujetas detested anything that was not the flamenco song or freedom, and who fled from stereotypes or academic schools, from technique, from treatises, from la ojana. He was, in the best sense of the word, a wild animal. Some critics reproached him for being too rough, disordered and anarchic, but he had the gift, that thing that correct and professional singers lack. That they can't even dream of. You can fake a voice to sing Gypsy flamenco, but Manuel never faked anything. He was the Gypsy voice par excellence, the owner of what Manuel Torres called the duende, the black sounds that captivated the early flamenco expert Demófilo and García Lorcca. A stripped-down cry that could kill you in the fandango of El Carbonerillo, but that when it was applied to [deep song styles like] the siguiriyas or the martinetes, reached a terrible dramatic intensity. No one sounded as Gypsy as Agujetas, with such profundity. No flamenco singer carried his voice to such depths, even though he could be a disaster on a stage, not knowing how to deal with the accompanying guitar and repeating verses and styles to a point of overload. There is no such thing as "Agujeta-ism", or attempting to copy his inimitable style; but his admirers are found all over the world and have always been faithful to him. A minority, to be sure, but devoted unto death. And they have not claimed official honors for him, as happens with other singers of his generation, They have loved his art and have wanted to experience it, knowing that he was unique and without parallel. Manuel had a charisma that wasn't for stadiums or big theaters, but for an intimate setting. Someone who has an old LP of Manuel Agujetas feels as if he has a treasure, a relic, something sacred. And someone who heard him on a stage, with that antique aspect, that scar on his face and those sunken eyes, knows that on that day he lived a truly unique moment. Surely this death won't make headlines or be reported on radio or TV. And what else? Those of us who heard him during an outdoor summer festival in a small town, or a small theater or a flamenco club will never forget it, because in each line, in each of his chilling moments, Manuel nailed to our soul a way of rendering deep song that didn't die today, with his disappearance, but that died decades ago. It will be a long time before another Gypsy is born, if one is born at all, who has such an ability to wound you with his singing. And when he wounds you fatally, when it kills you, it is a desirable death. The last great pain, the last great grief of song has gone. May he rest in peace.

End of article in El Correo de Andalucía of December 25th, 2015. The original is at http://elcorreoweb.es/cultura/el-ultimo-dolor-del-cante-AI1183398, Olé to Manuel Bohórquez, and a final olé to Manuel Agujetas, the greatest singer I ever knew and the greatest singer I ever heard. Please refer to other entries in this blog for more translations and opinion about Manuel Agujetas.

Brook Zern
[email protected]
Flamencoexperience.com


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## Strange Magic

*Perrate de Utrera and Diego del Gastor*

I began my discussion of the flamenco palos with a bulerias sung by Bernarda de Utrera, to the accompaniment of guitarist Diego del Gastor. The town of Morón for decades was a hotbed of authentic pueblo flamenco, presided over by the legendary guitarist Diego del Gastor, the singer sisters Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, and the cantaor Perrate de Utrera. Diego and his singers became extraordinarily attuned to one another's art and recorded classic versions, uniquely theirs, of the gitano palos. Here I offer one each of three such performances by the team of Perrate and Diego--Bulerias, Soleares, and Siguiriyas. Perrate's family provides the setting. Note Perrate's rhythmic striking of the tabletop to mark the grave tempo, the compás, of each palo. These are highly personal, idiosyncratic readings of each form. First, Bulerias:





Next: Soleares:





And finally, Siguiriyas:


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## Strange Magic

*Rosario López and Antonio Gómez*

Rosario López, a paya (non-gypsy) cantaora born in Jaén, was one of the finest singers of the closing decades of the last century. She had, for a flamenco singer, a very fine voice, and extraordinary expressiveness in the many different palos that she mastered. In 1989, she performed at a flamenco festival, a peña, before an audience gathered to formally listen to flamenco--The _Peña Flamenca de Jaén_--with guitarist Antonio Gómez, and offered remarkable examples of several palos that I greatly appreciate. Alas, the Peña was not videoed, but we do have the sound recordings of these, as follows:
First, Tientos:





Next we have Soleares:





Finally there is this stunning Siguiriyas-- it is among the best I have heard:


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## Bayreuth

Wow Strange Magic!! I've lived all my life in Madrid, Spain (where the flamenco tradition is not as strong as in the south of the country but still it has a huge presence) and I have to confess that I didn't know half of what I just read in here. You seem to be a true lover of this fine art. :clap::clap: A wonderful article, useful even for a Spaniard, I'm telling you!

Nowadays here in Spain the focus of attention in the flamenco world (at least in the "mainstream" flamenco world) is divided in three:

1. *José Mercé*: I wonder if you have heard something from this monster. He is tremendous, one of the most loved personalities in the country. I've been to the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid (the mecca of Classical in Spain where the Wiener Philarmoniker and the likes come to play) and I have seen there so so many fine classical concerts, but none comes close to the time I went there to see José Mercé sing. His sole unamplified voice in a huge venue. An incredible experience I will forever cherish

2. *Diego "El Cigala"*: he is probably most known in Spain due to his friendly gypsy character but still, I believe he recorded one of the finest albums that have come from my country in the last 20 years: "Lágrimas Negras", along with cuban jazzman Bebo Valdés. The result is, simply, extraordinary. Check it out if you haven't, Strange Music, for I believe it will get to you. A beautiful combination of jazz and flamenco and, furthermore, a combination of Spanish "salero" with Cuban rhythms.

3. *Festival de Cante de las Minas de la Unión*: aside from the Feria de Abril and "El Rocío", this is where Flamenco reaches its annual top. Whatever comes from this festival gets a huge attention and it's nowadays one of the principal sources of new blood in the flamenco. You just have to know a few names that sung or performed there to comprehend the relevance of the event: Paco de Lucía, Miguel Poveda, Sara Baras, Estrella Morente and, of course, the greatest of them all, José Monge alias "Camarón de la Isla".


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## starthrower

I've listened to this concert a couple of times. It's fantastic! RIP Paco.


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## Strange Magic

There is no question that PdL was one of the most accomplished guitarists ever. He even accompanied cante with great skill and depth early in his career. But the increasing awareness of flamenco among a larger and larger audience who were less and less familiar with its roots and basics in cante, led to the growing dominance of the more accessable elements of flamenco guitar virtuosity and of flamenco dance, over the original primacy of sung flamenco. As I mentioned earlier in this article, today's "flamenco" is like what lieder or opera would be without song, but with the piano of lieder metastasized into a swollen caricature of itself, and perhaps with added bass, drums, flutes, maybe an accordion; opera might become a long tone poem. It is fitting that the PdL concert is during Jazz Week, and really makes no pretense of being authentic traditional flamenco. Late Paco, along with his many contemporaries, belongs in a hybrid category that is variously called flamenco fusion, flamenco nuevo, flamenco/jazz, and a host of other names. My view is that there comes a point when a genre has so evolved away from what it has been for a longish period of time into something else, that it be given a new name in recognition, and to do it its own justice. From what can be told from early recordings (1909), we can probably postulate flamenco as being relatively unchanged or changing very slowly, from, say, the 1880s to the 1980s. Before the 1880s, who knows--it's like the situation with The Blues. We know that Baroque evolved into Classical, and so we don't keep calling the music of Haydn and Mozart Baroque; it has a new name. Not better, not worse, but new, so, new name. Ditto with so-called flamenco today--to the extent that it no longer is centrally about song, accompanied by guitar only, and perhaps embellished occasionally by dance--it should have the courage to seize a new title for itself.


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## starthrower

I understand what you are saying, but I happen to be a contemporary music fan. I enjoy modern music and musicians that draw from the well of tradition, and incorporate these influences into a contemporary musical format. And I also happen to be a jazz fan, so I like Indian/jazz hybrid music, and other cultural music fusions.

If other musicians want to preserve their folk heritage by trying to re-create music of the past, that's up to them. But my feeling is you can't go back. Same with classical music, which is why I have no interest in listening to 18th century music on period instruments.

And I don't think Paco's music is only about the guitar. He was definitely not a one dimensional musical character. Even in his solo guitar albums and performances you can always feel the spirit of dance, and the social aspect of music.


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## Strange Magic

I completely understand your position. It may be that traditional cante flamenco is dead or near dead, and that would be just fine with me, though, like the blues, there are pockets of both artists and of aficionados still working the seam. The blessing is that we have an enormous recorded legacy, audio and video, of classic flamenco available to us, and so we can still immerse ourselves in an art that did endure for perhaps a century or more as a recognizable entity. And early PdL and early Camarón have a place in that legacy. But his story as an artist, and the associated story of the mutation of traditional, cante-centered flamenco into a number of increasingly non-flamenco idioms, is best served in a thread devoted to the man himself. After all, there are many students of guitar technique who rate PdL the greatest master of the instrument ever, bar none.


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## starthrower

I am going through your YouTube entries and enjoying the music. I enjoy the passion and spirit of the music, and the social aspect. I'm really not interested in analyzing guitar technique, and worrying about who's the greatest. 

It's the same with the blues. The experience of living, and the life force coming through the music, that's the essence being communicated.


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## Strange Magic

Starthrower, I sincerely appreciate your interest in this idiosyncratic-and-not-terribly-popular genre. You're right: The Blues offer probably the closest parallel with cante in several respects. I too care little about guitar technical virtuosity, but it became an obsession among the growing percentage of self-styled flamenco enthusiasts who are themselves guitarists, and served to further erode the centrality of sung flamenco. PdL was part of the general trend away from cante, both as an agent of change and as its pawn. Cante flamenco never had and never would have had more than a minuscule audience outside of its Andalusian homeland, and so it was inevitable that guitar and dance would become the overwhelming idea of flamenco in the popular mind. But you are most welcome to this tiny club here!


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## Barbebleu

Strange Magic - what a wonderful series of posts. It has revitalised my interest in flamenco. One of the first albums I bought back in the sixties was by Manitas de Plata and I have some wonderful albums that I bought in Spain in a back street music shop in Malaga about fifteen years ago by various flamenco guitarists. Clearly your knowledge is exceptional and I hope you don't mind but I have done a cut and paste job with your articles to put in a file for my own use.


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## Strange Magic

Barbebleu, I greatly appreciate your interest in these posts; it makes me feel good all over! Feel free to do what works best for you in rearranging or editing the entries; I'm just happy that people find them of some value.


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## Strange Magic

*Agujetas*

Previously I posted Brook Zern's translation of an appreciation of the recently-deceased cantaor Manuel Agujetas. Agujetas felt, and often said, that he was the last of the great Gypsy flamenco singers, in the line of Manuel Torres, Tomas Pavón, Manolo Caracol, Terremoto, el Chocolate, etc. Camarón laid some claim to that title, but died long before Agujetas, of rampant addiction and dissolution. I have posted two examples of Agujetas' art before--a Martinete, as harsh and stark an utterance as can be found in world song, and a fine, classic Fandangos. In appearance, Agujetas always reminded me of a smaller, fiercer version of film actor Jack Palance--not a person to trifle with. Herewith some more Agujetas--the gitano palos with which he is most closely identified.

First: Bulerias. 




Next: Siguiriyas. There is a bit of spoken introduction first. 





Finally, a palo that I have not previously offered, the Solea por Bulerias, or sometimes, with terms reversed, the Bulerias por Solea. This is a sort of hybrid palo, a more rapid version of Soleares that is often danced, and has a sharper, more urgent edge than the Solea Grande.


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## Strange Magic

*Manuel Vallejo*

It is fitting that after an exploration of the art of one of the supreme gitano cantaores, Manuel Agujetas, we turn to his almost exact opposite, the great payo singer Manuel Vallejo. Vallejo's dates are 1891 to 1960, with his golden era the 1920s and 1930s. Unlike the primal, harsh rasp of Agujetas, Vallejo was blessed with a pure, high tenor voice with rapid vibrato, and enormous control over that voice. He was equally at home in cante andaluz and cante gitano, bringing grace and beauty to the palos, rather than earnestness and power. He was respected and beloved by both gitano and payo aficionados, won many awards and accolades for his singing, and was accompanied by most of the great tocaores of the day: Niño Pérez, Ramón Montoya, Miguel Borrull, Manolo de Huelva. Here is rare footage from the 1930s of Vallejo--notice the neatness of dress of all; suit and tie were mandatory garb for serious professionals in flamenco in that era. Also in several clips note Vallejo's trademark hat.

First, a Vallejo creation, the Fandangos por Solea, marrying the rhythmically free Fandango to the rhythm of the Solea.





Next, Siguiriyas: 




Then, Solea por Bulerias: 




Finally, Malagueñas: 




With Agujetas and Vallejo, we have the Yin and Yang of cante flamenco performance; something for everybody.


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## Strange Magic

*Pastora and Tomas Pavón*

Flamenco has always been an art and a profession that runs in families. Often the link is father/son as is the case with guitarists Perico el del Lunar _viejo_ and _hijo_; uncle/nephew, as with guitarists Diego del Gastor and Paco del Gastor. Or father/daughter as we saw with singers Enrique and Estrella Morente. Sometimes whole clans are involved: legendary dancer Carmen Amaya's troupe consisted mostly of her extended family dancing, singing, and guitar. But one of the greatest pairings in flamenco history was of the Pavón siblings, Pastora Pavón, "La Niña de los Peines", "The Girl of the Combs", and her brother Tomas.

Pastora (1890-1969) is considered by all to have been the greatest female cantaora. She so dominated flamenco that she earned the nickname Herod (the "killer" of the niños), as she would perform in a town where the locals would bring forth their aspiring young singers in a "sing-off", and Pastora would "slay" them one by one. Her knowledge of the palos was complete, but it was her voice that carried the day--a penetrating, chilling, wild voice that still gives me chills to hear. Her greatest years were the 1920s through the 1950s, and she always sang as a professional.

Her brother Tomas (1893-1952), by contrast, was something of a recluse, rarely singing outside of gitano circles, and never as a touring professional. But like his sister, who encouraged him always to sing, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the palos, and a wonderful voice that has earned him a place easily among the five greatest male flamenco singers, and we are lucky to have his recordings. You will note the brevity of these selections--they were all recorded in the 1930s when disks (78s) were limited to 3-5 minutes and the singers were under constant pressure to not exceed the limit, so they always erred on the side of keeping things short.

I offer here a mix of Soleas and Siguiriyas, as these are my favorites by the siblings. First we hear Pastora, in the Solea _En dos vereas iguales..._





Next we turn to Pastora's Siguiriyas _El corazón de pena...._





Next we hear Pastora's Solea _Ahora te vas...._. This definitely gives me chills.





We finish Pastora's contribution with the Siguiriya _A la Sierra de Armenia...._


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## Strange Magic

*Tomas Pavón*

We begin with Tomas singing the Solea _Tengo el gusto_:





Next, the Siguiriya _A clavita y clavel...._:





We end this exploration of the Pavón family with Tomas singing the Solea _A la madre de mi alma...._:





If one listens to these two palos, Solea (plural: Soleares) and Siguiriyas, one will eventually recognize both the vocal and the instrumental hallmarks that differentiate the one palo from the other. The same is true of most all the palos of flamenco--repeated exposure brings recognition.


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## Barbebleu

The Tomas Pavon clips are excellent in particular the Siguiriya. Of the two solea, I preferred Tengo el gusto. But what a cantaor!


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## Barbebleu

Strange Magic said:


> Flamenco has always been an art and a profession that runs in families. Often the link is father/son as is the case with guitarists Perico el del Lunar _viejo_ and _hijo_; uncle/nephew, as with guitarists Diego del Gastor and Paco del Gastor. Or father/daughter as we saw with singers Enrique and Estrella Morente. Sometimes whole clans are involved: legendary dancer Carmen Amaya's troupe consisted mostly of her extended family dancing, singing, and guitar. But one of the greatest pairings in flamenco history was of the Pavón siblings, Pastora Pavón, "La Niña de los Peines", "The Girl of the Combs", and her brother Tomas.
> 
> Pastora (1890-1969) is considered by all to have been the greatest female cantaora. She so dominated flamenco that she earned the nickname Herod (the "killer" of the niños), as she would perform in a town where the locals would bring forth their aspiring young singers in a "sing-off", and Pastora would "slay" them one by one. Her knowledge of the palos was complete, but it was her voice that carried the day--a penetrating, chilling, wild voice that still gives me chills to hear. Her greatest years were the 1920s through the 1950s, and she always sang as a professional.
> 
> Her brother Tomas (1893-1952), by contrast, was something of a recluse, rarely singing outside of gitano circles, and never as a touring professional. But like his sister, who encouraged him always to sing, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the palos, and a wonderful voice that has earned him a place easily among the five greatest male flamenco singers, and we are lucky to have his recordings. You will note the brevity of these selections--they were all recorded in the 1930s when disks (78s) were limited to 3-5 minutes and the singers were under constant pressure to not exceed the limit, so they always erred on the side of keeping things short.
> 
> I offer here a mix of Soleas and Siguiriyas, as these are my favorites by the siblings. First we hear Pastora, in the Solea _En dos vereas iguales..._
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Next we turn to Pastora's Siguiriyas _El corazón de pena...._
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Next we hear Pastora's Solea _Ahora te vas...._. This definitely gives me chills.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> We finish Pastora's contribution with the Siguiriya _A la Sierra de Armenia...._


Wow! This is magical stuff, no pun intended. What a voice. Melchor de Marchena is no slouch either. I noticed that he played with Tomas too. I actually listened to Tomas first only because it was the last post. I believe YouTube will be taking a hammering for the rest of the evening. Thanks again Strange Magic for these wonderful posts. A really fantastic journey. Like you I would have loved to hear them really stretching out without the time constraints of the 78 format. It's a pity they hadn't been born twenty years later but I suppose if they had we might not have the connection to the tradition that they had back in the early part of the twentieth century. If that last sentence makes any sense. Anyway, thanks again.


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## Strange Magic

Barbebleu, again I thank you so much for your expressions of appreciation for these articles. Welcome to the Club of the Few and the Proud who discern the strange and haunting magic of traditional cante flamenco!

Melchor de Marchena was one of the very greatest of accompanists to cante--he was requested by all the most celebrated singers of his day: the Pavóns, Antonio Mairena, Manolo Caracol. He would be on any aficionado's list of the five top guitarists who exclusively accompanied singers. But these things are like the discussions in classical, where everybody has an opinion. However, Melchor is a sure bet.


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## Barbebleu

In some ways it reminds me of Indian Jugalbandi where two musicians in close proximity swap musical interchanges and where each listens to the other and contributes to create something unique and amazing.


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## Strange Magic

*Aurelio de Cádiz*

Supreme among the cantaores of Cádiz was Aurelio de Cádiz, aka Aurelio Sellé. Born in Cádiz in 1887, Aurelio was a disciple of the great gypsy gatidano (meaning "of Cádiz") cantaor Enrique el Mellizo, who was pivotal in developing the flamenco of that city. A payo (non-gypsy), Aurelio championed the place of the payo singer in the art of cante, and became a master of all palos, and also championed always the flamenco of his home city. He has a distinctive voice and delivery, and is regarded as among the greatest and most authentic of cantaores. Here is a large selection of his art. The guitarist, unless otherwise noted, should be assumed to be Ramón Montoya.

First, we hear Soleares del Mellizo:





Next, Bulerias. The guitarist is Andrés Heredia, a skillful accompanist.





Here is Aurelio with a Malagueña del Mellizo:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ql36... Alegrías:
[MEDIA=youtube]R-CMqfJ6gfA[/MEDIA]


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## Strange Magic

Here is the corrected link to the Malagueña del Mellizo:


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## Barbebleu

Strange Magic said:


> Supreme among the cantaores of Cádiz was Aurelio de Cádiz, aka Aurelio Sellé. Born in Cádiz in 1887, Aurelio was a disciple of the great gypsy gatidano (meaning "of Cádiz") cantaor Enrique el Mellizo, who was pivotal in developing the flamenco of that city. A payo (non-gypsy), Aurelio championed the place of the payo singer in the art of cante, and became a master of all palos, and also championed always the flamenco of his home city. He has a distinctive voice and delivery, and is regarded as among the greatest and most authentic of cantaores. Here is a large selection of his art. The guitarist, unless otherwise noted, should be assumed to be Ramón Montoya.
> 
> First, we hear Soleares del Mellizo:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Next, Bulerias. The guitarist is Andrés Heredia, a skillful accompanist.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Here is Aurelio with a Malagueña del Mellizo:
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ql36...Montoya's solo stuff Terrific guitar player.


