pericon de cadiz

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pericon de cadiz

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snz333

Posts: 2
Joined: Oct. 13 2012

pericon de cadiz

I am currently obsessed with Pericon de Cadiz. Could anyone contextualize his standing among flamenco singers? Is he one of the greats, or considered middle of the road? How does one characterize his style or his repertoire? Anyone else I should be listening to if this is the sort of flamenco cante I like?

Thanks!
Mike

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 13 2012 14:45:30

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: pericon de cadiz (in reply to snz333)

I think that amongst flamencos Pericón is a highly regarded Cadiz singer and I find that he was best in things like Peteneras and Alegrias, where he´s one of the very best and also I like his Malagueñas a lot.

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Blog: http://news-from-the-workshop.blogspot.com/

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 13 2012 15:26:03

koenie17

Posts: 438
Joined: Feb. 25 2011
From: España

RE: pericon de cadiz (in reply to snz333)

For me personally El Pericon de Cádiz definately is one of the great ones(among many others). If you like these old style cantaores "Rito y geografia del cante flamenco" is a must! You´ll learn a lot from this series about cante and flamenco in general.

Here´s a link. Be sure to check out the channel of this user! He´s got a very big part of the series and they are all with english subtitels.

Have fun!

http://youtu.be/_gK-wz72Z_c

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 13 2012 15:57:10

srshea

Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest

RE: pericon de cadiz (in reply to snz333)

Pericon’s an important link in the Cadiz linage. From an early age he was in close contact with the generation of singers that came after Enrique el Mellizo, his sons Antonio el Mellizo and El Morcilla, Ignacio Espeleta, Aurelio Selles, etc., and soaked all that important stuff up.

If you want to put his career into context you can go straight to the source and read his oral biography/memoir compiled by Jose Luis Ortiz Nuevo and recently translated into English by John Moore

Other stuff to listen to would just be all the other important Gaditano singers, Aurelio, Antonio el Chaqueta, Manolo Vargas, La Perla de Cadiz, Chano Lobato, Juanito Villar, Rancapino, Santiago Donday, early Camaron, etc.

Carmen de la Jara has a two disc collection called ‘Tesoros del Cante Antiguo Gaditano,’ dedicated to the cantes of Cadiz, which is really good for identifying stuff and putting things in context.

quote:

Is he one of the greats, or considered middle of the road?

I dunno, I guess "opinions will vary," but most people don't put him at the very highest level of All Time Great status, like Aurelio and La Perla. Maybe a notch or two below that. He has a little bit of a reputation as having been a commercial 'opera flamenca' type singer in his early career, and his singing isn't always quite as jondo as some of those other important Cadiz singers. But that's all subjective. I like him, but I prefer most of the other singers I've mentioned over him. But that's just my personal taste.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 13 2012 16:56:50

snz333

Posts: 2
Joined: Oct. 13 2012

RE: pericon de cadiz (in reply to snz333)

Wow, I really appreciate all these responses! Thanks everyone - can't wait to explore the music mentioned above.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 13 2012 18:14:55

granjuanillo

Posts: 32
Joined: Nov. 3 2009

RE: pericon de cadiz (in reply to snz333)

For me, Pericon epitomizes the cante gaditano, but that is partly because I listened to him a lot when I was a teenager - he was on the original Misa Flamenca record and on one of his records from the 70s (with Felix de Utrera) that I got through a New York import mail order store (some of you may remember when it was hard to get records with cante in the US). Combined with the stories quoted in Pohren's biography of Pericon in 'Lives and Legends', I became a huge fan.

A few years later, outside a Camaron concert at Madrid's Palacio de Deportes, I bought his book from a guy who had set up a table. I didn't realize then that the guy was Ortiz Nuevo, but I read and re-read the book for its gracia and history for several years before translating it over the past few years.

I do think his voz natural and understated delivery is better suited to alegrias, tientos/tangos, and malagueña del Mellizo. Particularly por alegrias, he has the restrained understatement that is so important to the Cadiz manner of interpreting this palo. He also sings some great major key bulerias de Cadiz (also called chuflitas). On the other hand, he did win first prize for siguiriyas in a contest in Madrid in the 30s, and his soleares are magnificent (again with his trade-mark restraint).

Pohren mentions detractors complaining of his involvement in Opera Flamenca, and some of his stories mention singing Argentianian songs like milongas. I haven't heard anything like that on his recordings, however.

I think of him in the same way as Manolo Vargas, who excelled in the same Cadiz cantes and also recorded some great Cadiz bulerias. It is too bad we don't have earlier recordings of Mellizo (he could have recorded on cylinders), Espeleta (although I have heard rumors that private recordings exist), or really good recordings of Aurelio Sellé - I like the ones he did, but he himself says they are not good (and Pericon says the same thing).

For me, Pericon is one of the major Cadiz singers and an important link between the era of the Mellizos and now (e.g. Chano Lobato was inspired by Pericon, both as a singer and as a story-teller). I'd count him among the greats, but I am also biased.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 12 2012 21:36:08