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busy month
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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 busy month
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Hello all. After a decent October, my November schedule has just burst... I am scheduled for 15 gigs, and I get a lot of gigs last minute, so I wouldn't be surprised to get a few more in. About 4-5 of these are 3.5 hour long gigs at the Royal Palms, a nice resort here in town. A couple of them are with an agency with new ownership, among them a dinner party and a Jewish wedding (a first for me). I am playing for a Volvo party, various dinner parties and birthday events, and a bunch of corporate get-togethers at resorts--good thing I invested in a tux! I am playing at two resorts this month I have never cracked in about 4 years of playing out. Although the brunch thing at the Ritz didn't happen (they called me once and wanted to get me in there, but then they didn't return any of my other messages), I am still calling around to get something going on Sunday morning. A steady on Sunday morning is a good strategy because it is rarely trumped by other gigs, as steady gigs don't pay well as one-offers.
Because of the increased cash flow, I am taking advantage to upgrade my equipment a little. I finally got an L-end guitar cord, a new cell phone to replace my old, sputtering one, and have ordered a Rock N-Roller cart to help pull my gear around, and a battery for my Samson Powered speaker. Next is to get a good speaker stand on Ebay, since the current one is too wimpy to hold my PA. I still dream of going wireless, but that can't be a priority.
Although I market myself as a "Spanish and Classical Guitarist," I find myself often referred to as a "classical guitarist." This is kind of strange, because most of the classical guitarists I know say that CG repertoire is "useless" for getting gigs. It's funny how different people view this topic!
I am playing a concert/recital with a classical guitarist, I'm going to do some solo flamenco pieces, he's going to do some solo classical, and then we're going to play some commercial stuff together (Ottmar, Gipsy Kings, El Condor Pasa, and a couple Jazz tunes).
I hope everyone is doing well. Adios!
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Date Nov. 10 2004 2:39:17
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Miguel
Enhorabuena (congratulations). Hard work pays dividends. Now you are reaping la cosecha. Flaenco puro never paid the bills: ask Jose Merce.
Sean
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Date Nov. 10 2004 13:33:04
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Mark2
Posts: 1877
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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It's funny that you said that about the clean no cord thing. That was one of the things that attracted me to flamenco guitar-no amps, effects, etc. The violin guy I play with has a wireless setup that is completely portable-even has battery power, reverb, etc, and has it mounted on a cart. He designed it himself. He has a battery powered bike, which he can park anywhere, so he loads up his setup on the bike, and pedals to the gig. It sounds great.
I just hooked up a setup that I've never taken to a gig. It goes like this: flamenco guitar miked into one channel, and pickup going into another for added volume. the pickup also goes to a preamp , with a spliter, which also feeds a midi convertor, a yamaha synth, and finally, a huge midi foot pedal with two expression pedals to control the midi sounds. And of course there's a Mackie 1202 to mix everthing and then the amp or PA. Made a mess of my studio! Cords everywhere. It sounds great. you can play a midi pad on your low E then play lines on top. Or have any midi sound mixed with your guitar. At the end of the day, I'm not at all sure it sounds any better than just the guitar with the mike. Now if I had a hardware sampler, I could design sequences and custom sounds in logic, load them into the sampler, and trigger with the guitar. Very cool. Might be better to hire a keyboard player!
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Date Nov. 11 2004 20:47:03
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Mark,
that's cool. At some point I want to get a MIDI thing hooked up and do some composing for strings, horns, etc. with my guitar. That would be a lot of fun.
I am considering putting together some backing tracks... my clientele really loves Ottmar Liebert and that kind of thing so much. I have a friend who gigs out, and he manages to play rumbas solo, without vocals, and really impart a lot of energy and verve to the performance. But it's so hard. When I play solo, for the most part, it's very mellow and relaxing. That's fine, but I think I shoudl have the ability to get people moving too, and maybe backing tracks are the answer there.
Also, I met a keyboard player and it got me to thinking. It's so hard to play with another guitarist. You are always getting in each other's way, and there's almost always that ego thing going on. With a keyboard player or a bassist it would be so free, it would be nice...
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Date Nov. 12 2004 12:30:48
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Mark2
Posts: 1877
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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I used backing tracks for one gig. I didn't like it at all. Try it and see if it works for you. That's an advantage of flamenco guitar-you don't need backing tracks to do a gig. I know a guy who can play PdL's Entre do Augas as a solo-he plays the bass line and the melody at the same time. It's doesn't do it for me. There's really no substitute for a second guitarist if you need to play gypsy Kings, etc. VA does make it happen with just a bass player, but he's VA. When I first started playing rumba gigs in 1990 or so, I couldn't find a reliable guitarist to work with. Many good flamenco guys want no part of rumba. So I hooked up with a professional guitarist who made his living playing and taught him to play rumba. Being a great musician, he picked it up quickly. My original plan of building a sound with two flamenco guitarists evolved into something else- a group of professional musicans that all used their respective strengths. The other guitarist now plays a lot of electric, which is what he's best at. The flamenco(bulerias, sig, etc) got mostly lost, but the group has been very successful, working steady for more than 12 years. I get my flamenco fix elsewhere. I have done gigs with clarinet , keyboard, accordian, horn, and other string guys when the regulars can't make it. I end up playing mostly rythem except for a few solos. It's very hard for two flamenco guitarists to work together, as falsetas and stuff take a lot of playing time together to work out. Also, many flamencos are not good single string soloists, which is an important part of two guitar rumba stuff. I'd say keep looking for the 2nd guitarist, and don't overlook talented jazz or rock players.