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## Strange Magic

As far as I know, cantaor is used exclusively to designate a flamenco singer, I guess in the sense that cantor is used for singers in the Jewish ritual. Ramón Montoya is always discussed as a crucial figure in flamenco guitar, for at least four reasons: he was a superb accompanist, so everybody wanted to sing with him; he created many _falsetas_ that are still played today; all younger guitarists, like Sabicas, sought to emulate Montoya and mention him as a primary influence; and he was one of the first guitarists to present himself as a solo flamenco performer, alone on a stage with just a chair and his guitar. He also was Carlos Montoya's uncle.

Again, glad you like my man Aurelio. Aurelio de Cádiz was the magnet that drew Gerald Howson to Cádiz to immerse himself in the flamenco lifestyle, as described in his book The Flamencos of Cádiz Bay. Aurelio complained some about the way he and Morao were recorded during the "Tangos de Cádiz" selection and the several others done at the same time. They were part of a historic flamenco anthology done in the 1960s called Antologia de Cante Flamenco y Cante Gitano and assembled and partly sung by his old rival, Antonio Mairena. Usually cantaors select their accompanists, but Mairena paired Aurelio with the too-dynamic Morao, and placed each far from the other with separate microphones. Aurelio complained that it was as though they were in separate rooms--this lack of close proximity may have led to Morao getting out of hand. But this selection and the others in that anthology show that Aurelio's voice just kept getting better and better, even though he was in his mid-seventies.


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## Strange Magic

*Sabicas & Company: Festival Gitana*

I previously remarked upon a recording of 1950s flamenco that did much to reinforce my love for and interest in this music. Issued by Elektra and recorded in New York, it featured the renowned Sabicas, along with his brother, Diego Castellón, and the almost equally renowned Mario Escudero as guitarists--Escudero playing as El Niño de Alicante due to contract issues. All three had served at one time or another as tocaores for the dancer Carmen Amaya. Two cantaores were included--Domingo Alvarado was a longtime payo singer in Amaya's troupe, and Enrique Montoya, a popular but considered lightweight gitano from Jerez. A duo of young Puerto Ricans calling themselves Los Trianeros who had become involved in flamenco provided _jaleo, palmas_ and castanets, and thus completed the assemblage. Mind you, all these were traveling-troupe flamenco performers, mostly estranged from Franco's Spain, finding themselves together in New York City between gigs, and wanting perhaps to engage and record some flamenco that had less to do with the show biz "flamenco" of the troupes, and more to do with the Real Thing. But they knew their audience would mostly be not familiar with genuine cante, and so added castanets to several of the selections to make them seem more familiar. To my delight, I found recently that someone has put the whole album onto YouTube, recording it from a CD issued years later under another name, Flamenco Fiesta [sic]. Here it all is:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTFIyvVL8v3qjNDxa72de7hvPDAuGi5sS

People familiar only with the solo guitar of Sabicas, Escudero, Carlos Montoya, etc. were horrified at the raucous, uncouth sound of cante, and the record was mostly a flop. But it was of enormous importance to me in assuring my strong attachment to cante flamenco, and in helping me become familiar with many of the _palos_ of flamenco. Alvarado and Montoya each rose to unexpected levels of excellence by alternating coplas in several of the palos. I have previously aired their Tientos, but here now you can hear their wonderful Fandangos, Verdiales, Fandangos de Huelva, and Sevillanas. Note also Montoya's Bulerias, Solea por Bulerias, and Siguiriyas, and Alvarado's Taranta and Martinete. This is not exactly flamenco that you would have heard in Spain, but it is as close to it as a traveling-troupe ensemble, far from their homeland, could get in the Big City.


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## Strange Magic

A few remarks on some of the palos heard on the _Festival Gitana_ album: Verdiales is a cante chico, cante andaluz palo from the region around Málaga , as you can deduce from the shouts of the singers--it is somewhat similar to the Fandangos de Huelva. Sevillanas is not accepted by all as a flamenco palo-- it's often considered more of a folk/dance form, but it is popular as a feature of Spanish Dance presentations. For me, the outstanding performances on the album are Bulerias, Tientos, Fandangos, and Enrique Montoya's wrenching Siguiriyas. Both cantaores dug down into themselves during the recording of this album, I think because of the opportunity to work with Sabicas and Escudero together, and because of the mutual encouragement and sense that they were doing something rather special. Both singers rarely ever sang so convincingly as on this disk.


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## Strange Magic

*Camarón de la Isla*

The figures of guitarist Paco de Lucia and singer Camarón de la Isla dominated talk of flamenco through much of the last third of the twentieth century. Both began imbedded within traditional flamenco, PdL as accompanist to several established flamenco cantaores and associated with such troupes as the company of José Greco; Camarón singing in flamenco tablaos in Madrid along with cantaor El Turronero and accompanied by guitarists such as Antonio Arenas and Paco Cepero. Once associated, PdL and Camarón's flamenco began to evolve away from traditional flamenco, and they both experimented more and more with non-traditional modes, scales, rhythms, instruments. There is a vast literature and discography on both figures. The focus of my interest in Camarón is in his early, traditional art. There is YouTube material of singers Camarón and Turronero and guitarists Paco de Lucia and Paco Cepero seated together and enjoying traditional cante, some of which I offer here:

First, we have Bulerias, sung by Turronero and then by Camarón. The guitarist is Paco Cepero, one of the finest accompanists of traditional cante--





Next, a wonderful Siguiriyas; again with Paco Cepero--





And finally a classic Alegrías; with Paco Cepero, in another setting--


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## Casebearer

I've always loved Flamenco but I don't know that much about it. So it was nice to discover this thread yesterday. I have a small collection of flamenco records. Most of them I arbitrarily picked up in thrift stores. I would be interested in some background on the artists (and your opinion on them) because the sleeves often give very little information. I couldn't find any of them in the thread so far but I might have overlooked.

First record is El Cante Flamenco. Joker SM 3026.
https://www.discogs.com/Various-El-Canto-Flamenco/release/4430322

Performers are Pedro Jimenez "El Pili" with Palmas and Jaleo. Guitars by José Jiménez "El Vallecano" and Aracell Vargas.

Couldn't find anything of him on YouTube except for this one minute excerpt:


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## Casebearer

Second record is Flamenco Fire by Carlos Montoya (very famous of course). Artone PAP 114. He's assisted by Tere Maya (vocalist and dancer). In this case the sleeve gives a lot of information both on Montoya, Maya and the tunes. 
According to the sleeve Montoya stayed more pure in style than many guitarists in Spain. On the other hand Montoya "is (or was) the only Flamenco guitarist who performs his art in concert". What's your view on his place in Flamenco?

https://www.discogs.com/Carlos-Montoya-Flamenco-Fire/release/3321104

First clip (not from this record):






Second clip: Tientos Gitanos (performed on this record). The tientos seem to be an almost obsolete music form.


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## Casebearer

Third record is called Los Malagueños. Performed by El Malagueño (guitar), Marino Cano (second guitar), Nena Cano (chant) and Conchita Cano (chant). Harmonia Mundi HMU 965. It's probably from the early seventies.

https://www.discogs.com/Los-Malague%C3%B1os-Flamenco-Chants-Guitare-Vol-3/release/3735445

Lots of text but little information on the sleeve.

I found a complete video of this on the tube. The Cano ladies sing on the second song - a fandango (Nena and Conchita), the sixth song - a tientos (Conchita) and the 11th song - a rumba flamenca (Nena). These start at 2:50, 16:45 and 34:40.


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## Casebearer

Images and sounds from the Granada flamenco country in the sixties. A Danish video so you can catch up on your Danish too.


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## Strange Magic

Casebearer said:


> First record is El Cante Flamenco. Performers are Pedro Jimenez "El Pili" with Palmas and Jaleo. Guitars by José Jiménez "El Vallecano" and Aracell Vargas.


El Pili was a respected cantaor, born 1907 in Madrid. Araceli Vargas also well-respected as an accompanist. I could find no references to José Jiménez "El Vallencano". Here is a fine Siguiriyas of El Pili: 




Is this on your recording? If so, it sounds like a good one.


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## Strange Magic

Casebearer said:


> Second record is Flamenco Fire by Carlos Montoya. According to the sleeve Montoya stayed more pure in style than many guitarists in Spain. On the other hand Montoya "is (or was) the only Flamenco guitarist who performs his art in concert". What's your view on his place in Flamenco?


As I have little interest in solo flamenco guitar, I offer no opinion of Carlos Montoya in that capacity, other than to note that he brought one aspect of flamenco to a huge audience outside of Spain, and so was an ambassador for the genre, along with Sabicas, Mario Escudero and other soloists.

He may have also been a fine accompanist, but I have never heard him accompany an acknowledged master of cante. The only recording of Montoya I possess pairs him with relatively unknown singers, and I find the tone/timbre of his guitar quite unusual, though that is perhaps some artifact of that particular recording environment.

I think he will always be discussed as an anomaly in flamenco--the erratic nephew of the great Ramón Montoya, a true giant of toque.


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## Strange Magic

Casebearer said:


> Third record is called Los Malagueños. Performed by El Malagueño (guitar), Marino Cano (second guitar), Nena Cano (chant) and Conchita Cano (chant). Harmonia Mundi HMU 965. It's probably from the early seventies.


I have no particular reaction to this disk, but if you like it, that's what counts. It may help you to learn to distinguish the various palos from one another. A suggestion would be to search YouTube for more clips of some of the singers I have documented here-- people like Agujetas, Terremoto, El Chocolate, La Paquera, La Perla de Cádiz, Rafael Romero, El Niño de Almaden. Some others: Beni de Cádiz, Manuel Soto "El Sordera", Pepe el Culata, Manolo Caracol--the list is endless, but both of Donn Pohren's books and the book Flamenco edited by Claus Schreiner will provide many names of great singers. Another resource are the series of CDs under the title "Le Chant du Monde", _Grands Cantaores du Flamenco_, compiled and edited by Mario Bois. These are excellent collections of the recordings of the various great singers--highly recommended.

And welcome to our tiny band of aficionados!


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## Strange Magic

*Manolo Caracol*

Manuel Ortega Juárez, Manolo Caracol, was another of the very finest cantaors, when he chose to be. He came from a large, established gitano family of whom several were bullfighters and others were flamencos. Born in 1909, he began singing at a very young age, and entered a contest organized in 1922 by Manuel De Falla and Federico García Lorca, the Concurso de Cante Jondo. This was a failed attempt by the two aficionados to discover "real", amateur flamenco, without regarding the fact that almost everyone singing authentic flamenco was already a professional--flamenco not being a "folk art" but rather more of an "art song" form of largely paid entertainment (except when flamencos sung for each other in private juergas). Hence very few decent singers showed up, and many cante category awards could not be given. But 12 year old Manolo Caracol was one of a tiny handful to receive an award.

His subsequent history is one of excess and success. He would sing almost anything for money--debased forms of Spanish popular ditties, pseudo flamenco, anything that would turn a profit--and became quite wealthy. But part of him always remained true to genuine, authentic cante, and he often supported less successful flamencos financially, through direct aid and also by throwing huge parties and hiring down-at-heel artists to perform. He also recorded one of the best anthologies, Una Historia del Cante Flamenco, with his favorite tocaor Melchor de Marchena, withdrawing like a monk to his cell to sing his very best and most heartfelt flamenco. His recorded output is quite variable in quality, but when Manolo Caracol was good, he was indeed very, very good.

First, _Soleares_....





Next, _Malagueñas_....





Caracol was famous for his mastery of Fandangos, which became known as _Fandangos Caracoleros_.....





Finally, _Bulerias_.....


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## JosefinaHW

Jose de la Tomasa











I'm a bit overwhelmed by the new terms and the differences between gitano and/or, both/and Andalus (for example, Jose de la Tomasa seems to me to be one of the most intense, authentic singers so far, but he's not "categorized" under Gitano.


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## Strange Magic

JosefinaHW said:


> I'm a bit overwhelmed by the new terms and the differences between gitano and/or, both/and Andalus (for example, Jose de la Tomasa seems to me to be one of the most intense, authentic singers so far, but he's not "categorized" under Gitano.


Very, very fine choices above. José de la Tomasa is one of my favorite cantaores; his diction and clarity of expression are distinctive. He sings well also a type of Siguiriyas called _Siguiriyas y Cabal_, as I recall, where a dark, minor-key Siguiriyas is transformed into an ethereal major key. The effect is stunning: it reminds me of walking through a dark, tangled forest at night, then suddenly ascending a low hill and stepping into a moonlit clearing--quite magical.

José de la Tomasa is full gitano, "Gypsy on all four sides", as they say. Through his mother, he descends from the family of the legendary Manuel Torres. His father was also a cantaor with the performance name of Pies de Plomo, "Feet of Lead".

Regarding gitano and andaluz flamenco, after a while you will notice strong similarities among the andaluz palos, especially the descending string of notes that ends most coplas, and also the fact that fewer of the andaluz forms have compás; an established rhythm, whereas more of the gitano palos are marked by their compás. If I knew musical notation, I'm sure I could reference the distinguishing characteristics of the various palos, but I have made do with listening long enough over the years to be able to identify their musical signatures.


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## Strange Magic

*José de la Tomasa, and a Great CD*

In 1988, two English aficionados wanted to make a very authentic recording of a small _juerga_, a private gathering of flamencos singing only for themselves. One of them had known the guitarist Paco del Gastor for years, the nephew of the great Diego del Gastor. Paco, with his brother Juan, maintains the tradition of subtle, distinctive accompaniment characteristic of the area of Morón de la Frontera, their home and that of their legendary uncle, and where the juerga was to take place. Paco arranged for the juerga's singers to include cantaora Maria La Burra, the daughter of cantaor El Borrico; also Maria Solea, the sister of immortal cantaor Terremoto; and José de la Tomasa; and the brothers Paco and Juan would accompany. The result was Nimbus Records CD NI 5168, _Cante Gitano_. The quality of the recording is superb; one finds oneself in the middle of the juerga. The cante is also superb, with excellent performances by all concerned--but for me the standouts are José de la Tomasa's Siguiriya y Cabal, mentioned in my above post, and his Solea--both fabulous. The CD's accompanying booklet provides all the songs' texts (letras) in English translation, an added bonus. The bounty of YouTube makes having lots of CDs unnecessary, but this Nimbus CD is well worth owning.


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## clavichorder

I am in the process of perusing this thread more carefully. Who are your favorite tocaores?(I think that's how you would say a flamenco guitarist using the term in the tradition). Any really good filmed recordings?


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## Strange Magic

clavichorder said:


> Who are your favorite tocaores?(I think that's how you would say a flamenco guitarist using the term in the tradition). Any really good filmed recordings?


I tend to focus so much on the art of the various singers that the performance of their tocaores rises to full attention when they overplay ("too many notes!"), as often Manuel Moreno "Morao" was wont to do. When Morao accompanied someone equally volcanic like Terremoto, it worked well enough, but with Aurelio de Cádiz, he was at his worst. Overall, workmanlike accompanists used to working closely with both singers and dancers are my favorites. I will name Paco Aguilera, Andres Heredia, Paco del Gastor, Diego del Gastor, Melchor de Marchena, the Habichuela brothers, Perico el del Lunar--both father and son, Pedro Soler, Paco Cepero. But, really, there are/were dozens and dozens of flamenco guitarists whose skill with the instrument just astonishes me, as often seen when the camera closes in tightly on their hands. I can understand why so much attention is lavished upon discussion of flamenco solo guitar technique among guitar-heads, but as a lover of cante, I cherish instead the ability of the accompanist to bond with the singer to best draw out the song. In fact, when I come across an example of solo flamenco guitar on a recording, most of me is awaiting the magic moment when a singer would, or should, begin with his or her introductory Ayy, Ayys, and I am disappointed when they do not come. Flamenco is (mostly) cante.


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## JosefinaHW

clavichorder said:


> I am in the process of perusing this thread more carefully. Who are your favorite tocaores?(I think that's how you would say a flamenco guitarist using the term in the tradition). Any really good filmed recordings?


Hi Clavichorder! Several years ago before I started reading this thread and watching & listening to the YouTube videos I thought I preferred the guitar to the voice in what I thought was (Cante) Flamenco, but now I get the cantaor as central especially when I watch/listen to Jose de la Tomasa. I still love the guitar, and as StrangeMagic said, especially when the tocaor keeps his eyes on the contaor, but check out the guitar player in the following video  :






As I was watching this video again I suddenly wondered what it would be like to see & listen to a female tocaura.....


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## Strange Magic

*More About Siguiriya y Cabal*

In a previous post, I wrote in praise of the Nimbus CD Cante Gitano, on which, among others, José de la Tomasa sings so well. One of his cantes was a siguiriya that, halfway through, shifted to a major key and conveyed a wonderful sense of tranquility and peace following the anguish of the first half. The cante reminded me of another, very similar, that I had somewhere, so I dug around and came up with José de la Tomasa's grandfather Pepe Torre, brother of Manuel Torre. Pepe Torre had recorded a Siguiriya del Planeta with Melchor de Marchena for Antonio Mairena's Antologia del Cante Flamenco y Cante Gitano that sounded very similar--similar letras, similar major key.

I also have another José de la Tomasa CD, with Juan Carmona "Habichuela", with a similar piece as on the Cante Gitano CD--another siguiriya, this time labelled as siguiriya y cabal. Evidently the cabal (or cabales,pl.) is a very old and rare form of major-key siguiriyas, very rarely referred to in the flamenco (English) literature. It was also referred to as siguiriya cambiá or siguiriya de cambio. José de la Tomasa obviously comes by his association with this palo through his Torre family background. There is no way of knowing whether el Planeta himself sang this piece as a cabal, but somewhere along the line Pepe Torre did, and his grandson has passed it on in the form of siguiriya y cabal. The great cantaor Rafael Romero also sings the siguiriya y cabal with some regularity. Here is Rafael, "El Gallina", with his favorite tocaor, Perico el del Lunar _hijo_:






Also another, maybe even better: 




Looking and listening again to these two clips, I am reminded again as to how good the father-and-son tocaores named Perico el del Lunar were at accompanying. Donn Pohren often extolled the excellence of them both; Perico _hijo_ played many of his father's falsetas, but with even greater nuance and dexterity. The examples here show accompaniment at its very best, in my opinion.


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## JosefinaHW

I've been watching videos of various cantoares but I'd like to focus on Jose de la Tomasa for a bit longer. He is still performing and I'd like to share the following three videos. I can only make a little sense of some of the words and I'm okay with the that for the moment (when I first started listening to opera I didn't read the librettos right away, I just listened).

1. What exactly is going on in this "conversation" between Jose and his son Gabriel?






2. Understanding that "melodiousness" is not key by any means, what is your opinion re/ the quality of Jose's voice in the following two videos? To me his expression of emotion in the "not-worded expressions" is deeper than all the videos I have watched of him so far, but I'm not sure if his style is changing in the other parts or if the "melodiousness" of his voice is part of his aging?











Also, since I've been introduced to Cante Flamenco via video, it is a very visual art. I love the black and white in the above three videos!


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## Strange Magic

*Tonas*



JosefinaHW said:


> What exactly is going on in this "conversation" between Jose and his son Gabriel?


We're going back to the purported roots of flamenco with _Tonas_. I know little about this palo, other than that it is performed _a palo seco_, that is, without accompaniment. The Martinete and the Debla are both alleged to derive from Tonas. Donn Pohren quotes a Spanish musicologist that Tonas were songs of wandering minstrels telling of events and stories, that happened to be adopted by the gitanos and further developed and evolved. Tonas were close to extinction until the 1950s, when interest in the roots of flamenco revived. Both Pohren and the book Flamenco have English translations of some Tonas letras; here is a copla--

Though I dress like a Spaniard
I'm a Gypsy by birth.
I don't want to be a Spaniard
For I'm happy as a Gypsy.

