A very brief review of Andalucian Suite No. 1 by Juan Martin

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frhout

Posts: 453
Joined: Apr. 28 2005
From: France

A very brief review of Andalucian Su...

This thread is intended to be informative, not controversial.

Published in 2008 by Melbay, this is the first of the four books of the CD Andalucian Suite, released in 1995. It contains four pieces of music in standard notation and in cifra, written by long-time associate Patrick Campbell:

1. Evocacion de la Invasion Arabe AD 711 (Zambra Mora)
2. La Feria (Rumba) (the smash-hit rumba)
3. Alborada (Milonga)
4. Gitanos (Bulerias)

Like most Juan's books, the print quality and accuracy are both excellent.

I shall refrain from commenting on the quality of the music as I'm sure most members are better than I am to put a judgement on this. I shall instead bring out a few details from the introduction which I have never read from other sources about Juan, using my own words as I do not have the expressed permission from the publisher to quote.

1. Juan, at the age of 17, performed in a film called "Donde tu estés", filmed in the Malaga region.
2. Nino Ricardo was a good friend and mentor.
3. Juan was a regular visitor at the home of Paco de Lucia.

For those who are interested, the book comes with an accompanying CD of the four pieces at a bargain price of £12.56, you can search around and be able to find it at a more bargain price of £6.95. The CD is still available for £7.98.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 20 2009 1:31:10

michel

Posts: 315
Joined: Apr. 14 2008
From: france

RE: A very brief review of Andalucia... (in reply to frhout)

i ordered both volumes "solos flamencos" from juan martin a few weeks ago,
i was so curious about what he's doing now and wanted to start with not too difficult material after a little break (coz watching first season of the fall guy

) .
the stuff is very nice and i really like the layout of his tabs, i can recommend them, his approach of fandango de alosno (por medio) was helpful for me and in general even if i'm not a beginner, it's good to go back to basics sometimes, you can focus on little details that can have big influence on your playing when you do more advanced stuff. the books are really OK, CD and DVD are included.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 20 2009 5:28:00

frhout

Posts: 453
Joined: Apr. 28 2005
From: France

RE: A very brief review of Andalucia... (in reply to michel)

Juan Martin's books have always been very good in print quality. What I find annoying is his series La Guitarra Flamenca in VHS cassettes and mini-books. There were advertised as having over 150 pages of music each. The advert didn't say that each page had only two lines of music. So a whole piece of music will take up at least 30 pages, if it is of normal length. What is worse is that Juan will not teach us a whole palo in one cassette and one book. You get the first part of Soleares in the first cassette (first book), the second part in the second cassette (and the second book) etc. So you would need to buy all of them, which were expensive at the time. The DVDs are slightly better, but I have the impression from the second volume that Juan still won't teach us the whole palo, apart from the last few pieces. I can only conclude that there must be something to do with marketing.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 20 2009 12:44:22

michel

Posts: 315
Joined: Apr. 14 2008
From: france

RE: A very brief review of Andalucia... (in reply to frhout)

agreed, the minibooks aren't userfriendly and he doesn't really teach whole palos, but if you join together all falsetas from his different series you can build a whole piece. it's not a problem for me because i hardly never learn complete compostions, i try to connect falsetas from different books or compositors on the spot, so JM stuff can be easily included.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 21 2009 3:12:30