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Date Nov. 12 2004 16:47:29
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Mark,
I have been rehearsing a bit with a good classical guitarist who has a jazz background, and in fact we're playing a little recital/concert tomorrow! One thing is that he just doesn't have the aggression, either in strumming or in picado, that I like. But we are starting to sound better, as his strumming is coming along. It is kind of nice in that he is a sensitive musician, because I don't actually play that aggressively for a flamenco, but I do play a lot louder than him! So its' nice to actually be able to come out and project when I need to. He said something interesting to me: "You can't fake maturity." That is, if a guitarist or a horn player is all about dominating the group, strumming too hard or playing too many notes and doesn't really get the "team concept thing," then that's just what it is... it is what it is.
I played with a violin player two nights ago who is a phenomenal improviser (think Jon le Ponti-esque!) and it was a revelation. It seemed like whatever he heard, he could sing it out right then and there. If someone was playing a line, he would come in half way and harmonize it, continue it, or play off it. Just great, and very fun to be a part of that.
I do come, from time to time, to thinking about doing a guitar/bass/percussion thing, but that puts so much pressure on the guitarist. Better would be to add that other lead instrument, whether it be violin or flute (although I don't like flute) or ? Or if I got my voice up to par , then that would be killer! Flamenco/classical guitar skills + bass + hand percussion + voice, that would be good!
The trio thing might work if the bass player was an adept soloist. I am already working a lot as a soloist and I do know how to improvise, so my skill set might complement such a group nicely... we'll have to see. It's so exciting to think of the many options, but isn't so much of this really based on personalities and who you happen to meet? :)
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Date Nov. 12 2004 18:29:20
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musicalgrant
Posts: 188
Joined: Oct. 21 2004
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Thanks for the food for thought,
I learnt flamenco and set pieces and found very dificult to play with other flamenco's unless we had practiced loads. But I met a guy who had been playing with the south of France Gypsys. Rumba style, and he showed me how to perform with feeling and space to improvise. It was a revalation!!
There are so many people out there with the look at me attitude, that they forget what music is about. It is about responding to the audience, and no set piece will ever do that.
He taught me to play chords whilst others play around and then to be able to playaround myself. It was amazing to have paid gigs, that were in fact rehearsal sessions! LOL..
But as yet I can not find anyone like him, so free about his music to perform with, I can play solo flamenco guitar till the cows come home, but I like playing with others, like him...we hade the Gypsy kings and ottmar lierbert sound easy...but to find a guitarist who realises the potential of giving to another guitarist and the effect it has on p[erformance is yet to come, people respond to the giving freely of oneself, like my mate. not to the egotist who thinks look at me...there are plenty of them around the work place, the audience needs a break from that!!! There are too many power housed dictating the outcome of things, Where is the power of the people?
Isn't that what folk music is about? Isn't flamenco spanish folk music? It belongs to those who work their guts out for their families, not to the soloist who thinks, hey this is a nice way of making a living|?
In my opinion and having worked with many flamenco guitarists it has come to my attention that as you have said flamenco is not about money, it is about the soul, the people who work the land, the labourers etc.
It is about breaking free from the ties of paying the bills, it is about expression, it is about being yourself, being free, about love, life and all the good and sad things that happen to us. it is about self belief, adoration, and love of other too, we all like to be admired and to admire others too...
To love and to be loved! isn't this what life is all about?
So to find a guitarist who will quite happily play chords while we perform virtuoso piece to express our selves, and to do this while they too express themselves, hence empowering the audience to believe that they too have something to express is where it is really at!!!!!!
Flamenco and all folk music is about self expression, and the empowerment of all of us as a culture, not as an individual, but as a whole! why are we so concerned with ourselves? When all flamenco and folk music is about the folk? The people? what is going on? has Conservatism and meritocrosy infultarted our souls too?
Why are we so competitive with each other? when all we want to do is please others? is it that we want all the glory? Like the tax collector with the fat check? Have we forgoten what the folk music is all about? I think this may be the case!!!!! Folk music was never about entertaining, but about ritual, and by that I mean it was not meant to be light entertainment but about life! !! So somwhere along the line Flamenco has become an entertainment fearture!? LOL What the f...?
Irish folk music what not about making money and showing off, so why are we turing to flamenco music to do this?
Why have we forsaken our own cultures to be entertainers? HAve we got caught up in the rat race too??? 
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Date Nov. 12 2004 23:29:11
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musicalgrant
Posts: 188
Joined: Oct. 21 2004
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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I too have played for the Royal medical society LOL for 350 pounds a night! so what??
Are we not selling ourselves?