I would guess that José and Son have located or composed a large set of Tonas coplas, and are taking turns singing them, as they should, "a palo seco". A pity that my Spanish is so poor, and my Andalu is almost non-existent--never have been good at languages.


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## JosefinaHW

:StrangeMagic: and all Interested: If you would like translations of any of these videos i will forward them to some friends in Spain--don't know why I didn't think of it before! None of them are from Andalusia but I'm sure they will get more of it than me.

Just send me the links to the videos or an MP3 file of a song you have on computer.


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## Strange Magic

*Spanish Letras of Many Flamenco Palos*

I have previously mentioned Brook Zern's website as a major resource for flamenco aficionados. Equally rich are the various references of flamencophile Norman Kliman. Kliman lives in Spain, and has gathered the Spanish lyrics (letras) for hundreds and hundreds of audio and video performances of cante, listing them by artist and recording, whether CD or DVD or whatever. They are only in Spanish, but may be of interest or help to any of us at some time, seeking to gain a better grip on what is being sung. Obviously having the translations into English would be the ultimate, But Norman Kliman has gone to great effort to amass what he has.

http://canteytoque.es/letras.html

This may be helpful in conjunction with JosefinaHW's proposal, above.


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## Strange Magic

*Baile Flamenco: La Singla*

A brief interlude, wherein I present the amazing Antonia Singla Contreras. La Singla was born in 1948, in the gypsy quarter of Barcelona, the birthplace also of the Queen of the Gypsies, the legendary Carmen Amaya. Antonia La Singla early developed meningitis, leaving her a deaf mute until the age of eight, when she recovered a little of her lost faculties. However, she had begun dancing several years before, and her skill and desire never faltered. A famous photograph by Xavier Miserachs catches the 12-year-old Antoñita dancing on the heights above her gypsy barrio in Barcelona:



http://imgur.com/MKmyDWd


La Singla in 1963 appeared as a young gitano dancer in Carmen Amaya's final film, a Romeo and Juliet tale of warring gypsy clans, titled _Los Tarantos_. She idolized Carmen Amaya, and emulated Amaya's very aggressive, "masculine" so-called "pants dancing", growing into a fierce and stunning performer as the clip below shows:


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## JosefinaHW

Re/ Antonia Singla: an AMAZING dancer, but I am now definitely focused on the cantoares.


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## Strange Magic

JosefinaHW said:


> Understanding that "melodiousness" is not key by any means, what is your opinion re/ the quality of Jose's voice in the following two videos? To me his expression of emotion in the "not-worded expressions" is deeper than all the videos I have watched of him so far, but I'm not sure if his style is changing in the other parts or if the "melodiousness" of his voice is part of his aging.


It's taken some time, but I have been able to watch/listen to both José de la Tomasa's other clips, the Siguiriyas and the Solea. My observation is that cantaores' voices decline--probably like everybody else's who is not trained in singing as an art in itself--with a diminution of control of pitch, and a coarsening of vibrato. I found only Aurelio de Cádiz actually improving with age. Singers may compensate for the decline in vocal quality by increased emphasis on expression. A balance is struck, and it is left to individual taste as to how to judge the result. I preferred his Siguiriyas, but that is likely due to A) I prefer Siguiriyas to Soleares in general, and B) I preferred the accompaniment. That said, José de la Tomasa will definitely be among the select few flamencos to join me on my desert island.


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## JosefinaHW

_Alegrias_, Jose de la Tomasa and Manolo Franco

Impossible not to smile, dance and just be glad to be alive with this one:


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## Strange Magic

*La Paquera de Jerez*

I've quoted Manuel Agujetas as saying that he regarded himself, El Chocolate, and La Paquera as being the last three real gitano singers left. Now all three are gone (though others do continue the art of traditional cante with great artistry and dedication; Agujetas' grandiose statement the hallmark of a truly exceptional and hyperbolic personality). La Paquera matched Agujetas in enormous physical presence, as the accompanying clip will show. She was a large, powerful woman, with an equally-sized mouth, voice, and the lung-power to project that voice to the far corners of any venue. While she sang most of the palos well--I included her Taranto and Fandangos de Huelva in previous entries--she was best known for being a master of Bulerias. It was her specialty (as also it was of Bernarda de Utrera), singing copla after copla at flamenco juergas in an atmosphere of almost ferocious festivity. Here she is accompanied by Parrilla de Jerez, whose staccato attack is very well suited to this sort of full-ahead Bulerias. Note that the clip ends at 9:02, yet strangely repeats--without audio--in its entirety; who knows why?


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## Strange Magic

*Resources: More About Norman Kliman's Archives*

I've discussed Norman Kliman's archive of flamenco letras (in Spanish). For those who wish to penetrate deeper into the world of flamenco, Kliman's website is a treasure-trove of material, including much discussion of modes, keys, etc., of interest especially to those familiar with the formal aspects of music. Kliman, for example, has analyzed dozens of both Siguiriyas and Soleares by cantaor and tocaor, noting their lyrics, structure, etc. Kliman also has brief biographies of scores of guitarists--one just needs to poke around on his site to come up with all sorts of information. Here is the link to his Siguiriyas archive, as an example.

http://canteytoque.es/sigclas.htm


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## JosefinaHW

Strange Magic said:


> I've quoted Manuel Agujetas as saying that he regarded himself, El Chocolate, and La Paquera as being the last three real gitano singers left.


I've begun to listen more to and learn about Manuel Agujetas. From the interviews/video clips of him on YouTube I can see where he was coming from in calling himself one of the last "real" gitano singers. He clearly seemed to live in the barrio ("the old Gypsy neighborhood): poor way of dress; gritty, totally unpolished manner; a person of the crime-ridden, poor chaotic Gitano village (at least how the outsiders view of it. This is an absolute total contrast to the refined, elegant Jose de la Tomasa (My statements aren't meant as negative judgements). It's very possible that I am not seeing him correctly.

A series of (30-35 minute) documentaries re/ cante flamenco were made from 1991-1993: _Rito y Geografïa del Cante Flamenco_. They are on YouTube and they have English subtitles. The following is the episode re/ Manuel Agujetas:






I would also like to see the French documentary that was made about Agujetas, _Manuel Agujetas: Contaur_. I have had no luck finding that one yet.


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## Strange Magic

*Resources: More About Rito y Geografia*



JosefinaHW said:


> A series of (30-35 minute) documentaries re/ cante flamenco were made from 1991-1993: _Rito y Geografïa del Cante Flamenco_. They are on YouTube and they have English subtitles. The following is the episode re/ Manuel Agujetas:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I would also like to see the French documentary that was made about Agujetas, _Manuel Agujetas: Contaur_. I have had no luck finding that one yet.


I'm delighted that you've located and mentioned the _Rito y Geografia_ series--it is amazing how far appreciation of flamenco, especially cante flamenco, has evolved since Donn Pohren wrote his first book and the epochal Hispavox/Westminster anthology was released. Spain, and certainly Andalusia, has acknowledged that flamenco is a national treasure. Not long ago, the tireless Brook Zern put together an accessable list of probably all of the R y G documentaries, which I show here:

http://www.flamencoexperience.com/blog/?p=1334

Excellent digging, JosefinaHW!

I think the documentary _Manuel Agujetas, Cantaor_ is copyright-protected and thus not available on YouTube. I have tried in vain to view it myself, and am too frugal to buy it. I also think Agujetas' attitude about himself and his authenticity was a compound of both his "old school" upbringing and approach to flamenco, but also his Ali-like "I am the Greatest!" self-image.


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## JosefinaHW

Strange Magic said:


> I'm delighted that you've located and mentioned the _Rito y Geografia_ series--it is amazing how far appreciation of flamenco, especially cante flamenco, has evolved since Donn Pohren wrote his first book and the epochal Hispavox/Westminster anthology was released. Spain, and certainly Andalusia, has acknowledged that flamenco is a national treasure. Not long ago, the tireless Brook Zern put together an accessable list of probably all of the R y G documentaries, which I show here:
> 
> http://www.flamencoexperience.com/blog/?p=1334
> 
> I think the documentary _Manuel Agujetas, Cantaor_ is copyright-protected and thus not available on YouTube. I have tried in vain to view it myself, and am too frugal to buy it. I also think Agujetas' attitude about himself and his authenticity was a compound of both his "old school" upbringing and approach to flamenco, but also his Ali-like "I am the Greatest!" self-image.


Thank you for sharing that link! Good Stuff and always wonderful to hear the story of such generous people as Brook Zern.

I see I made a mistake about the dates when the series was filmed; it was 1971-1973.


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## JosefinaHW

Jose de la Tomasa and Manolo Franco


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## Strange Magic

*Al-Andalus*

Every time I've encountered a reference to the origin of the name Andalusia, it has been stated that it is derived from the Arabic Al-Andalus and means Land of the Vandals. The Vandals, as we remember, were a Germanic tribe who, besides "vandalizing" Rome, worked their way into the south of what was left of Roman Spain and set up shop. Then, in the mid-400s AD, they crossed the Straits of Gibralter into North Africa, to annoy and then crush the remnants of the Romans there. They evidently all crossed, and left Spain open for the Visigoths, who replaced them as overlords of Spain.

But it turns out that here are several expanations of the origin of the name Andalusia. I've read a fascinating book, God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis. Lewis tells us that Andalusia is a corruption of a Gothic phrase, landa-hlauts or "land lots", referring to the various landholdings of the Visigoth nobility.

I decided to check this out on Wikipedia, and there found also reference to Al-Andalus being proposed to mean Atlantis, and thus having nothing to do with the Vandals. Also, it turns out that there are several places in Spain that predate the Arab-Moorish invasions named either Andaluz, or having Anda or Luz as part of their names. And considering that the Arab-Moorish invasion of Spain occurred centuries after the Vandals had packed up and left, and been replaced by the Visigoths in what is now Andalusia, why would the Arabs have called the region Al-Andalus and not Al-Visigothia?

Wikipedia makes it clear that there is now no definitive consensus on the original source of the word Andalusia. Interesting. Right up there with speculations on the origin of the word "flamenco".


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## Strange Magic

*Some Further Corrections*

I post these odds and ends mostly from memory, and sometimes my memory is bad. So, looking over some of these items, I find errors of fact and strive to correct them thusly:

In my entry on Siguiriyas, I listed the guitarist accompanying Estrella Morente as Juan "Pepe" Habichuela. It should merely be Pepe Habichuela. His brother, though, is Juan Habichuela.

In my entry on Saetas, I named Manuel Mairena as son of Antonio Mairena. In fact, he was Antonio's brother.

In my entry on Serranas, I wrote that the Caravaggio biopic was Italian. There is indeed an Italian biopic about Caravaggio, but there also is an English one, and the Serrana appears there.

As they always say in the magazines and on the Tube, "We regret the error(s)!"


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## Strange Magic

*Rito y Geográfica, and Beni de Cádiz*

I want again to congratulate JosefinaHW for his independently discovering the amazing Rito y Geográfica series of flamenco videos available on YouTube. I probably should have posted about these treasures far earlier in this thread than I did, but JosefinaHW corrected that. And now they can easily be accessed via the link to Brook Zern's website that I posted a few entries back. These provide an almost encyclopedic reference of the key singers and guitarists (and some dancers) that formed the backbone of flamenco up until the time of their release in the early 1970s; they also provide wonderful grounding in learning the various flamenco palos so that through repeated exposure, one can begin to quickly recognize each individual form. As an example, for anyone who has not yet checked out any of the Rito series, here is the episode featuring one of my favorite (I have a bunch) cantaores, Beni de Cádiz:


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## Strange Magic

*Cantes Mineros, and Encarnación Fernández*

One can get lost in the weeds of flamenco: the history, genealogy, classification of the scores of palos, and there are plenty of resources to dig for the info. Norman Kliman's and Brook Zern's websites are good places to look. The cante andaluz palos are especially hard to untangle. The Cantes de Levante have as a subdivision the Cantes Mineros, the songs of the mining districts of southeastern Spain. I have previously offered selections performed by La Paquera and by Carmen Linares of such palos; Carmen Linares being especially recognized as a master of Tarantas and its close cousins. Here I offer two selections by another specialist in these mining songs, Encarnación Fernández. She is accompanied by her father, Antonio Fernández. Like many of these Cantes Mineros, the guitar phrasings are haunting and vaguely disquieting.

First, we hear the palo called Mineras, which is clearly a very subtly different version of the Taranta:





Next is a Tarantas:





Tastes differ, but I find these mining songs, usually laments, quite moving, and the performances are often very earnest indeed.

Here is a link to a relevant post by Brook Zern: http://www.flamencoexperience.com/blog/?p=1489


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## Strange Magic

*Saetas, Serranas, and the Westminster/Hispavox Anthology*

This post revisits two of my favorite palos, and allows introduction to the great, classic 3 LP Anthology of Cante Flamenco that was released in the 1950s and formed the Bible, the Encyclopedia, and the stimulus for so many non-Spaniards to become involved with flamenco. Evidently a group of French aficionados approached the very knowledgeable guitarist Perico el del Lunar _viejo_, who performed regularly at a flamenco tablao in Madrid with the idea of recording the palos of flamenco. Perico knew many singers, spoke with them, and agreed to do the project for a fixed price. Had he instead chosen a percentage of the sales, he would have ended up a far richer man. The anthology was a milestone in the preservation of classic cante, and set a standard that endures today.

Perico _viejo's_ guitar work is unmistakeable--it has a quiet, unforced, "world-weary" three o'clock in the morning sound unmatched by any other tocaor. His rapport with the singers was legendary, and his knowledge of the palos complete-- he even taught several of the more obscure palos to some of the singers.

Here from the Anthology are two of my favorite palos. First we hear 4 Saetas, bracketed by the brass band that typify these Holy Week utterances. They are alternately sung by Lolita Triana and Roque Montoya, aka Jarrito. These Saetas definitely give me chills.





Next we conclude with Serranas as sung by the incomparable payo cantaor, Pepe el de la Matrona. Perico accompanies. You may wish to go back and check out both the previously posted Saetas and Serranas, just to again familiarize yourself with these two palos.


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## JosefinaHW

In Post #8, Strange Magic gave us a saeta performed by Manuel Mairena, one of the brothers of the cantaor Antonio Mairena. The following are two more saetas performed by Manuel; they are made even more powerful to me by their setting in two glorious churches in Seville.











Standing behind Mairena in the second video are Jose de la Tomasa and Mercedes Cubero. Videos of them performing saetas are also available on YouTube, but I find that saetas are so especially weighty they have to be taken in small doses.

Moving now to a tiento, the emotion is still dark and intense but much lighter.






The tocaor in the tiento/tango is my favorite so far, Manolo Franco. He is extremely attentive to the contaor but he still plays with spirit.

Ending well-above the clouds is the episode of _Rito y Geografia_ featuring Antonio Mairena, another brother and several absolutely delightful friends. *Enjoy! and Many Thanks to Strange Magic for introducing us all to this amazing world of Cante Flamenco!!!*


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## Strange Magic

JosefinaHW, very fine selections! Antonia Mairena was a very big factor in flamenco history and performance in the middle years of the last century, and your post offers us a penetrating glimpse into his art and his _gitanismo_ perspective. He was most important in keeping traditional cante alive and pure in the face of powerful "modernizing" pressures, plus he knew everybody, and helped a lot of people in their careers: José Greco was indebted to Mairena for helping him staff his troupe, and Mairena also recommended Domingo Alvarado to Carmen Amaya when she was looking for a lead cantaor for her troupe. As the R y G clip shows, he won many awards for both his singing and his dedication to maintaining the standards of cante.

Manuel Mairena's Saetas are superb, as is his Tientos y Tangos, which were a textbook example of one of my favorite palos. ¡Viva Cante Flamenco!


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## Strange Magic

*More Saetas, and Alan Lomax*

The indefatigable folklorist Alan Lomax, with tape recorder in his luggage, traveled throughout Spain in the early 1950s, trailed almost everywhere by Franco's police. He released several LPs, one of which featuring the music--folk and flamenco--he was hearing and recording on the street, in bars, in fields. I acquired one such--music of Seville and vicinity, which contained some fine cante as it was being performed without thought of recording, right in front of Lomax. Now, Lomax's entire library of field recordings can be accessed on a dedicated website archive, and here is the link to his recorded Saetas, 1952. If one explores the site with some diligence, you will find much flamenco, sorted by palos (look under category _genres_, alphabetically). One final thought: it has been pointed out by people much more knowledgable than I am that Lomax was not specifically familiar with flamenco, and recorded many things as flamenco or as some specific palo which are not necessarily so. The Saetas, though, are clearly Saetas.

http://research.culturalequity.org/...x=recording&id=1048&idType=genreId&sortBy=abc

Lomax was finally driven out of Spain by the harassment of the regime.


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## Strange Magic

*Donn Pohren: Interview*

In one of my earliest posts on flamenco, I recommended some books. The first two were essential works on this music by American expatriate and flamencophile Donn Pohren. While people outside of Spain for decades had been aware of something called flamenco through traveling troupes of "Spanish Dance" companies, offering a hodge-podge of Spanish folk dance, ballet, and some flamenco--even a bit of cante, among the castanets and posturing--real cante flamenco and its place in flamenco awaited two significant revelations. The first was the Westminster/Hispavox 3LP set, _Anthology of Cante Flamenco_, that I have referenced several times. The second was the publication of Donn Pohren's _The Art of Flamenco_ in 1962. Pohren's book unleashed a wave of young Americans and other non-Spaniards, who traveled to Andalusia to get into the flamenco scene that Pohren evoked in his book; many stopping in Morón, there to listen to Diego del Gastor accompany a small coterie of distinguished singers who had worked closely with him for years. Pohren's _Art of Flamenco_ and his later _Lives and Legends of Flamenco_ thus were very likely the single most potent factors in a resurgent interest in classic cante among non-Spaniards, and also in triggering a renewed interest among Spaniards and especially Andalusians themselves in their indigenous music. Pohren thus occupies a special place in the history of cante. Here is an interview he gave to Jon Rhine of Salon in 1999, where he gives a bit of his personal history:

http://www.salon.com/1999/10/02/pohren/


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## Strange Magic

*José Menese, and Peteneras*

One of the finest and most admired cantaores of the last 50 years died recently, José Menese Scott, passing away at the age of 74 on July 29 of this year. José Menese, as he was known, was a payo singer born near Seville who from an early age was seen to be someone to watch in flamenco circles. A disciple of Antonio Mairena, he later fulfilled all expectations, being awarded many of the awards and honors that have sprung up in Spain to recognize flamenco as an art. A master of many palos, Menese became known for his association with Peteneras, a cante intermedio, cante andaluz palo that tells of La Petenera, a girl of sinister reputation who destroys men's hearts but herself dies in a crime of passion. Here are several selections of Menese, accompanied by Enrique de Melchor, the son of Melchor de Marchena. Both father and son were associated with Menese over his career.

First we have Siguiriyas:





Next, a classic Soleares:





And, finally, Peteneras:





One does not hear Peteneras often, but Pastora Pavón and Rafael Romero also sang it regularly, and Menese continued to ensure that it did not sink into obscurity.


