Latest Tweets:
Sure, most of the writing was done on paper already, but now Paco de Lucía is helping me brush up my report a little.
Bebo Valdés and Diego El Cigala play the latin standard Obsesión, aced by flautist Dave Valentín in this previous post.
- Diego El Cigala cante
- Bebo Valdés piano
- El Niño Josele guitar
- Javier Colina bass
- Israel Porrina Piraña cajón
Turns out, there’s just as much beauty that goes into creating the instruments as there is in the sounds those instruments create. In this video, you’ll see the tedious and intricate 299 hours it took to make a Flamenco guitar condensed into three minutes. Just gorgeous.
Que guitarrão e guitarrada!
(via ladyragnell)
Don Ellis - 33 222 1 222
take a look:
http://www.donellismusic.com/TheExoticRhythmsOfDonEllis-Dissertation.pdf
It’s also fun to clap it like a seal with a knack for the bulerías, yes, they’ve been around.
Influential pianist Michel Camilo and flamenco guitarist Tomatito, nephew of Niño Miguel de Huelva, play Ástor Piazzolla’s Adiós Nonino (previously featured), from Spain Again.
The war in Spain, from Andrei Tarkovsky’s
The Mirror (Зеркало, 1975, imdb).
Set to the rondeña Navegando me Perdí (listen here),
by Jacinto, Niño de Almadén.
Por esos mares de Dios
navegando me perdí,
y con la luz de tus ojos
a puerto de mar salí.
Vive tranquila, mujer,
que en el corazón te llevo,
y aunque lejos de ti esté
en otra fuente no bebo,
aunque me muera de sed.
Después de haberme llevado
toda una noche de jarana,
me vengo a purificar
debajo de tu ventana,
como si fuera un altar.
1996 Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucia, John Mclaughlin the guitar trio
Guys, stop making me feel inept.
(via catherinewillis)
Carlos Paredes plays Frustração (Frustration).
I heard it on the radio today, and I was really confused for a while, you can recognise Verdes Anos, which I have already posted, from 2:00.
I never cared much for Fado, as most Portuguese from my generation do, but since I started listening to Flamenco for my Spanish oral exam, I decided not to ignore our musical heritage as well, which made me listen to Carlos Paredes quite a lot, and he is amazing.
I’ll risk saying that he is to Fado as Piazzolla is to Tango, I believe they were both technically gifted, inspired and innovative for their time. No ordinary musician can make something like this, it is so deeply emotional and inspired, not to mention very intelligent, and popular music!
I think overall this is what I look for in popular music, I expect good popular music to have emotional depth, to be somewhat intelligent, to be appropriately performed, and though you can find such music in most genres (which is why I am not a genre snob), everything always seems to lead back into roots music, into folk and traditional and blues, into world music of all kinds, into mediterranean and latin music, it just feels so authentic!
Not ignoring jazz, which is guaranteed never to get you bored…
And I find myself moving increasingly away from “Leitkultur”, if I dare use that word, from pop and rock and especially indie, the latter of which I think I never understood properly, though I can often recognise these guys’ talent and worth, particularly in certain genres of rock, a bit less in good pop, considerably less in indie.
I don’t know, pop-rock-wise, I think I’m always looking for something exotic, something strange and challenging and unexpected to listen to, but carefully packed into a presentable format. The 70s were really generous on good rock music, the progressive wave is mezmerizing, I could get lost listening to thousands of really cool songs, it just makes it seem that everyone was inspired back then, it was a fantastic decade on most popular music genres.
The good thing is, I can still enjoy a good pop anthem, especially those from the 1980s. I guess when you really enjoy music, as a whole, the good stuff will always bring you pleasure.
Struck by the virtuosic playing of his son, El Niño Miguel de Huelva, Miguel el Tomate de Almería, the master of Flamenco who started a dinasty that follows down to Tomatito, his grandson, shakes his head.
From this video.
Hans van Leeuwen, a Dutch jazz guitarist, plays Django from the eponymous album of the Modern Jazz Quartet, composed by John Lewis, popularised by Joe Pass, with a flamenco-style intro on a Crafter CT-125 guitar with nylon strings.
And below, Joe Pass himself, whose music I have posted before.
don’t leave spaces
The full movie Vengo (2000), directed by Tony Gatlif, with a very interesting Flamenco soundtrack.
Caco is a proud, handsome man, head of a family, and very powerful in the local community. Yet he has been torn to pieces by the death of his beloved daughter. He constantly visits her grave, weeps silently at her photo and has transferred all his wildly protective love and attention onto his physically challenged nephew, Diego. It seems that Diego’s father, Caco’s brother, is in hiding after having killed a man from the Caravaca family, who are equally powerful in the community. They are looking for vengeance and have come to Caco for justice. When he refuses to betray his brother, the Caravacas grow impatient. When they realize they are getting nowhere, they threaten to kill Diego. Despite his fierce pride, Caco eventually realizes that the cycle of killing and revenge must be broken. But how can he achieve this and protect everyone he loves?
Tomatito, of whom I have posted before, plays some Bulerías back in 1980, similar to what Niño Miguel plays in the video I just reblogged.
The connection? Niño tres cuerdas Miguel is Tomatito’s uncle.
Grande Miguel!
Niño Miguel de Huelva, a great performance by a powerful musician of whom I have posted before.