I think that all this chasing after money is underming what flamenco and folk music is all about! It is and originated around the poor and suffering, and now we entertain the rich with our suffering lol, get a grip guys, where is your pride and moral stance?
it is a bit like the polenta craze in the top restaurants!, it is a cheap cornmeal flour cooked to a stodge with a rich saurce, the dish of the Italian peasants who with little income tried to feed their families, and yet now it is a trendy dish in the al a carte restaurants, lol give me a break 
Do you not understand where this folk music orignated from? It came fromsuffering of many cultures, through blood and war, for f... sake it didn't come easy! And yet we try to make a living out of someone else's culture as if it is a commodity to be sold? LOL
Why are we not focusing on our own culture and folk musci?
This will probably go down like a lead balloon, but so what?, honesty is the best policy in my book!! 
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Date Nov. 12 2004 23:49:03
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Grant,
I agree that in the modern Western societies, folk music isn't what it used to be. In fact, if I wanted to hear genuine folk music, of and by ordinary people, I wouldn't even know where to go! I call it the Wal-Martization of society, that most everything is controlled by large corporations, and thus market demand and the lowest common denominator. I was at Wal-Mart the other day. It is a huge warehouse full of shelves and shelves of goods, and thousands of people, many of them poor. I was looking for a small heater to use at my gigs, and I simply could not believe the prices. Things were so cheap, so very inexpensive! No wonder Wal-Mart is taking over the world.
But when Wal-Mart muscles out all the local shops, then everyone has to shop at Wal-Mart, and when Ottmar Liebert and the Gipsy Kings muscles out all the other "world music", then what do we have left? One mega-culture, huge and well-lit and very low-priced....
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Date Nov. 13 2004 14:54:41
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Ron.M
Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Interesting discussion.
To me there are two opposing things going on here.
One, trying to understand and play Flamenco as you appreciate in your own mind and heart, and two, trying to play guitar for a living, or part of a living to a foreign audience who have no idea or inclination to know anything about Flamenco, but like to hear a bit of Spanishy stuff when they are on a night out.
I can understand both camps here, but in saying so, I can honestly admit that I've heard very few (Andalucian) Flamenco players that haven't completely played with their whole heart and soul and I listen a lot to the "minor" players.
Personally, I think there is a "core" of Flamenco which is unchanging, but moves upwards through the ages.
I don't see why there should be anything "reactionary" about enjoying listening to some good cante with guitar, without cajon, flute, fretless bass or wah-wah pedals.
(Although sometimes I feel I am sometimes bombarded into being made felt like a dinosaur or someone who clings to "old fashioned" flamenco LOL!)
Also, to my mind, this element of "who's best" etc comes from an audience of foreign guitarists who have hooked on to the technocrats of guitar, and can't really get into anything that doesn't have outrageous chords and a dazzling technique.
To say that this is how Flamenco has developed to our present day, a natural progression, and that anything before is old fashioned, is to my mind absurd and completely misunderstanding the nature of Flamenco music and lifestyle IMO.
There are many young and very talented guitarists in Andalucia, who accompany cante and play the occasional solo in a very meaningful way, totally true to themselves and completely uncompromising in their artistic outlook without playing lightning picado or having lavish productions on their playing.
These are the guys I listen to a lot.
Mind you I have the luxury of just being able to do this for myself, just for my own understanding of the art form and do not have to play for a "general" audience.
So as I said, I can appreciate both points of view here.
But I would tend to think of "Latin" guitar as a separate thing from "Flamenco", although I enjoy listening to all good guitar playing myself.
In a way, I think that maybe the problem for foreign guitarists playing to a foreign audience is to play up to what that their audience's perception of what Flamenco is, for the sake of "audience appreciation", and then feel a sort of guilt or ambiguity about it afterwards?
cheers
Ron
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Date Nov. 13 2004 21:12:07
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musicalgrant
Posts: 188
Joined: Oct. 21 2004
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RE: busy month (in reply to Miguel de Maria)
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Lol, nice one Ron,
Yep I have found that when I performed to a general audience, they loved the cavatina, or a Rumba, but play them a full on Solea, or Bulerias, and they dont even show any appreciation for what you are doing, or should I say playing.
I have played a complicated Mineras by Tomatito, to little appreciation, but play a simple Gypsy kings number and they are on their knees  LOL
It makes me wonder some times whether practising all those hours to play true flamenco over here in the Uk is really worth it??
And yes I agree with you Ron, flamenco in its essence is pure and not about showing off.
I have heard a story from a flamenco guitarist who played with the gypsys There was this group of Gypys who were playing at a Festival and a guitarist came up and said can I play for you?, so they said "OK". So he started playing all this intricate and flashy stuff, and whilst he was playing on of the big gypos came up behind him and lay his hands across his guitar strings and said "THAT IS ENOUGH"!! lol Need I say that that guitarist sunk into the shadows whilst the Gypsys created a storm with their passoinat playing!!!!
I don't know what the answers are for the performer trying to make a living over here in the UK, but hey if they are making a living good on them!!
Flamenco is something else!! like you say Ron maybe I am a dinosour too!! lol
love ya all
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Date Nov. 13 2004 23:53:13
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