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## JosefinaHW

Strange Magic said:


> ...Real cante flamenco and its place in flamenco awaited two significant revelations. The first was the Westminster/Hispavox 3LP set, _Anthology of Cante Flamenco_, that I have referenced several times."
> 
> The_ Antologia del Cante Flamenco_ was released in a two CD box set in 1988.
> 
> You can listen to it free on Spotify:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The artwork on the cover of the box set is different from that shown on Spotify. The CD set is out-of-print but you can search every so often for a good price. I paid $44. a few months ago. It is currently $400 on Amazon.US.
> 
> free photo hosting


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## JosefinaHW

Strange Magic said:


> Thoughts on the recent death of one of the greatest gypsy cantaores in the history of flamenco. I included examples of Agujetas singing both Martinetes and Fandangos in my review of the palos of flamenco. The following is found on Brook Zern's wonderful blog.
> 
> Flamenco Singer Manuel Agujetas - Obituary by Manuel Bohórquez - translated by Brook Zern
> by Brook Zern
> 
> Flamenco Song's Last Cry of Grief
> 
> By Manolo Bohorquez
> 
> from El Correo de Andalucía, December 25, 2015
> 
> A flamenco singer has died. Not just any singer, which would be terrible news. No, one of the greatest masters of Gypsy song (cante gitano). Yes, Gypsy, because that's what Agujetas always was and always wanted to be. His father, Agujetas el Viejo, was also a singer, a Gypsy from Rota with a sound that came from centuries ago, metallic, dark as a cave, that put you in the last room of the blood. Manuel de los Santos Pastor, or Agujetas, who died this morning in Jerez, was the only one who remained of those Gypsies who took the song from the marrow of his bones, a singer who only had the song, who felt alone since the day he was born and who sang so he would not die of solitude. Unsociable, a strange person among strange people, as were Manuel Torres and Tomás Pavón [perhaps the two greatest male flamenco singers who ever lived]. Manuel Agujetas detested anything that was not the flamenco song or freedom, and who fled from stereotypes or academic schools, from technique, from treatises, from la ojana. He was, in the best sense of the word, a wild animal. Some critics reproached him for being too rough, disordered and anarchic, but he had the gift, that thing that correct and professional singers lack. That they can't even dream of. You can fake a voice to sing Gypsy flamenco, but Manuel never faked anything. He was the Gypsy voice par excellence, the owner of what Manuel Torres called the duende, the black sounds that captivated the early flamenco expert Demófilo and García Lorcca. A stripped-down cry that could kill you in the fandango of El Carbonerillo, but that when it was applied to [deep song styles like] the siguiriyas or the martinetes, reached a terrible dramatic intensity. No one sounded as Gypsy as Agujetas, with such profundity. No flamenco singer carried his voice to such depths, even though he could be a disaster on a stage, not knowing how to deal with the accompanying guitar and repeating verses and styles to a point of overload. There is no such thing as "Agujeta-ism", or attempting to copy his inimitable style; but his admirers are found all over the world and have always been faithful to him. A minority, to be sure, but devoted unto death. And they have not claimed official honors for him, as happens with other singers of his generation, They have loved his art and have wanted to experience it, knowing that he was unique and without parallel. Manuel had a charisma that wasn't for stadiums or big theaters, but for an intimate setting. Someone who has an old LP of Manuel Agujetas feels as if he has a treasure, a relic, something sacred. And someone who heard him on a stage, with that antique aspect, that scar on his face and those sunken eyes, knows that on that day he lived a truly unique moment. Surely this death won't make headlines or be reported on radio or TV. And what else? Those of us who heard him during an outdoor summer festival in a small town, or a small theater or a flamenco club will never forget it, because in each line, in each of his chilling moments, Manuel nailed to our soul a way of rendering deep song that didn't die today, with his disappearance, but that died decades ago. It will be a long time before another Gypsy is born, if one is born at all, who has such an ability to wound you with his singing. And when he wounds you fatally, when it kills you, it is a desirable death. The last great pain, the last great grief of song has gone. May he rest in peace.
> 
> End of article in El Correo de Andalucía of December 25th, 2015. The original is at http://elcorreoweb.es/cultura/el-ultimo-dolor-del-cante-AI1183398, Olé to Manuel Bohórquez, and a final olé to Manuel Agujetas, the greatest singer I ever knew and the greatest singer I ever heard. Please refer to other entries in this blog for more translations and opinion about Manuel Agujetas.
> 
> Brook Zern
> [email protected]
> Flamencoexperience.com


_Agujetas: Tres Generaciones_ (39 songs, 2 hours 27 minutes) is free to listen on Spotify or YouTube

photo share


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## Strange Magic

*Deflamenco, and Juan Carmona Carmona (Juan Habichuela)*

One of the great accompanists of classic cante, the guitarist Juan Habichuela, died recently. Juan Habichuela accompanied young Estrella Morente in the Soleares clip that first introduces that palo in this collection of articles. One of the best websites for ongoing news of flamenco is deflamenco. Here is a brief biography and appreciation of Habichuela by deflamenco writer and learned flamencophile Estela Zatania:

http://www.deflamenco.com/revista/noticias/juan-habichuela-1933-2016-1.html

Thanks to JosefinaHW's energy for triggering this appreciation of both Habichuela and the excellent deflamenco website. Added to the sites of Norman Kliman and Brook Zern, deflamenco is a rich resource of flamenco lore, facts, and news.


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## Strange Magic

*El Lebrijano*

2016 is proving to be an "end of an era" year for flamenco, especially among cantaores. El Lebrijano was yet another singer of classic cante, dying recently at a seemingly young age. Here is Estela Zatania's report in deflamenco:

http://www.deflamenco.com/revista/noticias/juan-pena-lebrijano-1941-2016-1.html

Here is El Lebrijano singing Tientos y Tangos, to give an example of his art:






And here is El Lebrijano singing _por siguiriyas_, accompanied by Pedro Peña and Pedro Bacán:


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## JosefinaHW

starthrower said:


> I understand what you are saying, but I happen to be a contemporary music fan. I enjoy modern music and musicians that draw from the well of tradition, and incorporate these influences into a contemporary musical format. .... If other musicians want to preserve their folk heritage by trying to re-create music of the past, that's up to them. But my feeling is you can't go back...."


:StarThrower: Traditional Cante Flamenco is timeless. When I and many other fans listen to it we are not trying to re-create music of the past or return to the past. Cante Flamenco is an art dedicated to human emotions. We experience the same emotions as people who lived 50, 100, 1000, 3000 years ago! Will evolution change the existence of or the nature of human emotions? I don't know, but as of now it has not.


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## Strange Magic

*The Antología: Some Corrections*



JosefinaHW said:


> The_ Antologia del Cante Flamenco_ was released in a two CD box set in 1988.
> 
> You can listen to it free on Spotify:


Many thanks to JosefinaHW for finding and posting the Spotify link to the classic Antología. We can thus hear all of this history-making effort, and immerse ourselves in the unique, distinctive toque of Perico el del Lunar _viejo's_ accompaniment. A few corrections need to be noted--many of the palos' singers are misidentified on the Spotify listing of tracks: please note that all toque is by Perico. The correct singers for many of the palos are the first names listed, but many also are wrong. Here are the correct listings for the following:

La Caña: Rafael Romero; Soleares: Pepe el de la Matrona; Livianas: Pepe; Serranas: Pepe; Cantes de Trilla: Bernardo el de los Lobitos; Nanas: Bernardo; Peteneras: Rafael; Marianas: Bernardo; Alboreas: Rafael; Toñas: Rafael; Martinete: Rafael; Deblas: Rafael.


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## JosefinaHW

Strange Magic said:


> Many thanks to JosefinaHW for finding and posting the Spotify link to the classic Antologia. We can thus hear all of this history-making effort, and immerse ourselves in the unique, distinctive toque of Perico el del Lunar _viejo's_ accompaniment. A few corrections need to be noted--many of the palos' singers are misidentified on the Spotify listing of tracks: please note that all toque is by Perico. The correct singers for many of the palos are the first names listed, but many also are wrong. Here are the correct listings for the following:
> 
> La Caña: Rafael Romero; Soleares: Pepe el de la Matrona; Livianas: Pepe; Serranas: Pepe; Cantes de Trilla: Bernardo el de los Lobitos; Nanas: Bernardo; Peteneras: Rafael; Maruanas: Bernardo; Alboreas: Rafael; Toñas; Rafael; Martinete: Rafael; Deblas: Rafael.


I did not think to check that, Strange Magic. Thank you. I do not use Spotify but since it is free I've begun to mention it or post links to it because it is accessible to more people. I will check everything I post going forward. I will also submit the corrections to Spotify's Customer Support.


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## starthrower

JosefinaHW said:


> :StarThrower: Traditional Cante Flamenco is timeless. When I and many other fans listen to it we are not trying to re-create music of the past or return to the past. Cante Flamenco is an art dedicated to human emotions. We experience the same emotions as people who lived 50, 100, 1000, 3000 years ago! Will evolution change the existence of or the nature of human emotions? I don't know, but as of now it has not.


I agree that all great art is timeless. But timeless and contemporary are not the same thing. Strange Magic stated that he is not a fan of Paco De Lucia, because his music is too guitar centered. He wanted to do other things and not work strictly within traditional formats. And all I said is that I am a fan. I can enjoy both.


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## JosefinaHW

starthrower said:


> I agree that all great art is timeless. But timeless and contemporary are not the same thing. Strange Magic stated that he is not a fan of Paco De Lucia, because his music is too guitar centered. He wanted to do other things and not work strictly within traditional formats. And all I said is that I am a fan. I can enjoy both.


:Starthrower: Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Since joining TC I have been perplexed by people who say something to the effect that they are die-hard contemporary music fans with some accompanying level of disdain for music of the past: "Bach's vocal music is a relic of a pathetic dead worldview," "I don't listen to the music of dead Germans," or in a much kinder way, your statement in this thread that "if other musicians want to preserve their folk heritage by trying to re-create music of the past that is up to them. But my feeling is you can't go back. Same with classical music, which is why……." I know that at first you were talking about a particular guitar player, but unless I am way off, I don't read your statement as high praise for current cantaors and tocaors of authentic Cante Flamenco. You seem to me to be saying that they are using outdated forms and styles and they have very little that is new to say to a contemporary listener. I can relate to the excitement of the new and the exotic, but an appreciation of the new doesn't necessarily entail a devaluation of something already in existence.

Several prominent CF artists have died recently, so there are many articles that say it's the end of an era or the death of authentic CF, etc.. Here comes me discovering this captivating, totally new thing that speaks directly to me at this stage of my life and the artists are dying, the art form is supposedly dying, the flamenco lifestyle is supposedly dying! I'm very defensive about the subject right now and I apologize if I came at you like a guard dog.

Whether or not I misunderstood your opinion of CF, I'd like you to read my point of view and tell me in what way you agree or disagree with it to help me better understand this emphasis on contemporary music and this corresponding tinge of negativity towards music of the past.


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## JosefinaHW

:Starthrower: For me, a piece of music is both timeless and contemporary if it speaks to me, teaches me, gives me an insight, challenges me, answers a question that is bothering me, and/or somehow touches me directly at a given moment in my life. It is contemporaneous because it is so meaningful that it is as if it were composed for me at that moment, even though it really was composed a 100 or 300 years earlier.

I also think that when it comes down to the fundamentals, people share more similarities than differences. It’s been suggested that all emotions are variants of four basic emotions: sadness, anger, happiness and fear. Whatever the number, I think the vast majority of people in the end will have shared the exact same experiences and corresponding emotions and that what is timeless and contemporary for one will be timeless and contemporary for many (I’m very tempted to say most)others.

I’m going to use a concrete example, but before I begin I’d like to say that I would have loved to use a happier example but we are talking about Cante Flamenco. Even as a newbie I can see that endless saetas, siguiriyas, tientos & tangos have suffering and death as their main theme, so we just have to agree to get comfortable talking about death and suffering in this thread. 

(Along the same line, the more I learn the more clearly I can see that in the hands of a good therapist CF would be a powerful therapeutic tool to address many different issues, but that is another discussion.)


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## JosefinaHW

:Starthrower: I found a saeta whose text is about the tears and the pain of a woman as she watches the suffering and death of her son. When I first played it I primarily wanted to just see an example of the form as performed by a particular cantaor. Maybe the second or third time I watched it I found myself transfixed, watching and listening to someone telling me he knows/has experienced the exact same pain of watching a loved one suffer. Certainly there was an emotional release that came with that experience. More important to me, however, was the first hand experience that someone else is in the exact same boat, along with the other aficionados who were present at that "performance," etc., etc., Someone doesn't face the pain alone, millions of people are going through the exact same thing at the exact same time; always have and probably always will. A realization of this universal experience makes it less terrifying and more bearable. It also builds a confidence that one will survive the worst of the experience because they already went through it successfully during that saeta. After such an experience, it's (almost) impossible to think that such a powerful art form is dead, or isn't timeless, or won't always be just as real and contemporary to other people in the future.

Again, I would have preferred to give an example of an equally profound joyful experience from CF, but that hasn't happened (yet?). For me Bach's _Et resurrexit_, Vivaldi and Baroque music in general are the forms of music that most often move me to experience joy.

So are we more in agreement than I thought? Do we agree that Cante Flamenco, authentic Cante Flamenco is alive and well? Do we agree that great music is both timeless and contemporary? Do we agree that Cante Flamenco is great music?


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## JosefinaHW

*links did not work*



Strange Magic said:


> Re/ the Spotify link to the classic Antología. We can thus hear all of this history-making effort, and immerse ourselves in the unique, distinctive toque of Perico el del Lunar _viejo's_ accompaniment. A few corrections need to be noted--many of the palos' singers are misidentified on the Spotify listing of tracks: please note that all toque is by Perico. The correct singers for many of the palos are the first names listed, but many also are wrong. Here are the correct listings for the following:
> 
> La Caña: Rafael Romero; Soleares: Pepe el de la Matrona; Livianas: Pepe; Serranas: Pepe; Cantes de Trilla: Bernardo el de los Lobitos; Nanas: Bernardo; Peteneras: Rafael; Marianas: Bernardo; Alboreas: Rafael; Toñas: Rafael; Martinete: Rafael; Deblas: Rafael.


The person who added the music from the 2-CD set _Antologia del Cante Flamenco_ was using the information that was printed on the back cover of the CD set. The information on the back cover was incorrect as can be seen in the two close-up images below. I listened to all the songs on Spotify one-by-one and compared them to the songs on the CDs one-by-one: the songs are identical.

I *do not know if the songs are identical to those on the LPs*. There were several different releases of the _Antologia del Cante Flamenco_ LPs in different countries. There doesn't appear to be a listing of every single release on the internet: there might be, but I have not found it. Hispavox is now owned by EMI. Before it was purchased by EMI, Hispavox went through a long-period of poor management. During that time, it sold or gave the rights to the 1954 recording to various record companies throughout Europe and South America. There does not appear to be a central list of the names of all these record companies. Little by little I have been gathering the images of the covers of these releases, I have only found three so far and they are all different. I expect this is going to be a long-term project because I might have to wait until a release goes up for sale on one of the several global used-music websites and as of this time I don't even know the addresses of all these sites.

I imagine StrangeMagic has compared all the songs on Spotify to the LPs in his collection, so hopefully they do match.

At least in the US releases of the 1954 LPs, there were at least two different booklets/liner notes published. One with the same cover as that in post #86. I am not certain about the other cover picture. The picture posted below is the cover of the booklet that came with my CD set.

:StrangeMagic: I would appreciate it if you would describe the cover that came with your LP set.


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## JosefinaHW

:StrangeMagic: In 1982 Hispavox released the 20LP _Magna Antologia del Cante Flamenco_; then in 1992 a 10CD version. Do you have either of these sets? I went back through the thread and didn't see it, but I might have missed it.

Image from 1982 20 LP release









Image from 1992 10 CD release


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## Strange Magic

*The Anthology*









Here's the cover of Volume 1 of the Westminster/Hispavox Anthology that I own. All three albums share that same cover art. The records are consecutively numbered WP6052, WP6053 and WP6054. I bought them sometime in the 1950s. The Magna Anthology is known by that name, and is a separate collection, one with which I am not familiar--it may or may not contain material from the original 3LP set, but it is well spoken of in the flamenco aficionado community.

The contents of the 2CD version of the Anthology appear to exactly match the contents of the original 3 LP set.


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## Strange Magic

*Pies de Plomo*

Around each of the three major centers of flamenco in Andalusia--Cádiz, Jerez, Sevilla--there cluster a group of singers strongly associated. Cádiz boasts Aurelio, Beni, La Perla, Pericón, each "de Cádiz". Jerez offers Terremoto, Manolita, La Paquera de Jerez. And Sevilla, especially the barrio of Triana, is noted for cantaores such as Antonio Mairena and Pies de Plomo (Feet of Lead), Manuel Giorgio Gutiérrez. Pies de Plomo, 1924-2012, was the father of José de la Tomasa, whom we have previously heard and seen here. Pies de Plomo's wife, La Tomasa, was herself the daughter of Pepe Torres, the cantaor brother of Manuel Torres, who is widely held to have been the greatest of gitano cantaores. We see from whence comes the skill of José de la Tomasa.

Pies de Plomo was a most excellent and authentic cantaor of traditional flamenco, and had a long and productive career, dying at 88. We see here a sequence of clips over a quarter-century of Pies de Plomo's art. The first clip is Siguiriyas. To Pies de Plomo's right sits Bernarda de Utrera, and to the guitarist's left is seated Bernarda's equally-renowned sister Fernanda de Utrera, each a legendary cantaora.





Then, years later, Soleares, with Manolo Franco accompanying.





And finally, Fandangos.


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## Strange Magic

*The Sisters: Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera*

We previously noted the most revered pairing of siblings in cante, the sister/brother team of Pastora and Tomás Pavón. Just behind the Pavóns in recognition of familial excellence in el cante are the sisters Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera. Fernanda, born Fernanda Jiménez Peña, was the elder.  Full gitano like her sister, Fernanda gained reputation as a master of the Soleares, singing often accompanied by Diego del Gastor in Morón de la Frontera but also throughout Andalusia. She was almost invariably in the company of her sister Bernarda Jiménez Peña, who took the Bulerias as her own chosen specialty. The Sisters did not spread their talents widely among the palos of flamenco, but focused almost exclusively on a handful of the most gitano forms--Bulerias, Soleares, Tientos, Siguiriyas, Alegrias, and the occasional Fandangos, the most jondo of the cante andaluz palos. Their approach was highly idiosyncratic, especially singing with Diego del Gastor, but is greatly appreciated by aficionados of cante.

Here is La Fernanda singing _por Soleares_ with Diego:





Next we have her Bulerias, again with Diego:





We previously saw and heard Bernarda and Diego also _por Bulerias_, the first clip in this whole series. Now we have Bernarda and Diego in Fandangos por Solea:


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## Strange Magic

*Manuel Torre*

Manuel Soto Loreto, known to the flamenco world as Manuel Torre (or Torres), comes down to us today as having been the greatest gitano cantaor in the history of el cante. Born in 1878 to a family of field workers, he inherited his father's height and related nickname "Torre", or Tower. Torre died in 1933. We have a small legacy of recordings of Torre, all only of 3 or 4 minutes' length, some as early as 1909, and experts on Torre say that they utterly fail to transmit any indication of the power of his singing. Torre was at his best only when he so chose to be, in a juerga setting, and was moved to fully express himself--as attested by an vast body of anecdotes describing the powerful effect he had upon his listeners. Paco Sevilla, in his marvelous biography of Carmen Amaya, Queen of the Gypsies--a book which is also an essential history of the flamenco of the first half of the 20th century--devotes 13 pages to Torre and to such tales of his magic. I repeat two of them here: the first the testimony of Joaquin de la Paula:

"Manuel Torre arrived at ten o'clock. Muribe gave him a hug, and after chastising him for his excesses, made him sit down and drink three or four large glasses of wine . Then he went to him and said, 'Sing for these gentlemen, who say they don't like flamenco and are going to leave.'
Manuel Torre directed himself to Habichuela, saying, 'Play _por Siguiriyas!'_
And he began to sing. And he sang such that, after the second or third verse of Siguiriyas, one of the Galicians became so emotional that he kicked over a table. They picked up the table and Manuel continued singing. Then it was Ignacio Sanchez Mejias who knocked over the table and ripped his shirt to shreds. It appeared that Manuel had electrified everybody there and most of them were crying in the corners. After he had finished, nobody else wanted to sing. And that is when Joaquin el de la Paula gave Manuel Torre the nickname '_Abacereuniones'_ [He who puts an end to the fiesta]."

The second reminiscence comes from Diego del Gastor:

"It was necessary to invite several singers to a juerga with him because, if he came at all, in the middle of it he might walk out and never come back, or he might just sit at the bar and drink all night. But the people at the juerga used to put up with it and waited for him to sing because he was Manuel Torre, and when it happened you never heard anything like it. And maybe then at six in the morning he would suddenly come in with a strange look, his face agitated. He would loosen his shirt collar--that was the signal--dash off his hat and stand there like a mountain in the middle of the room. 'Put it on the fourth' he would say to the guitarist. 'I'm going to sing Siguiriya.' Then he would sing one or two and everybody would cry and go on their knees. You couldn't take it. It was too intense. _¡Era argo bárbaro!_ (It was barbaric, tremendous!)"

Herewith some recordings of Torre--his specialties, Siguiriyas and Soleares. Except for one, the guitarist is Miguel Borrull _hijo_.


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## Strange Magic

*Technical Aspects of Flamenco*

I know nothing about the technical aspects of music. Never studied it. So here I submit material from the flamenco website of Roberto Lorenz for those who are interested in the formal, technical aspects. Lorenz's first topic concerns harmony:

Harmony

Whereas, in most Western music, only the major and minor modes are explicitly named by composers, (except as an occasional oddity in jazz and classical music) flamenco has also preserved the Phrygian mode, commonly called the "Dorian mode" by flamencologists, referring to the Greek Dorian mode, and sometimes also "flamenco mode". The reason for preferring the term "Greek Dorian" is that, as in ancient Greek music, flamenco melodies are descending (instead of ascending as in usual Western melodic patterns). Some flamencologists, like Hipólito Rossy or guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar, also consider this flamenco mode as a survival of the old Greek Dorian mode. I will use the term "Phrygian" to refer to this mode, as it is the most common way of referring to this mode in English speaking countries.

The Phrygian mode is in fact the most common mode in the traditional palos of flamenco music, and it is used for soleá, most bulerías, siguiriyas, tangos and tientos, and other palos. The flamenco version of this mode contains two frequent alterations in the 7th and, even more often, the 3rd degree of the scale: if the scale is played in E Phrygian for example, G and D can be sharp.

In the descending E Phrygian scale in flamenco music, G sharp is compulsory for the tonic chord. Based on the Phrygian scale, a typical cadence is formed, usually called "Andalusian cadence". The chords for this cadence in E Phrygian are Am-G-F-E. According to guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar, in this flamenco Phrygian mode, E is the tonic, F would take the harmonic function of dominant, while Am and G assume the functions of subdominant and mediant respectively.

When playing in Phrygian mode, guitarists traditionally use only two basic positions for the tonic chord: E and A. However, they often transport [I think Lorenz means transpose] these basic tones by using a cejilla (capo). Modern guitarists, starting with Ramón Montoya, have also introduced other positions. Montoya himself started to use other chords for the tonic in the doric sections of several palos: F sharp for tarantas, B for granaína, A flat for the minera, and he also created a new palo as a solo piece for the guitar, the rondeña, in C sharp. Later guitarists have further extended the repertoire of tonalities and chord positions.

There are also palos in major mode, for example, most cantiñas and alegrías, guajiras, and some bulerías and tonás, and the cabales (a major mode type of siguiriyas). The minor mode is less frequent and it is restricted to the Farruca, the milongas (among cantes de ida y vuelta), and some styles of tangos, bulerías, etc. In general, traditional palos in major and minor mode are limited harmonically to the typical two-chord (tonic-dominant) or three-chord structure (tonic-subdominant-dominant). However, modern guitarists have increased the traditional harmony by introducing chord substitution, transitional chords, and even modulation.

Fandangos and the palos derived from it (e.g. malagueñas, tarantas, cartageneras) are bimodal. Guitar introductions are in Phrygian mode, while the singing develops in major mode, modulating to Phrygian mode at the end of the stanza.

Traditionally, flamenco guitarists did not receive any formal training, so they just relied on their ear to find the chords on the guitar, disregarding the rules of Western classical music. This led them to interesting harmonic findings, with unusual unresolved dissonances. Examples of this are the use of minor 9th chords for the tonic, the tonic chord of tarantas, or the use of the 1st unpressed string as a kind of pedal tone.


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## Strange Magic

*Pepe el Culata*

Cantaor Pepe el Culata--"Culata" is the Spanish term for the butt end of a long gun such as a rifle or shotgun--was a gitano born in 1910 in Sevilla. For years he was a performer at Madrid's La Zambra, along with guitarist Perico el del Lunar _viejo_, Rafael Romero, Pericón de Cádiz, Manuel Vargas, and others. Sometime around the recording of the Westminster/Hispavox anthology in the mid-1950s, Perico & Company also made a fine recording for a tiny Cuban label, Kubaney, and it was on that LP that I first heard Pepe el Culata. I've enjoyed his cante ever since, though he never received quite the recognition of some of his contemporaries, a fact that Donn Pohren noted in his brief entry on Pepe in Lives and Legends of Flamenco.

Here are some selections, the first has El Culata singing Siguiriyas accompanied by the great Sabicas:





Next we have Solea, with Perico _viejo_ accompanying:





Then we hear a Granaina, with Antonio Pucherete de Linares:





Last, Fandangos, with an unknown guitarist:


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## Strange Magic

*The Compás of Flamenco*

Knowledgeable aficionados of flamenco stress always the importance of understanding the rhythms, the compás, of flamenco. It is essential for performers, whether singers, guitarists, or dancers, to be on the same beat together for an authentic and musically satisfying performance of the classic _palos_. Here is a very brief but very well-presented demonstration of the best-known rhythms that integrally help define the best-known palos that have compás. Many palos, especially those of flamenco andaluz, such as malagueñas, tarantas, granainas, lack compás entirely.....


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## Casebearer

Not Cante Flamenco per se because she's a dancer but Rocío Molina is quite a phenomenon that takes Flamenco three steps beyond...

I'll just post this one but read some more about her yourself....


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## Strange Magic

*El Polo: Cante Grande, Cante Gitano(?)*

In The Art of Flamenco, Donn Pohren devotes considerable space to a discussion of both the Caña and the Polo, two palos very similar to one another and closely linked to Soleares. I have also recently reread a discussion of the Polo on Brook Zern's much more current blog. Both sources agree that both the Polo and the Caña are very old, but their origins are shrouded in mystery. Some hold that they existed in pre-Arab Spain and were adopted by the Arabs and then re-inherited by their Andalusian successors. Others say they are exclusively of Arab origin. Yet what of their close relationship with the allegedly gitano Soleares? That is explained as the gypsies discovering the earlier palos and adopting them as their own, mirroring Soleares.

Anyway, there is both a formal quality to the Polo and the Caña, somewhat unlike many other palos, but also a haunting melodiousness that I find they share with Serranas (and also certain Soleares). As we have heard a most excellent and typical Caña sung by Rafael Romero, and as I am fond of the Polo also, I offer here four examples, as sung by four masters of traditional cante: First we hear a giant of cante, the payo master Pepe el de la Matrona sing a variant Polo de Tobalo, ending with a macho, which is a singer's distinctive closing verse with which he/she may traditionally end a particular palo:





Next, a Polo by another payo giant, El Niño de Almaden, also known as Jacinto Almaden:





Then the young José Menese:





And finally, the master of all such palos, Rafael Romero sings:


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## Strange Magic

*The Flamenco Guitar*

This article has focused on _cante_ as the heart of flamenco. But the accompaniment, the _toque _ on guitar is the other essential for those palos that are accompanied, and herewith is the link to Wikipedia's fine entry on the construction of the flamenco guitar, its differences to classical guitars, and some information about techniques used in playing the instrument. One of the key points of difference between classical and flamenco guitar is that the strings of the flamenco guitar are closer to the soundboard than those of the classical guitar--this also to reduce the sustain of the guitar: as notes are rapidly played, they need to just as rapidly decay in flamenco, whereas classical guitar often has the opposite requirement.

I know nothing myself about guitar, other than what my ears and eyes tell me, but I am always astounded by the virtuosity of workaday flamenco guitarists as they play, accompanying their singing partners. Ligado, the technique of playing notes with the left hand while simultaneously holding other strings down on the frets with the other fingers, is particularly intriguing. I also appreciate _golpe_, the striking of the soundboard with a finger while playing, to give emphasis to a run of notes; it helps to make flamenco so emotionally rich.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamenco_guitar


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## kirolak

Lovely posts! 

I love the Martinete form & am a huge fan of Agujetas!  

You are incredibly well-informed about flamenco, & I take it you are not Spanish? (Much as I am moved by the darker cante forms I a not as enthusiastic about the way of life of the gitanos; there is terrible cruelty to animals, in the horse fairs & just in general, still taking place in the south of Spain.  )


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## Strange Magic

kirolak, thank you for your kind words, and welcome to our small band of aficionados of cante flamenco. I am not Spanish, have never been to Spain, and have little gift for languages at all--only the most rudimentary knowledge of Spanish. All the language ability went to my youngest sister, who speaks it fluently but has no interest in flamenco at all, alas. I fell in love with cante at an early age, and have just stuck with it ever since. Please feel free to contribute whatever you will to the thread! 

P.S.: You mention Agujetas, one of the greats. I'll repeat here an interesting factoid about David Serva, aka David Jones, the American tocaor who has accompanied Agujetas. Jones, the most accomplished American ever to learn flamenco guitar well enough to accompany a master like Agujetas, has a son, Marty Jones, a bassist who plays with the Himalayans. That Marty Jones is a friend of Adam Duritz of the band Counting Crows, and is the Mr. Jones of Counting Crows' great song _Mr. Jones_. Small world.


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## Strange Magic

*A Tasty Tientos y Tangos*

José Menese was a favorite cantaor of mine, and Diego del Gastor a legend as an accompanist. Diego is very closely associated with a handful of singers with whom he worked in Morón for decades: the Sisters Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, Perrate de Utrera, a few others; he rarely performed outside that smallish circle. But here is a fine Tientos y Tangos where he accompanies Menese. Diego here is very much at his ease, congratulating and saluting Menese and also providing his trademark strong _compás_ as a backbone to the performance. Diego seemed to often favor, with his singers, an almost march-like compás at various times, as we saw and heard in the post with Perrate de Utrera. I find this emphasis on a striding, strong rhythm lends additional force to many of Diego's collaborations with his singers. But here's that Tientos y Tangos with José Menese:


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## Strange Magic

*A Celebration of Flamenco Gatidano*

The Andalusian city of Cádiz, on the Atlantic coast south of Sevilla, has long been one of the key cradles of flamenco. The city is proud of its heritage--it is the Gades of Roman times--and of its wonderful legacy of cante. Here are some selections of that legacy.

First is a Tientos y Tangos by the queen of Cádiz cantaoras, La Perla de Cádiz. The tocaor is Paco Cepero.





Estrella Morente, while not herself a Gatidana, is a great admirer of the deceased La Perla, and here offers her version of one of La Perla's Bulerias:





Then we have the acknowledged Master of Cante Gatidano, Aurelio de Cádiz, singing a wonderful Soleares in his distinctive voice:





And finally, Aurelio again singing Siguiriyas:


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## Larkenfield

This is a fabulous Cante Flamingo thread that I've marked Likes on virtually every post. I love the music and its ability to tell a story or just to be immersed in its sense of passion. The Spanish are way underappreciated for what they had contributed to European culture, and their spirit is needed when everyone else gets too locked into their heads and analysis or the minor petty things of life that don't really matter. But love and sex and birth and death and pain and heartache and joy and risk and courage and spirit – they are what give life its deeper passion, vitality and meaning, and I've always felt that the Spanish knew a hell of a lot about it as vibrant men and women. Ole!


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## Larkenfield

Wow. Just wow. From his guts and belly. In places it unexpectedly goes into major.


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## Strange Magic

Larkenfield, welcome to our quiet little corner of TC. Just be careful about references to "cante flamingo". An English flamenco aficionado once posted that he asked someone in his London neighborhood whether they knew anything about flamenco. The person replied "That's a kind of fekking big pink bird, innit!" :lol:


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## Larkenfield

Strange Magic said:


> Larkenfield, welcome to our quiet little corner of TC. Just be careful about references to "cante flamingo". An English flamenco aficionado once posted that he asked someone in his London neighborhood whether they knew anything about flamenco. The person replied "That's a kind of fekking big pink bird, innit!" :lol:


Hi Strange Magic. Thanks for the welcome. I'll be careful about my language references, so I don't run the risk of being attacked by that "big pink bird"! I wouldn't want to show disrespect or perhaps also be attacked by a pair of angry castanets.... I've been enjoying the passion and vitality of the art. There's nothing like that ____ music. Ole!

:tiphat:


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## Strange Magic

*More from José de la Tomasa*

José de la Tomasa is one of my very favorite cantaores. His articulation is distinctive for its clarity, and, though a full gitano, he sang cante andaluz palos with great facility and familiarity, something that not all gitano singers choose to do. I have previously posted his Malagueñas. That same session resulted also in a fine Taranta (here erroneously labeled a Taranto) and an outstanding Soleares. Along with the Malagueña, these selections give us the young José, when his voice was at its peak. Here first is the Taranta:






And here the Soleares:


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## Strange Magic

*Enrique Montoya, Cantaor; and What Might Have Been*

Who was Enrique Montoya? A Google search doesn't turn up much useful information on this obscure singer. Donn Pohren, in The Art of Flamenco, merely dismisses Montoya as yet another reviled cante bonito cantaor. The jacket of an old Montilla LP, #FM-117, Serenata Andaluza, probably recorded in late 1958, does provide a few details: Born Utrera, 1928. Started singing as a child; joined troupe Ases Juveniles and was very successful in Madrid with them. Later toured Middle East and Europe; on return to Spain, joined troupe of Conchita Piquer, and became a member of the show Salero de Espana. Later he was "widely acclaimed" while appearing at New York's Roxy Theatre.

Not a particularly promising biography, yet Montoya did make one of the great flamenco recordings of the 1950s, Elektra #149, the LP Festival Gitana, 1958, which I have discussed before, and provided a link to. Accompanied by Sabicas, Sabicas' brother Diego Castellon, and Mario Escudero (playing as El Niño de Alicante), and with palmas and jaleo by Los Trianeros, Montoya joined with another sometimes-dismissed cantaor, Domingo Alvarado, such that the two of them rose to heights of the cante that neither of them had seemed capable of before (and never achieved again thereafter).

Whence came the magic? Was it the emergence of the mysterious duende? I think two factors were at work. First, the contact with Sabicas probably was a powerful catalyst to Montoya to sing especially well, since he knew that Sabicas and Alvarado had worked closely together in the Carmen Amaya troupe. Second, it was worked out that he and Alvarado would sing alternate coplas for what turned out to be astonishingly fine Verdiales, Tientos, Fandangos, and Fandangos de Huelva. This happy circumstance resulted in miracles of the cante, as Montoya and Alvarado were driven by one another's example to achieve levels of art they (and others) may have not thought them ever capable of. A combination of competitiveness and mutual inspiration that must be heard to be believed.

Enrique Montoya, to my knowledge, only one other time rose to the level that he achieved on Festival Gitana. That was on the previously-mentioned Serenata Andaluza LP, wherein he again teamed with Sabicas and Diego Castellon, and this time with the bailaor Goyo Reyes, to record a magnificent and rhapsodic Alegrias, a triumph of both cante and zapateado.

These two albums, when Montoya worked with Sabicas, represented Montoya's brief but remarkable episode when he fully committed himself to cante flamenco puro. He provided what remains for me the finest Alegrias I ever heard, plus really superb examples of Bulerias, Fandangos, Siguiriyas, Fandangos de Huelva, Verdiales, and Tientos.

The rest of the tale does not concern us. Enrique Montoya left his brief but intense association with traditional cante behind and devoted himself to other genres, often accompanying himself on guitar. He even cut several disks with latter-day flamenco (and non-flamenco) guitar phenom Paco de Lucía, but one quickly discerns that, unlike the example of Sabicas, PdL and Montoya had little to offer one another by way of dedication to classic cante.

Like a meteor, Enrique Montoya thus flashed brilliantly, briefly. Then he was gone. Yet the question of what could have been continues to haunt me--he was just so good, and was largely responsible for my lifelong love affair with cante.


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## Larkenfield




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## Strange Magic

^^^Larkenfield, thanks for the García Lorca/Montoya clip. Federico García Lorca, along with Manuel DeFalla, had an interesting relationship with flamenco, sponsoring an early cante competition with mixed results, resulting from their misapprehension of flamenco as a "Folk Art" rather than as a form of Art Song. But they clearly loved flamenco, and García Lorca penned material which ended up sung by flamenco singers. The Montoya example reminded me of this later effort at a García Lorca lyric by Camarón de la Isla, which I love--it's not flamenco but its bubbly charm is irresistible!


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## Larkenfield

Loved Camarón de la Isla! Lorca yes. There's that exuberant primal energy, and I often hear such a cry of anguish in the music, as if the musicians would explode if the couldn't get out the depth of their emotions. Ole!


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## Strange Magic

Here is an English translation of _La Leyenda del Tiempo_, The Legend of Time. There are several, but in my supreme lack of facility in Spanish, I prefer this one. I'll post the Spanish letras and maybe some of our Spanish friends can supply their own alternative translations.

The dream passes through time.
Floating like a sailboat
No one can crack open the seeds
In the heart of the dream

Time passes through the dream
Sunk up to its neck
Yesterday and tomorrow they will eat
Dark flowers of sorrow

The dream passes through time.
Floating like a sailboat
No one can crack open the seeds
In the heart of the dream

Up on the same pillar
Dream and time embracing
The child's cry crosses paths with
The old man's broken tongue

The dream passes through time.
Floating like a sailboat
No one can crack open the seeds
In the heart of the dream

And if the dream pretends to be a wall
In the mists of time
Then time will make it believe
That it is being born at that moment

The dream passes through time.
Floating like a sailboat
No one can crack open the seeds
In the heart of the dream

The dream passes through time.
Floating like a sailboat
No one can crack open the seeds
In the heart of the dream


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## Strange Magic

Here the Spanish:

El sueño va sobre el tiempo
Flotando como un velero
Nadie puede abrir semillas
En el corazón del sueño

El tiempo va sobre el sueño
Hundido hasta los cabellos
Ayer y mañana comen
Oscuras flores de duelo

El sueño va sobre el tiempo
Flotando como un velero
Nadie puede abrir semillas
En el corazón del sueño

Sobre la misma columna
Abrazados sueño y tiempo
Cruza el gemido del niño
La lengua rota del viejo

El sueño va sobre el tiempo
Flotando como un velero
Nadie puede abrir semillas
En el corazón del sueño

Y si el sueño finge muros
En la llanura del tiempo
El tiempo le hace creer
Que nace en aquel momento


El sueño va sobre el tiempo
Flotando como un velero
Nadie puede abrir semillas
En el corazón del sueño

El sueño va sobre el tiempo
Flotando como un velero
Nadie puede abrir semillas
En el corazón del sueño


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## Flavius

Let me thank Strange Magic for initiating this thread on Flamenco, the oldest musical tradition on the continent (according to Lorca). My first experience was in a little bar, the 'Mar Chica', just off the port area in Tangier, years ago: a middle-aged woman with high heels, castanets, and a guitarist. Later, in Triana, across the river from Seville, I listened to the gypsies with their cante hondo, and was committed. Some ancient response was awakened. Like the impossibly intricate 'finger' rhythms of the Southern Spaniard, it is music that outsiders rarely seem to master.

In a previous classical music forum I attempted to start a discussion on Flamenco, but no one seemed interested at the time. And now, here we are. I have little to offer in insight, but want to express my devotion to the art. It is a unique genre, neither classical nor folk. In passing, let me say that I am particularly impressed with El Nino de Almadén, and am fortunate to have the Mandala (harmonia mundi) series of 'Arte Flamenco'. As I mention this, the Nino's 'Farruca' comes to mind...and his 'saetas' for Holy Week in Sevilla. Flamenco recordings seem difficult to come by, and can be quite expensive.

Mention was made of duende. Let me recommend Garcia Lorca's 'In Search of Duende', an invaluable resource. Ah, to be gifted with a quality impossible to define!


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## Strange Magic

Flavius, welcome to our small but growing band of aficionados! Delighted to have you aboard. Please feel free to add whatever you choose to the thread. I also am a great admirer of el Niño de Almaden, one of the great payo cantaores. We are fortunate that so much great classic cante flamenco is available on YouTube, so even though it may continue to die away, it still lives on.

Here is a bit of García Lorca that I first heard on the first flamenco album I bought. This copla still sticks in my mind:

"Cuando fuiste novio mío
Por la primavera blanca,
los cascos de tu caballo
cuatro sollozos de plata"


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## Flavius

Thank you for your welcome, Strange Magic. 

I have always been interested in serious music developed from popular, folk, or traditional sources. Have you heard Ohana's 'Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias'? It is based on the Lorca lament, and has a profound, cante hondo feeling. Argenta recorded the work with the Orchestra des Cento Soli (Accord). You probably already know the work. If not, you might find it worth hearing.


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## Strange Magic

Flavius, thank you for the suggestion. I am not familiar with that piece and will try to hear it.

This TC thread would probably interest you, if you haven't seen it:

I love de Falla's "Nights in Gardens of Spain"; who else has a Spanish influence?


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## Strange Magic

*Pilar Bogado Sings Saeta*





Even those unfamiliar with or disinterested in cante flamenco might be impressed by the vocal gift of then 11-year old phenom Pilar Bogado. Born in Huelva in 2000, Pilar sings quite traditional cante, and here sings one of my very favorite palos, a Saeta, the "arrow of song" that is sung accompanied only by muffled drums during Holy Week in Andalusia. Though the setting here is a TV variety show, young Pilar really delivers the goods vocally. A remarkable performance.


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## Strange Magic

Flavius said:


> Thank you for your welcome, Strange Magic.
> 
> I have always been interested in serious music developed from popular, folk, or traditional sources. Have you heard Ohana's 'Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias'? It is based on the Lorca lament, and has a profound, cante hondo feeling. Argenta recorded the work with the Orchestra des Cento Soli (Accord). You probably already know the work. If not, you might find it worth hearing.


Flavius, the poem I remember I heard recited in English on TV many decades ago, back when commercial network television offered far more literate and culturally rich material, and the "Five in the afternoon" refrain still is with me, along with "The room was iridescent with agony". In Paco Sevilla's remarkable bio of Carmen Amaya, Queen of the Gypsies, probably the very best history of flamenco in the first half of the 20th Century, there is much material on Ignacio Sánchez Mejias. He was closely linked to Manuel Torre, the greatest of all gitano cantaores, to the bailaora La Argentinita, to García Lorca, to De Falla, and to a whole host of others involved one way or another in flamenco. If you wish to dig deeper into all the connections, Paco Sevilla's book is a must-have. But I consider it a must-have anyway, along with Donn Pohren's The Art of Flamenco.


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## Strange Magic

*Pepe el de la Matrona, A Payo Master*

Pepe el de la Matrona, "he of the midwife" (his mother's occupation), was born in 1887 in the barrio of Triana, Sevilla to a non-gypsy family. José Núñez Meléndez, as a payo, had a difficult time convincing his family that a career in flamenco was what he was destined for, but destined he was. He began singing professionally in his early teens and slowly began his rise to pre-eminence in cante, one of the handful of payo cantaores who have reached the absolute pinnacle of his art (Aurelio de Cádiz, born the same year, was another such). Pepe was fortunate enough to be in Madrid when Perico el del Lunar put together the group of singers who would record the classic Antología del Cante Flamenco, and Pepe contributed several classic performances to that effort. His career spanned almost all of the years I regard as a Golden Age of flamenco, as he died in 1983. His voice and delivery are instantly recognizable, as the previous posts highlighting his Serrana and Polo have shown. Here are three more selections:

First, Soleares:





Next, Tientos:





Finally, Siguiriyas:


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## Larkenfield

It's too bad there are no translations of these songs. But even without them, it's obvious the performers feel passionate about whatever they are singing. There's also a virility here that I consider hard, if not possible to find in other cultures, other than with some of the Russian voices that are simply indescribable singing Mussorgsky or sacred works. The Pepe el de la Matrona-Tientos 1965 is incredible. Here is the strummed intensity of the guitar as a great instrument of accompaniment rather than as a solo instrument. What I enjoy about such uncompromising masculine voices is that it reminds me of the women who loved them!


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## Strange Magic

*Jarrito*

One of the truly fine cantaores asked by Perico el del Lunar to sing for the groundbreaking Antología del Cante Flamenco was Roque Montoya, "Jarrito". Jarrito got his nickname for having knocked over a jar in his youth, and the name stuck. Born a gitano in Algeciras in 1928, Jarrito possessed a strong, clear voice and also became a master of almost all of the palos of flamenco, both gitano and andaluz. We have previously posted his cante andaluz Fandangos de Huelva and amazing, powerful Saetas; now we'll hear some of his gitano palos. The guitarist for these selections is not indicated, but the faint background humming that accompanies the Soleares, plus the excellence of all the accompaniment indicate that the guitarist is the legendary Manuel Serrapi, "El Niño Ricardo". Niño Ricardo was known, like Glenn Gould, for humming along as he played. He and Ramón Montoya were regarded as the strongest influences upon the following generations of flamenco guitarists, such as Sabicas, Mario Escudero, and Paco de Lucía.

First we have Jarrito singing Bulerias:





Then we hear Tientos y Tangos:





Next, La Caña:





And finally Soleares:


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## Strange Magic

*Flamenco Goes to Hollywood*

Time to stroll again down Memory Lane. It's 1957 and we see the film about Spain and the Napoleonic Wars, _The Pride and the Passion_, and a bit of Hollywood flamenco. Sophia Loren is clearly not much of a dancer--though we hear the tapping of heels, we do not see her contacting the ground. The singer is another story, however. The voice is oddly familiar and distinctive: it may be that of Eduardo Lozano Pérez, "El Carbonero", whom Alan Lomax had recorded in Sevilla just a few years previously, and who had a reputation as a saetero, a specialist in singing Saetas during Holy Week. Those who have been attending to differentiating among the various palos of cante flamenco will hear first a bit of Tientos and then a bit of Fandangos de Huelva. This is all Flamenco Lite, but it served to introduce some few of us to the Real Thing. Harsh critics of Andre Rieu, take note.


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## Strange Magic

*Flamenco Goes to Hollywood, Part II*

It's a year or two earlier than _The Pride and the Passion_, this time it's _Ship of Fools_. José Greco and his troupe of that time are on board the ship heading for Germany as the menace of Hitlerism begins to unfold in the prewar years. We do get a rare chance to briefly hear the magnificent cantaora Manolita de Jerez sing a bit of Bulerias as Greco & Company dance standard-fare traveling troupe baile. It is a shame that Greco was so sparing in his autobiography of mention of the members of his group other than the women with whom he was having an affair. But back in the 1950s, long before the idea of YouTube was even imaginable, this something was far better than nothing. And there were the records.....


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## Strange Magic

*Ravel Experiences Flamenco*

First, a correction: I obviously transposed digits when I saw _Ship of Fools'_ date as 1956 when even I should have remembered it from 1965. I read the book and saw the film--liked them both!

Here we have José Greco and Company on The Tube way back when, dancing to Ravel's _Boléro_. Not flamenco puro perhaps, but actually not bad. Here we have a meeting of Classical and Flamenco, for good or ill....


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## Strange Magic

*Brook Zern Closes Down His Website*

I see that flamenco aficionado and authority Brook Zern has closed down FlamencoExperience.com, his most excellent blog/website. Zern has been recognized by the Spanish government as himself a treasure, due to both his intimate knowledge of flamenco and to his untiring effort to see that the landmark 1970s _Rito y Geografía_ series of profiles of the great flamenco artists of the twentieth century were preserved on DVD (and then YouTube) for the world to enjoy far into the future. Two Americans, the late Donn Pohren and Brook Zern, are remarkably responsible for guiding both the Spanish and the Andalusian authorities to the realization that the flamenco of Andalusia was a national--and world--cultural treasure. In recognition of Zern's contributions to the study of flamenco, I offer several of his shorter essays here. The first is his appreciation of the great and influential guitarist of Morón de la Frontera, Diego del Gastor, who became the central figure of authentic flamenco for a whole generation of expat Americans who flocked to Morón to study flamenco at his feet:

http://www.flamencoproject.com/delusion.html

And here is Zern's essay on the place guitarist Carlos Montoya occupies in the history of flamenco:

https://www.deflamenco.com/revista/...rook-zern-on-the-guitarists-centennial-1.html


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## Larkenfield

Nice way of spending an afternoon! Not an X-Box in sight and real life with joy & passion going on. :guitar:


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## Strange Magic

Larkenfield, a perfect example of a genuine gitano flamenco _juerga_! Wonderful! This was the milieu in which the Young Americans of the 1960s found Diego and the flamenco of Morón de la Frontera, and raised him and it to the status of a cult (no pejorative intended).


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## Larkenfield

Strange Magic said:


> Larkenfield, a perfect example of a genuine gitano flamenco _juerga_! Wonderful! This was the milieu in which the Young Americans of the 1960s found Diego and the flamenco of Morón de la Frontera, and raised him and it to the status of a cult (no pejorative intended).


High fives, Strange Magic. The video was a wonderful discovery that made my day. All the best to you!


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## Strange Magic

*Jay "Jacinto" Kantor and the Flamenco of Morón de la Frontera*

Some years ago I befriended another flamenco aficionado on a now-long-dead flamenco forum website. His name was Jay "Jacinto" Kantor and he was a professor of ethics at New York University. Like many Internet forums, flamenco forums could be snakepits. Jay was a respected regular on the site due to his encyclopedic knowledge of flamenco, coupled with the fact that he was one of that generation of Americans who had made the pilgrimage to Morón de la Frontera and learned from Diego del Gastor. Jay took me under his wing on that forum; we began to exchange emails and he sent me several CDs of Diego playing and Fernanda and Perrate singing and also of a rare recording of Don Antonio Chacón, a legend of early cante. We exchanged thoughts on topics other than flamenco, and also interacted for years on several other flamenco forums where he posted much wonderful material, especially on Morón flamenco and on Diego del Gastor--all of it now lost as those forums disappeared. Jacinto Kantor died suddenly of a heart attack in 2011, a loss regretted by his many friends. But he did leave an excellent long essay on flamenco, his introduction to it, Morón flamenco, and much else about this wonderful music, and I provide a link here....

http://www.flamencoproject.com/j_kantor_moron.html


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## Strange Magic

*Some Personal Favorites*

In the preceding posts, I have highlighted quite a few singers from the period--roughly 1950 through the 1980s--when the cantaores/cantaoras were still generally singing traditional flamenco, and were also being cleanly recorded. I appreciate all these folks, but I do have my favorites: certain singers singing certain palos, accompanied by certain tocaores. Here are some personal choice pairings and a few other observations; perhaps these can be regarded as my Desert Island selections:

A favorite cantaor is the young José de la Tomasa, accompanied by Ricardo Miño, Paco del Gastor, or Juan Habichuela. José excelled at both Cante Gitano and Cante Andaluz palos, singing with conviction and clarity. Best Malagueñas ever and wonderful Siguiriyas and Soleares. And his guitarists provided near-perfect complementary accompaniment.

Another favorite is the idiosyncratic coupling of Perrate de Utrera and legendary guitarist Diego del Gastor in the singer's home, amid his family. There, the pair recorded unique Bulerias, Soleares, and Siguiriyas, with the pronounced compás that marked much of their work together.

The superb father/son guitarists Perico el del Lunar _viejo_ and _hijo_ are associated with a group of singers with whom they were linked for decades: Rafael Romero, Pepe el de la Matrona, Jarrito, Pepe el Culata. Both father and son accompanists exhibited a unique, understated personal style or _propio sello_ that is unmistakeably theirs alone and immediately recognizable, bringing out a real sense of earnestness and authenticity in their singers.

Another mighty pairing is Terremoto and his longtime partner Manuel Moreno "Morao". While I am not a great admirer of Morao's playing, he was mostly well-matched with Terremoto, and it would be difficult to imagine Terremoto singing without Morao at his side. Terremoto always gave all he had and was the quintessential gitano cantaor.

Among cantaoras, Manolita de Jerez stands out. Her singing on the 1950s José Greco LP Danzas Flamencas is unsurpassed, though her accompanist is sadly unknown. Best Fandangos I ever heard. She also sang brilliantly with Paco Aguilera accompanying. Aguilera deserves mention himself as a model accompanist to singers, as he never stove to display any personal virtuosity but only and always worked to complement his singers. Aguilera probably ranks in my top 5 best, most respected tocaores who only accompanied cante.

Another outstanding cantaora is Rosario López, accompanied by Antonio Gómez, another uniquely successful pairing. The two performed my favorite, most earnest Siguiriyas sung by a woman, (Estrella Morente comes second) but López sung everything well, both Gitano and Andaluz palos, especially the mining palos. Gómez's _propio sello_ is quite idiosyncratic--somewhat "modern" compared with my other favorite accompanists, but it works very well with López's art.

So many other great flamenco artists! I could go on with other favorites--if only Pastora Pavón with her electrifying, chill-inducing voice had lived a little later so that we could have had extended, well-recorded audio and video of her unique talent. I've posted about the miracle yet so brief linking of guitar legend Sabicas with the duo of Domingo Alvarado and the suddenly inspired Enrique Montoya to record the amazing Festival Gitana LP. If only Aurelio de Cádiz had had the benefit of recording with a sympathetic, complementary accompanist rather than the unsuitable Morao in his twilight years or his early, too-brief, badly-recorded 1928 efforts with Ramón Montoya.

Maybe I'll take them all to my desert island!


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## Strange Magic

*Paco Sevilla: Website and Books*

Early in this thread I recommended several books by flamenco historian and tocaor Paco Sevilla. Paco has written three superior books on flamenco. They cover its history from the later years of the 19th century--in the biographical novel about Don Antonio Chacón, _Seeking Silverio_--through the first half of the 20th--in the outstanding biography of Carmen Amaya, _Queen of the Gypsies_, which also is jam-packed with flamenco history of the era I've focused on in this thread--and later in the century with his book on guitar phenom Paco de Lucía, widely held to be the greatest technician ever in flamenco guitar, _Paco de Lucía, a New Tradition for the Flamenco Guitar_.

Paco has a website up: www.pacosevilla.com. and in a recent exchange of emails has confirmed that these books can now be ordered directly from him. Any individual book is $10 plus $3 for shipping, or all three books as a package for $20 plus $5 for shipping. One can order from Paco Sevilla at P.O. Box 8867, Chula Vista CA 91912. In theory one could order through Paco's website; I have no trouble accessing Paco's website, but Paco is having problems with it himself, so it would be safer to order via the mailing address in case one gets no response through the website. I know Paco from working with him on a project, and can be certain of him as the prime source for his books. I'll be ordering the complete set of three as I do not have his book on Paco de Lucía, and will have extra copies of the other two books to give as presents.


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## Strange Magic

*Paco Sevilla's Books*

I just received, without delay, the well-packaged set of the three books on flamenco by Paco Sevilla that I referenced in the preceding post. Again, I can strongly recommend the purchase of all three for $25 which includes shipping, with the emphasis for those coming fresh to flamenco that they read his Carmen Amaya biography _Queen of the Gypsies_ first. It provides much of both the history and the structural essentials of traditional flamenco such that the material in the other two volumes and whatever other books someone might read later are rendered more familiar.


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## Strange Magic

*The Books of Donn Pohren*

Along with those of Paco Sevilla, I have recommended the essential books of D.E. (Donn) Pohren as guides to traditional flamenco. Amazon offers paperback reprints of _The Art of Flamenco, Lives and Legends of Flamenco_, and _A Way of Life_ as a package deal for $49. A Way of Life is Pohren's account of his years in Morón de la Frontera running an inn for non-Spaniards interested in experiencing flamenco in its native environs and is very well worth reading. The other two books are key, and a little should be mentioned about their current versions:

The version of The Art of Flamenco being offered by Amazon appears to be the 1984 edition, somehow photocopied using less-than-optimum technology and materials. It bears a resemblance to the 2005 edition which included many updates by Pohren to the text but which was a sea of typographical and wrong font errors--I counted well over 400 such in my copy. Since I regard Pohren's book as timeless, I am happy with my old, battered 1967 hardcover, and the Amazon edition will deliver the same message. However, the error-riddled 2005 edition does contain Pohren's final thoughts on flamenco.

The Amazon-offered edition of Lives and Legends is also photocopied from an earlier edition and bears a similar lack of crispness and quality of materials. But it offers the original text, and it's the text that is important. So I can recommend buying the Amazon 3-book package, though I wish that Donn Pohren's legacy as the leading proponent and explainer of traditional flamenco had been better served by his succession of rather shabby publishers. At least Paco Sevilla had the benefit of overseeing (and financing) the printing of his own excellent books, and they show it.


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## Strange Magic

*Paco on Paco: Paco Sevilla's Book on Paco de Lucía*

I have finished Paco Sevilla's book on flamenco's most celebrated guitarist, Paco de Lucía. I am neither a guitarist nor an aficionado of solo flamenco guitar, but PdL was a key figure in the ongoing evolution of flamenco. His technical mastery of his instrument, his love of traditional flamenco idiosyncratically coexisting with his ongoing investigations and experiments in expanding the borders of flamenco, and his long association with equally influential cantaor Camarón de la Isla, all served to place PdL at a key inflection point in the history of flamenco. Paco Sevilla does his usual excellent job, giving us PdL's origins, background, and growing recognition as both a driver of change in flamenco and its primary beneficiary.

But Sevilla's book also raises the constantly-discussed question of whether flamenco becomes something else when it expands or moves beyond what for a century or so was universally understood to be the heart of the art--a body of vocal art sounding a certain way, usually accompanied by a guitarist, and sometimes by a dancer--the sort of material I have presented in this thread. Sevilla himself is of several minds on this issue, as are most aficionados--there is constant talk of flamenco's "need to evolve", the inevitability of change: new and additional instruments, new modes, new phrasings--when does it become something other than flamenco? There is talk that flamenco must/is/will change, or it will die. And that dying is regarded as a Very Bad Thing by most aficionados writing about it.

My position is different. I feel that once a genre has established its basic identity and has maintained it for a number of decades and been granted a widely-accepted name, it should be understood to have evolved into something else once it loses much of what had previously been its identifying hallmarks. It requires a new name. Consider baroque music. Nobody composes it anymore, yet it is played and enjoyed constantly. It evolved into something else, and so it gained a new name. For me, flamenco is what I have posted in this thread. It will live, captured on CDs, YouTube, old LPs, DVDs, and through the efforts of whatever living artists choose to perform it still, just as baroque music lives on. Paco de Lucía, Camarón de la Isla, and the host of other transitional figures who helped birth new musics out of the womb of flamenco are just that--the midwives of new musics that are of flamenco but are not flamenco.


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## Strange Magic

*An Example of Contemporary Traditional Flamenco*

This video clip was recorded, I believe, around 2014, in a club that presents traditional flamenco to aficionados. The elderly cantaor is Manuel Moneo, of a long-established Jerez flamenco family. To his right (our left) is his son Barullo. The singer to Barullo's right who begins this tasty Bulerias, I do not know. The guitarist is Miguel Salado. Manuel Moneo continued singing traditional flamenco right until his death in 2017, specializing in Siguiriyas and Soleares. His brother, Juan Moneo, "el Torta", was an equally well-known cantaor who did sing often in a more "modern" style. I don't know who the dancer is who joins in the festivities, but it's a nice example of flamencos enjoying themselves sharing this unique art form among themselves and with an appreciative audience.


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## Strange Magic

*More Manuel Moneo*

IN this clip, Barullo sings a brief Malagueña, then he and his father Manuel alternate in a classic Siguiriyas, perfectly accompanied by Miguel Salado.






Desgarradoras translates as "wrenching, heartbreaking", and Barullo appears to be himself somewhat affected by both his father's and his own singing. Flamenco: you either love it or you hate it; hard to be indifferent to it.


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## Larkenfield

There’s something about the authentic voice of the people being in the music, so human, that its hard to resist.


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## Strange Magic

*Juan Moneo: "El Torta"*

Manuel Moneo's equally renowned brother Juan, is represented on YouTube mostly by Bulerias, a specialty of his, most often in the somewhat more modern style I call "Brazilian" for want of a better term--both the singing and especially the guitar accompaniment are beginning to wander away from their traditional sound. But El Torta could sing traditionally: here is a fine Solea por Burlerías; he is accompanied by Moraito Chico. The Moreno family is prolific in esteemed guitarists. We have previously heard and seen Manuel Moreno "Morao" with Terremoto; Manuel's brother Juan was an equally fine tocaor known as Moraito, and Juan's son is the Moraito Chico of this video. Moraito Chico unhappily died young--about 55--of cancer in 2011. His son is now a well-known tocaor named Diego del Morao.


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## Strange Magic

*Manolita de Jerez*

As I've noted previously, one of my absolute favorite _cantaoras_ is Manolita de Jerez. Manuela Cauqui Benítez was for years associated with the flamenco troupe of José Greco, who called her Manuela la de Jerez, "Manuela, she of Jerez", but she is more widely known as Manolita de Jerez. Greco also referred to her as Pastora Pavón La Nueva, the new Pastora Pavón. A non-gypsy, Manolita was, until recently, sparsely represented on YouTube, but more examples have emerged. Here are some. At least three of the selections here have Manolita accompanied by El Niño Ricardo, recognized by his tuneless humming in the background....

First we have Malagueñas:





Next, Bulerias:





Then Soleares:





Finally, Fandangos:


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## Strange Magic

*More About Manolita*

In browsing about on the Internet, I came across a fairly recent entry by respected flamenco commentator and authority Estela Zatania on Manolita de Jerez. Estela Zatania shares my enthusiasm for Manolita, and provides some confirmation for my suspicion that the tocaor Triguito accompanied Manolita on at least one palo (Fandangos) on the fabulous _Danzas Flamencas_ 1954 Decca LP, as rumor had it that they had performed together, and thus he perhaps was the chief guitarist for that _Danzas Flamencas_ disk, yet Zatania does not appear to know of that great recording.


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## Strange Magic

*A Few More Selections from Danzas Flamencas*

I do go on about _Danzas Flamencas_, the wonderful LP issued by José Greco that has so much great singing and dancing, yet has never been reissued as a CD or a complete YouTube selection. But bits and pieces have lately been showing up on YouTube. Here are a few more gems:

First is a Tangos por Zambra sung by Rafael Romero...





Next, a classic Tientos sung by Rafael and danced by Greco:





And finally, Manolita de Jerez sings the best Tangos por Zambra, danced by Greco. Wonderful!


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## Strange Magic

*José Greco y Los Chiquitos de Algeciras*

In wandering about YouTube, I came across a trove of material credited to "José Greco" that I did not recognize. Amongst this new material were several tracks whose excellence led me to speculate on just who were the artists performing with Greco. This always a puzzle because egomaniac Greco very rarely if ever identified the flamencos who performed in his company and/or recorded with him, and was at pains to reveal little or nothing of them in his autobiography or on album notes as I have noted. In his defense, though, he often chose exceptionally fine performers, but if only he had told us more...

The thought then dawned on me that, on several tours, the young guitar phenom Paco de Lucía and his cantaor brother Pepe de Lucía were part of Greco's company: was it possible that the brothers were the fine artists on these YouTube clips? I checked out the brothers on YouTube from when they were a teenage flamenco duo, Los Chiquitos de Algeciras, back in 1962, and even then known for their mastery of flamenco and the excellence of their performance. José Greco got wind of the brothers and invited them to join his troupe in 1963; this detail from Paco Sevilla's bio of Paco de Lucía. When I listened to the very young Pepe (15) singing as Pepe de Algeciras and compared it with a possible 17-year-old Pepe de Lucía singing with a slightly more mature but very similar voice on the Greco recordings, and the very skillful guitar accompaniment in both cases, it seems to me quite probable that it is the brothers we are hearing on the Greco YouTube clips. Pepe de Lucía has a wonderful voice and delivery, and even at 16 won a prize at a flamenco contest for his Malagueñas, and Donn Pohren, who evidently was at the contest, thought Pepe should have won almost all the prizes for cante.

Here are the clips: First is an exciting Solea por Bulerias, ending in a straight-up Bulerias...





Next we have Fandangos de Huelva:





Now Tangos:





And finally Malagueñas then leading into Verdiales:





I was so pleased to discover these clips. They demonstrate how good Greco's taste was in selecting flamencos to join his troupe and then to bring some of the best real flamenco, though somewhat "staged" of necessity, to the greater world outside of Andalusia. Along with Sabicas, José Greco was my passport and introduction to the world of flamenco.


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## Strange Magic

*Yet More About Manolita de Jerez*

Here is a bit of Estela Zatania's tribute to Manolita de Jerez wherein she strengthens the supposition that the unnamed _tocaor_ on most of the _Danzas Flamencas_ album was Triguito....

"This is my brief but sincere tribute to one of those forgotten interpreters. I fell in love with the voice of Manuela Cauqui Benítez, "Manolita de Jerez", around 1962 when I heard her on a recording with the José Greco dance company. In the early sixties I was able to buy records of flamenco singing at a store on New York's 14th Street called Casa Moneo, which is where I discovered the José Greco recording with Manolita's haunting sound. Her vocal placement and powerful delivery were reminiscent of Paquera, but then her ability to draw the voice inwards seemed to recall La Niña de los Peines. Add to that an oriental sort of twang, the compás of Jerez, the influence of don Antonio Chacón, and it was an irresistibly flamenco recipe.

Yet so forgotten was this singer in recent times, that when I brought her name up at a roundtable discussion with experts on the flamenco singing of Jerez, they assured me there was no such artist from this city, and that certainly it had to be someone wanting to bask in the glory of assuming the sobriquet "de Jerez". Further investigation however, revealed Manolita could not have been more from Jerez, with roots in both the Santiago neighborhood, where she was born, and San Miguel, where she later lived very near Paquera's birthplace, in addition to spending her final years in the La Plata neighborhood.

Manolita's father worked in a typical Jerez "tabanco" where people gathered to drink wine and share cante. Her mother and sisters are said to have been very good singers. At the age of 15, she sang at the Villamarta theater in Jerez, and at 18, recorded several popular songs accompanied by Manuel Bonet on guitar, *although in the Diccionario Enciclopédico Ilustrado del Flamenco, Juan González Núñez "Triguito" is described as "the favored guitarist of Manolita de Jerez".* In these recordings you don't really detect the enormous capacity and flamenco power Manolita would deliver only a few years later, when José Greco signed her up to sing for his newly-formed company."


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## Strange Magic

*Rito y Geografía Documentaries*

Since Brook Zern closed down his wonderful flamenco website, the master listing of all the encyclopedic _Rito y Geografía_ documentaries that Zern compiled and published on his site was also lost. But here is the listing again, from the rtve website itself. Anyone interested in total immersion in classic flamenco will find virtually everything here that was available up through the 1970s when most of the material was assembled:

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/...ografia-del-cante-festival-del-cante/4860998/


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## Strange Magic

*Fosforito*

One of the most highly-esteemed and decorated cantaores of the second half of the 20th century is Antonio Fernández Díaz, "Fosforito". Fosforito, a payo from Córdoba, was born into a flamenco-loving family, and quickly became involved with cante, learning many of its more obscure palos. He was influenced by people like Antonio Mairena, Pastora and Tomás Pavón, and, curiously, by the enigmatic Enrique Montoya, about whom I have posted as a strange figure in flamenco history. While many believe cante flamenco to be primarily a gitano (gypsy) specialty, it is often the payo singers like Fosforito, José Menese, Aurelio de Cádiz, Pepe el de la Matrona, Niño de Almadén who are the most ardent preservers of traditional song, though they often lack the raw voz afillá of gitano singers like Agujetas, Manolo Caracol, or Terremoto. Fosforito is only the 5th singer to receive the coveted Golden Key award, the others being Tomás el Nitri, Manuel Vallejo, Antonio Mairena, and Camarón de la Isla.

First, we hear Fosforito in a classic Soleá, accompanied by Juan Carmona "Habichuela":





Next, Tangos Gitanos, with Paco de Lucía on guitar





Third, Cantiñas, again with Paco de Lucía.....





A fine Tientos, with Paco...





Finally a juerga-flavored gathering where Fosforito sings again Soleá, accompanied to my surprise by the modest though excellent guitar work of cantaor Enrique Montoya, whose understated yet evocative play reminds me of the elder Perico el del Lunar. Who knew he was so good?


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## Strange Magic

*More About Los Chiquitos de Algeciras*

Here are 3 selections from an LP of Paco and Pepe de Lucía as the young duo, Los Chiquitos de Algeciras. I note Pepe sounds a bit like the cantaor Enrique Montoya, with whom Paco de Lucía made several albums--it may be that the brothers were close to Enrique Montoya, as Paco was also to Fosforito. Herewith the three selections in a row: a Soleá, Malagueñas, and Tientos.....


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## flamencosketches

Despite my handle here (really I took it from the name of a great, quasi-Spanish Miles Davis composition), I am pretty clueless about flamenco music. I guess that makes me a flamenco poseur. But in any case, the genre is fascinating and beautiful, so I am naturally curious.

You really seem to know your stuff. Do you have an all-time favorite flamenco CD? Or one that you would recommend to a beginner as an introduction? As a bit of background, I love all styles and eras of classical music, jazz, hip-hop, old rock music, folk, and metal, if any of that matters. And I'm a guitarist.

Great thread. I will peruse the youtube links you've provided. This Pepe y Paco de Lucia track is beautiful. The harmonic language of this genre is fascinating, as are its mysterious, melting-pot origins.


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## Strange Magic

flamencosketches, glad to have you here! I had Miles' _Sketches of Spain_ LP back when I was attempting to become familiar with jazz, so I appreciated your TC name and avatar right away. Feel free to join in anytime.

Regarding CDs, I do not have many because there were not many to have during my collecting days, and YouTube now boasts an incredible library of classic, traditional cante flamenco, which is where I usually go for my music. But here are some suggestions: CDs that deliver a goodly share of fine material...

First, there is the series of disks called Grands Cantaores du Flamenco, issued by Le Chant du Monde and edited/compiled by Mario Bois. Each is devoted to the work of a single singer. I have the disks for El Sordera, Beni de Cádiz, Terremoto, La Perla de Cádiz, La Niña de los Peines, Manolo Caracol, El Niño de Almadén, Rafael Romero, and Pepe el de la Matrona. All recommended.

The Antología del Cante Flamenco y Cante Gitano, assembled by Antonio Mairena is a 2-CD Tablao recording, 74321 878922. Has all the important palos.

Early Cante Flamenco, an Arhoolie CD-326, has many excellent examples.

Women are featured on an rtve Musica double CD, Mujeres en el Flamenco, #62095. Also many fine examples.

The classic Sabicas & Company recording, Festival Gitana, was released on CD under the title Flamenco Fiesta by Legacy, CD 428. A classic of touring, ex-pat flamenco.

If you can play LPs, look for the José Greco classic vinyl, Danzas Flamencas, on an old Decca recording.

Finally, on Nimbus Records, their CD NI 5168, Cante Gitano, is so well and cleanly recorded that you will look around you for the performers.

Hope that helps. Along with YouTube, you should have access to all the great flamenco you can absorb. If you haven't yet, I would also advise reading a good book on flamenco and becoming familiar with the different palos; once you can recognize which is which, cante becomes even more engaging. Best of luck!


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## flamencosketches

Many thanks :cheers: I look forward to a lot of discovery. 

Youtube will probably get me started, but I think I am still in my "collecting days" that you may have grown out of, as I much prefer to own the music I listen to. But yes, there is a vast treasure trove of great music on Youtube. 

Thanks again!


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## Strange Magic

Before we leave a discussion of cante flamenco CDs, something should be said about the Great Grandaddy of Them All. In 1955 or thereabouts, a French producer approached guitarist Perico el del Lunar, who knew just about everybody in flamenco, about recording an anthology of cante. This was the legendary _Antología del Cante Flamenco_, released as 3 LPs on the Westminster and Hispavox labels. The Antología became for many non-Spaniards their gateway into cante, and it was one of my earliest collected recordings. It has subsequently been re-released on CD several times, though I do not have it as such. The Antología offers an example of virtually every palo, though the examples are not necessarily always of the most compelling variety. But when they are good, they are fabulous--the four Saetas are the best I've ever heard, and many others stick in my mind. Plus the recordings remain one of the best places to hear the unique guitar accompaniment of Perico el del Lunar the Elder, whose playing has been regarded by many as a gold standard in cante accompaniment, due to his evocative atmospheric World-Weary 3 o'clock in the morning personal style. Once you hear Perico, you will recognize his playing forever.

Here is a link to what may be a source for the Antología in CD format. This is a different anthology from the previously mentioned anthology compiled by Antonio Mairena....

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Antología-Del-Cante-Flamenco/release/4702845


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## Strange Magic

*Night Thoughts*

My insomnia is an old acquaintance. A recent bout had me again wide awake, seeking engagement, and I found myself drawn as so often happens to my YouTube flamenco, listening to and sometimes watching the singers and guitarists interacting as I have for close to 65 years now, on LPs, CDs, and then YT. I watched and listened to a bit of Estrella Morente, José de la Tomasa, Perrate de Utrera and Diego del Gastor, and finally Terremoto and his eternal companion Manuel Moreno "Morao". I am familiar with every note in the selections and was struck again by how comfortable and satisfying it was and is to slide smoothly into the distinctive quickly recognizable patterns and sequences of the various palos--Soleares, Malagueñas, Siguiriyas, Tientos, Fandangos, Bulerias..... Old friends, like well-worn pebbles or bits of polished wood that just feel right in one's hand. Comforting in the middle of a dark, sleepless but unworried night.

I was also struck, watching Morao accompanying Terremoto, at just how fantastically accomplished these flamenco guitarists are. The YT clips of the two often focus upon Morao's fingers as they effortlessly fly over the guitar's strings, both plucking and holding down strings to produce instantly the sounds he is searching for. Strumming, tapping the guitar body (golpe) very close to instinctively. I compare that (unfairly!) with the seemingly labored effort of classical guitarists carefully picking their way through a complex piece--the contrast gives the false but almost unavoidable impression that flamenco guitarists know exactly at all times what their instruments can produce sonically and exactly how to produce it, while classical guitarists are figuring it out as they go along. I love cante flamenco!


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## Strange Magic

*Some Welcome Pure Pleasure.....*

Here is a delightful interlude in the usually macho world of flamenco. While I am not an aficionado of solo flamenco guitar, I could not help enjoying this YouTube clip of a modern female flamenco guitarist, Paola Hermosín, giving a brief lesson in impeccable Spanish on the _Soleá_, then playing one well-known by the longtime _tocaor_ Paco Peña. Hermosín plays both classical and flamenco guitar, but here she is all flamenco. Enjoy the YouTube clip as I did for her self-assurance, her delightful diction, and then, after her spoken lesson, her skillful play of a classic, traditional _palo_, the _Soleá de Alcalá_.....


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## Strange Magic

Here is mi novia nueva, Paola Hermosín, playing a Farruca. I'm in love!......


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## Room2201974

Strange Magic said:


> I was also struck, watching Morao accompanying Terremoto, at just how fantastically accomplished these flamenco guitarists are. The YT clips of the two often focus upon Morao's fingers as they effortlessly fly over the guitar's strings, both plucking and holding down strings to produce instantly the sounds he is searching for. Strumming, tapping the guitar body (golpe) very close to instinctively. I compare that (unfairly!) with the seemingly labored effort of classical guitarists carefully picking their way through a complex piece--the contrast gives the false but almost unavoidable impression that flamenco guitarists know exactly at all times what their instruments can produce sonically and exactly how to produce it, while classical guitarists are figuring it out as they go along. I love cante flamenco!


*Strange*,

I assume you are talking about:






A few thoughts come to mind. I'm assuming that you know that one of the main differences between a Flamenco guitar and a Spanish classical guitar is "action" - the amount of distance that the guitarist has to push the string down to create the note. The higher the action the harder it is to play the instrument. Flamenco style, with its focus on fast falseta runs, favors very low action as it makes playing those runs easier. The down side is the "string rattle" that happens when the action is set so low that the vibration of the string does not "clear" the higher frets, causing a noticeable rattle in sound. I say "down side" because as a percussive effect, especially when strumming, sting rattle is an important aspect of the "flamenco sound."

OTOH, Spanish Classical guitars have higher action to avoid that string rattle. Clean playing and tone production are paramount. Trust me, no one wants to hear a Bach invention on a guitar with string rattle. (Bach didn't write any rattles into his manuscript so you shouldn't play any.)

Another thought on playing is this: The farther down the neck of the guitar toward the tuning pegs that one goes, the wider the spaces between the frets, and the harder it is to play the instrument. By placing a capo on the second fret, Morao has in effect, eliminated the two hardest frets to cover in terms of finger stretching - making the guitar easier to play.

What I'm suggesting here, and not to take anything away from the impressive playing skills in the video, is that the fluidity in playing that you see demonstrated is aided by the set up and playing style of the Flamenco guitar. To play those same songs on a Spanish Classical would be much more difficult.


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## Strange Magic

*Guitars and Guitar Play*

Room2201974, welcome to this remote corner of TC! All visitors and their thoughts are appreciated. I touched briefly on some of the points you raised in my Post #108. As you know, working flamenco guitarists, especially those accompanying singers and dancers, are seldom without their capos as the need to alter tuning varies constantly among palos--and singers. And the differences in design and construction between flamenco and classical guitars certainly reflects the different requirements of the two genres. It's curious that I chose Morao as my exemplar of flamenco technique in that I do not care generally for his playing ("too many notes") compared with so many other equally skilled _tocaores_--in my post on Aurelio de Cadiz, I complain about Morao's overplaying, drowning Aurelio in a sea of loud, superfluous notes. Such overplaying seems to have been a characteristic of Jerez flamenco guitar playing. But to each his own. Feel free to contribute to these thoughts of flamenco as you see fit.


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## Strange Magic

*JALEO Newsletter, 1977-1992*

California was a hotbed of enthusiasm for all things flamenco in the pre-Internet era. I have previously posted about the American flamenco guitarist and historian/novelist Paco Sevilla in this thread--Paco's several books on flamenco are an essential part of a library of books on flamenco and its history, and he has his own place in the history of that history. Part of Paco's contribution was for years as the editor and a constant contributor to the typed flamenco fanzine/newsletter _Jaleo_ which came out of a San Diego address for some 15 years as a shared glue binding together much of the American flamenco enthusiast scene. The back issues of _Jaleo_ are now available online and make for interesting and often informative reading on flamenco topics as discussed both among Americans but also including input from Spanish sources as well. I invite all to browse through these past issues to get a sense of the enthusiasm among flamenco aficionados during this period when flamenco was still being enjoyed as a novel artform among devotees sharing the same enjoyment of its unique charms.

http://www.elitedynamics.com/jaleomagazine/index-jaleo_issues.htm


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## SanAntone

Strange Magic said:


> *JALEO Newsletter, 1977-1992*
> 
> California was a hotbed of enthusiasm for all things flamenco in the pre-Internet era. I have previously posted about the American flamenco guitarist and historian/novelist Paco Sevilla in this thread--Paco's several books on flamenco are an essential part of a library of books on flamenco and its history, and he has his own place in the history of that history. Part of Paco's contribution was for years as the editor and a constant contributor to the typed flamenco fanzine/newsletter _Jaleo_ which came out of a San Diego address for some 15 years as a shared glue binding together much of the American flamenco enthusiast scene. The back issues of _Jaleo_ are now available online and make for interesting and often informative reading on flamenco topics as discussed both among Americans but also including input from Spanish sources as well. I invite all to browse through these past issues to get a sense of the enthusiasm among flamenco aficionados during this period when flamenco was still being enjoyed as a novel artform among devotees sharing the same enjoyment of its unique charms.
> 
> http://www.elitedynamics.com/jaleomagazine/index-jaleo_issues.htm


Love flamenco - thanks for bumping this thread.


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## Strange Magic

Strange Magic said:


> Here are 3 selections from an LP of Paco and Pepe de Lucía as the young duo, Los Chiquitos de Algeciras. I note Pepe sounds a bit like the cantaor Enrique Montoya, with whom Paco de Lucía made several albums--it may be that the brothers were close to Enrique Montoya, as Paco was also to Fosforito. Herewith the three selections in a row: a Soleá, Malagueñas, and Tientos.....


Here is a video of the brothers Paco and Pepe a bit older than their teen years performing _bulerias_ in the slightly more "modern" style. There is no question that Paco de Lucia was a superb guitarist, and this clip shows the two brothers working together during the time of transition as flamenco evolved in a newer direction.....


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## SanAntone

Paco de Lucia y Camaron de la Isla - Bulerias






The music starts at 2:08. I've tried to copy the link to advance to that point, but it may not work.


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## SanAntone

Cante: Mariangeles Toledano
Guitarra: Alvaro Llanos y Mario Moraga
Palmas: Isra Llanos, Manuel Reyes y Alberto Romero.


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## SanAntone

I thought I'd post some of the various palos, starting with Bulerías, and now Soleá

*Estrella Morente* - _Soleá_






From Wikipedia


> Soleares (plural of soleá, pronounced [soleˈa]) is one of the most basic forms or palos of Flamenco music, probably originated around Cádiz or Seville in Andalusia, the most southern region of Spain. It is usually accompanied by one guitar only, in phrygian mode "por arriba" (fundamental on the 6th string); "Bulerías por soleá" is usually played "por medio" (fundamental on the 5th string). Soleares is sometimes called "mother of palos" although it is not the oldest one (e.g. siguiriyas is older than soleares) and not even related to every other palo (e.g. fandangos family is from a different origin)[


*Bulerías*

From Wikipedia


> Bulería (Spanish pronunciation: [buleˈɾi.a(s)]; interchangeable with the plural, bulerías) is a fast flamenco rhythm made up of a 12 beat cycle with emphasis in two general forms as follows:
> 
> [12] 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11
> or
> [12] 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 [7] [8] 9 [10] 11
> 
> This may be thought of as a measure of 6
> 8 followed by a measure of 3
> 4 (known as hemiola).
> 
> For dancers, it is commonly viewed with a compas or bar of 6 counts as opposed to 12.


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## Barbebleu

Estrella Morente is superb. Do you know who is on guitar?


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## SanAntone

Barbebleu said:


> Estrella Morente is superb. Do you know who is on guitar?


Juan Habichuela


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## SanAntone

Okay, well I just looked at Page 1 - and humbly realize that Strange Magic has already done so much great posting on the palos and everything else!

So much to read. But I'll continue posting a few clips when I hear something I think is exceptional.


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## Strange Magic

SanAntone, I am delighted to have you here in our small circle of flamenco aficionados! The flamenco fraternity is small but dedicated. The problem with the few remaining flamenco forums for me is that guitar enthusiasts are the most fervent posters, whereas my interest has always been in el cante. So as you look through this thread, you will find that is my main focus. But anything you choose to post will be most welcome!


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## SanAntone

Strange Magic said:


> SanAntone, I am delighted to have you here in our small circle of flamenco aficionados! The flamenco fraternity is small but dedicated. The problem with the few remaining flamenco forums for me is that guitar enthusiasts are the most fervent posters, whereas my interest has always been in el cante. So as you look through this thread, you will find that is my main focus. But anything you choose to post will be most welcome!


I think of flamenco as a three-sided art: the guitar, the singing and the dance. Really it's an complete culture, lifestyle. I have a book that I haven't read yet, but need to - _Seeking Silverio the Birth of Flamenco_ by Paco Sevilla.

My interest in flamenco is long-standing and strong but fleeting, it come and goes in spurts. I am happy for the existence of this thread and applaud your great and comprehensive posting. :tiphat: I plan on contributing now and then, but also plan on reading the earlier pages to see what's already been contributed, and how I might add some info here and there.


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## SanAntone

Vicente Amigo - Callejon de la Luna (Taranta)


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## Strange Magic

SanAntone said:


> I think of flamenco as a three-sided art: the guitar, the singing and the dance. Really it's an complete culture, lifestyle. I have a book that I haven't read yet, but need to - _Seeking Silverio the Birth of Flamenco_ by Paco Sevilla.
> 
> My interest in flamenco is long-standing and strong but fleeting, it come and goes in spurts. I am happy for the existence of this thread and applaud your great and comprehensive posting. :tiphat: I plan on contributing now and then, but also plan on reading the earlier pages to see what's already been contributed, and how I might add some info here and there.


Bless your heart in your intention to read _Seeking Silverio_! That book is somewhat dear to my heart in that I had a hand in its creation. I won't reveal my name but you will find it in Paco's book. I have read the book several times and found his depiction of late 19th century flamenco Andalusia quite well done with a real eye for flavor. Paco Sevilla also began a similar book on Manuel Torres, the great Gypsy cantaor, but never got further than a few vignettes--a shame. I strongly recommend Sevilla's other two histories, especially his Carmen Amaya bio and all-purpose history of the flamenco of the first half of the 20th century, _Queen of the Gypsies_. Great book!


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## SanAntone

Unfortunately, _Queen of the Gypsies_ is $158.00 on Amazon.


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## Strange Magic

SanAntone said:


> Unfortunately, _Queen of the Gypsies_ is $158.00 on Amazon.


This was the situation 3 years ago (from a post of mine here):

"Paco has a website up: www.pacosevilla.com. and in a recent exchange of emails has confirmed that these books can now be ordered directly from him. Any individual book is $10 plus $3 for shipping, or all three books as a package for $20 plus $5 for shipping. One can order from Paco Sevilla at P.O. Box 8867, Chula Vista CA 91912. In theory one could order through Paco's website; I have no trouble accessing Paco's website, but Paco is having problems with it himself, so it would be safer to order via the mailing address in case one gets no response through the website. I know Paco from working with him on a project, and can be certain of him as the prime source for his books. I'll be ordering the complete set of three as I do not have his book on Paco de Lucía, and will have extra copies of the other two books to give as presents."

You might try both the website and sending a note to Paco's address. I have not kept in touch, but he may still be active and selling his books directly.


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## SanAntone

Strange Magic said:


> This was the situation 3 years ago (from a post of mine here):
> 
> "Paco has a website up: www.pacosevilla.com. and in a recent exchange of emails has confirmed that these books can now be ordered directly from him. Any individual book is $10 plus $3 for shipping, or all three books as a package for $20 plus $5 for shipping. One can order from Paco Sevilla at P.O. Box 8867, Chula Vista CA 91912. In theory one could order through Paco's website; I have no trouble accessing Paco's website, but Paco is having problems with it himself, so it would be safer to order via the mailing address in case one gets no response through the website. I know Paco from working with him on a project, and can be certain of him as the prime source for his books. I'll be ordering the complete set of three as I do not have his book on Paco de Lucía, and will have extra copies of the other two books to give as presents."
> 
> You might try both the website and sending a note to Paco's address. I have not kept in touch, but he may still be active and selling his books directly.


Many thanks, it still appears to be the case. I will contact him.


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## SanAntone

*The loneliness of Manolo Sanlúcar*

31 May, 2019 | 09:00 | Manuel Bohórquez



> I first heard the news of Paco de Lucía's death, on February 26th, 2014, while I was driving on the highway. I stopped and had to pull over to avoid an accident. I could not believe the news because I always imagined that Paco was immortal. The next day, I published a double-page feature in El Correo de Andalucía, the Seville newspaper where I've been working for more than thirty years, and some readers complained that I didn't make an in-depth analysis of him as a guitarist. It wasn't the right moment for that. It was a moment to mourn his passing and rush up a profile of him. Others went further, and encouraged me to compare him to Manolo Sanlúcar, the other great star of guitarra flamenca in these last fifty years, for whom I have a weak spot, and I say this loud and clear. To be sincere, as I always am, my admiration for Manolo is even higher than my admiration for Paco.


I really like the series of recordings _El Flamenco es ..._ I don't know how many installments there are, but there are a lot. The one on *Manolo Sanlucar *is typical, with a variety of his best work. Several tracks from the recording highlighted in the article linked above occupy the first half of the record.



> There isn't enough space here to thoroughly analyze his varied and great legacy, but one album, *Tauromagia* (1998), would suffice to immortalize him. This prodigious work summarizes the essence of this Andalusian composer, his creative capacity, by describing with it the whole of Andalusia, the world of bullfighting, the countryside, anguish, dawn, fear, success, pride, loneliness, art, creation.


*Flamenco Es... Manolo Sanlucar*

View attachment 154565


My only complaint is that he often incorporates brass or other elements that remove it from Flamenco Puro, which is by far my favorite kind of flamenco.


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## SanAntone

*LIX Festival de Cante Jondo Antonio Mairena*






Over four hours of cante flamenco, the music starts at around 23:30.



> Spain, Mexico, Canada, France, Argentina, USA, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Belgium, Peru, Germany and Japan are the geographic areas reached by the 59th Festival "Cante Jondo Antonio Mairena", an edition that has "surpassed all initial expectations", in the words of the Municipal Delegate for Flamenco, Gloria Guillén.
> 
> It's worth pointing out the fact that 22% of spectators were overseas, while the remaining 78% were in Spain. Guillén recalled that City Council always planned to go ahead with its historic festival of cante. "We never considered a suspension. So we opted for an online streaming format, without public, as this was the best and safest way to put on this edition of the festival. It has been a complete success".


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## SanAntone

Rito y Geografía del Cante Flamenco - Niños Cantaores


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## SanAntone

Niño Marchena - La Rosa (Milonga)






This is a great series, Maestros del Cante Flamenco


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## ArtMusic

*Authentic* cante flamenco must be accompanied by *dance*, which has its origins back in countryside Spain, not just guitar and vocal. This is the complete experience for those who have seen it in Spain.


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## Barbebleu

I’m interested in your thoughts on the above statement Strange. I have a feeling you might disagree.


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## Strange Magic

ArtMusic said:


> *Authentic* cante flamenco must be accompanied by *dance*, which has its origins back in countryside Spain, not just guitar and vocal. This is the complete experience for those who have seen it in Spain.


Thank you for your input. I had no idea that _el cante_ must be accompanied by dance. This revelation will revolutionize more than a century of flamencology. I'm sure you have extensive references and will be pleased to rigorously defend your thesis. Your experience certainly will be true of the flamenco offered to tourists.


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## Barbebleu

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing! N’est-ce pas?


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## Strange Magic

Barbebleu said:


> A little knowledge is a dangerous thing! N'est-ce pas?


The littler the knowledge, the more certain the believer. Some demonstrate a wide-eyed willingness to assert anything.


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## SanAntone

Carmen Mora (baile), Carmen Linares (cante) - CAÑA






02:12 Aquél que tiene tres viñas y el tiempo le quita dos
06:28 To(do) le piden a Dios la salud y la libertad, y yo le pido la muerte no me la quiere mandar - Macho de la Caña

Carmen Mora (?) was married with Mario Maya (1937-2008) and is the mother of Belén Maya Mora (1966)
Carmen Linares (Carmen Pacheco Rodríguez., Linares, provincia de Jaén 1951)
Toque:
Jose ¨Manzanita¨ ( José Ortega Heredia, Madrid 1956 - Alhaurín de la Torre, Málaga 2004)
Luis Habichuela (Luis Carmona Carmona, Granada 1947 - Madrid 1993)
Palmas:
Ramon "El Portugues¨ (Ramón Suárez, Mérida, Badajoz 1948)


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## ArtMusic

Strange Magic said:


> Thank you for your input. I had no idea that _el cante_ must be accompanied by dance. This revelation will revolutionize more than a century of flamencology. I'm sure you have extensive references and will be pleased to rigorously defend your thesis. Your experience certainly will be true of the flamenco offered to tourists.


My pleasure. I am glad we have something in common.


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## Strange Magic

ArtMusic said:


> My pleasure. I am glad we have something in common.


What might that be? I have no idea. We certainly do not share a common experience of flamenco, either in performance or in knowledge of the literature or history about it. But you are obviously young and have years of learning before you. There is hope.


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## ArtMusic

Strange Magic said:


> What might that be? I have no idea. We certainly do not share a common experience of flamenco, either in performance or in knowledge of the literature or history about it. But you are obviously young and have years of learning before you. There is hope.


Thanks for your kind encouragement. I came across this video and I must say the dance is an astounding feat of strength, art and passion, all done on street level with spontaneity:


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## Strange Magic

ArtMusic said:


> Thanks for your kind encouragement. I came across this video and I must say the dance is an astounding feat of strength, art and passion, all done on street level with spontaneity:


Thanks for your contribution. I enjoy _baile flamenco_ and have included several examples in the thread. Where I find dance particularly appealing is in informal, pueblo flamenco settings where individuals observing the singer and the guitarist feel suddenly inspired by the emotion engendered by _el cante_ to rise and dance--the urge to dance transcending any reticence due to lack of formal training or physical beauty. The one area where flamenco has most deviated from its origins as both a private affair and one primarily directed as an enterprise appealing to the fine tastes of the _señoritos_ who hired flamencos, was dance. Dance was not a primary feature of flamenco _juergas_ nor of the presentations to the _señoritos_, whose interests were chiefly in cante. Over the years, though, as flamenco gained a wider non-flamenco audience, dance became both featured and ever more stylized and remote from its indigenous roots--a form of "high" art that I find highly artificial. When dance critics for the NYTimes begin to pontificate on flamenco dance, we are far removed from authentic flamenco.


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## ArtMusic

Strange Magic said:


> When dance critics for the NYTimes begin to pontificate on flamenco dance, we are far removed from authentic flamenco.


Oh no, what have those journalists been pontificating about? I find the dance to be the high point of a complete authentic experience here, above the vocal and the guitar (and clapping).


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## Barbebleu

The thread is about Cante Flamenco. There is a clue in the word cante! Cante is the heart and soul of flamenco which Strange fully understands and has demonstrated such in this thread. Baile is an addendum. Important but secondary.


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## Strange Magic

ArtMusic said:


> Oh no, what have those journalists been pontificating about? I find the dance to be the high point of a complete authentic experience here, above the vocal and the guitar (and clapping).


I'm sure you do. Most people do not like cante. Once flamenco was seen to be a draw for tourists and general audiences beyond the aficionados, guitar (solo) and dance became what people understood to be flamenco. But we (I certainly) owe much to show-biz flamenco, otherwise I would have learned of flamenco by pure luck only. It was by seeing people like Jose Greco (from Italy and Brooklyn) on TV that I first saw flamenco and heard some cante, and then started to buy LPs of cante from Spanish labels (Montilla), and companies like Elektra, RCA, and, most important, the epoch Hispavox/Westminster 3-LP anthology of cante (1955 or thereabouts). The irony is that, since flamenco was never regarded in Spain as a wholesome art form, the image of tourist and traveling troupe flamenco became even in Spain what flamenco was all about. it was only when some American, French, German, British, and other outsiders showed Spaniards just what treasure they had in cante that cante was revived among both flamencos and non-flamencos in Spain and recognized as the heart of real flamenco.


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## SanAntone

I've always thought of Cante Flamenco as the soul of the art. The singer and guitarist express the music in a distinct and unique style of singing/playing, bringing African, Arabic, as well as, Spanish elements. 

The dancing, IMO, can be beautiful, but ultimately dispensable.


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## ArtMusic

I suppose the artists can choose to include or exclude what they please with the dance. It seems the only one immune from this is the guitar line, which is the one most discussed on forums. I have no doubt that people in Spain continue this tradition without the dance part but I think the trio (dance, voice and guitar, or quartet if you include the claps) makes a wholesome experience. In 2010 flamenco reached World Heritage Treasure status thanks to the very reflection it does to Spanish art and culture. (In case if anyone is wondering, I am not of Spanish descent in any way).


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## SanAntone

Manolo Caracol - Venganza (FANDANGOS)


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## SanAntone

Fosforito - Libre quiero ser


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## SanAntone

*Niño Marchena* - Fiesta de Romería (Aires de los Romeros de Alamonte)








> José Tejada Martín. Marchena (Seville), 1903 - Seville, 1976. Singer. He called himself Niño de Marchena at the beginning of his career. He was the main protagonist of the stage of the Flamenco Opera, given the afandangados styles.
> 
> From a very humble family, in which there were no artistic precedents, although the father was intoned well with malagueñas and soleares. At the age of seven, that child prodigy was already astonished and at twelve or fourteen he would walk through the taverns of Marchena and other surrounding towns making his little songs in exchange for a few coins. In 1920, he was already established in Madrid as a figure of cante with new ways and in which a great future was presumed. In addition to fandangos, he stood out in genres such as the airs from America, the cantes from Malaga and the miner-Levantines.
> 
> Falsetto and watermarks were characteristic of Marchena's cante, which was described as "pretty" due to its precious qualities. He took personal creation to its last consequences, introducing recitations in cante and inventing unprecedented stylistic crossovers. His cante had and still has followers, although no less detractors. He left an extensive discography and made numerous films.


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## SanAntone

*bebo & cigala | lágrimas negras*


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## SanAntone

Melchor de Marchena _ Rito y Geografïa del cante Flamenco


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## Barbebleu

SanAntone said:


> Melchor de Marchena _ Rito y Geografïa del cante Flamenco


Fabulous video. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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## SanAntone

Manuel Vallejo - Creyendo Que Iba a Volver (Fandangos)


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## SanAntone

LIX Festival de Cante Jondo Antonio Mairena






Singing starts at 23:32 if the video doesn't automatically begin at that point.


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## SanAntone

Carmen Linares por Bulerias


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## Strange Magic

Been a while since I posted here bu I see San Antone has been keeping the flame alive. Here is a clip of what I call "Brazilian mode" Bulerias, a more modern, softer sound than the harder, driven Bulerias of the past like Terremoto or La Paquera might sing. But this clip features a favorite of mine, Estrella Morente, singing, and the Habichuelas on guiters--a real _juerga_ atmosphere.


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## SanAntone

Strange Magic said:


> Been a while since I posted here bu I see San Antone has been keeping the flame alive. Here is a clip of what I call "Brazilian mode" Bulerias, a more modern, softer sound than the harder, driven Bulerias of the past like Terremoto or La Paquera might sing. But this clip features a favorite of mine, Estrella Morente, singing, and the Habichuelas on guiters--a real _juerga_ atmosphere.


Fabulous clip! *Estrella Morente*, Juan Habichuela, *Pepe Habichuela*, Isabel la Golondrina and Aurora Carbonell - all fantastic but the ones I've bolded are especially noteworthy.

This is one of my favorite TC threads. :tiphat:


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## SanAntone

*Rafael Romero* "El Gallina" (La Caña) 1973






Guitarist: Perico el del Lunar "Hijo"


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## SanAntone

*Cante Jondo: El Cante Profundo de Andalucía*






Cante jondo (Andalusian Spanish: [ˈkãnte ˈhõndo]) is a vocal style in flamenco, an unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music. The name means "deep song" in Spanish, with hondo ("deep") spelled with J. It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo. (Wikipedia)


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## Strange Magic

^^^^Rafael Romero--one of the 5 male _cantaores_ who accompany me to my desert island, along with my 5 _cantaoras_. A most consistently interesting and reliable singer with a long career working with the Pericos, father and son.


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## Strange Magic

> *San Antone:[/*
> Cante jondo (Andalusian Spanish: [ˈkãnte ˈhõndo]) is a vocal style in flamenco, an unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music. The name means "deep song" in Spanish, with hondo ("deep") spelled with J. It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo. (Wikipedia)


 I first saw the division into three parts in Donn Pohren's _Art of Flamenco_ where he divides into Jondo, Intermedio, and Chico..I wonder where the division is first mentioned or whether it originated with Pohren.


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## SanAntone

Strange Magic said:


> I first saw the division into three parts in Donn Pohren's _Art of Flamenco_ where he divides into Jondo, Intermedio, and Chico..I wonder where the division is first mentioned or whether it originated with Pohren.


I can't answer your question, but theory or analysis/classification usually comes after, sometimes long after, practice.


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