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Just wanted to know what you guys think about guitarist Jason McGuire. I was surfing the net and found some video clips. He is a monster! Great compositions - very original and artistic. I've heard some people say Adam del Monte or Pedro Cortes are very good. I saw both of them live but didn't impress me much. Chuscales is excellent as well. He is actually the guitarist that had mentioned Jason to me.
Posts: 230
Joined: Jul. 13 2003
From: West Des Moines, IA USA
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Guest)
If you are willing to include guitarists who have lived in the US for many years (and restrict it to the living), then the short list has to include: Agustin Rios Amaya and Juan Serrano. Cheers, Norman
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Guest)
We already had a discussion about Jason McGuire here in the forum. I cant find it at the moment.. But I like his style. Hes great. And his compositions are very cool.
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Guest)
Best American Flamenco Guitarist?
David Serva. Hands down.
Indeed Jason McGuire has all kinds of technique ("un monstruo!") and compositional talents to boot. His playing is just not terrifically flamenco to my ears.
(Agustin Rios is a former teacher of mine and can play extremely well and "muy flamenco" but, as a Spaniard, he doesn't fit the category.)
Posts: 2007
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Guest)
David Serva is indeed a great guitarist and most probably the Amercian who has accomplished the most in professional flamenco circles. He's incredibly complete. I love the solea he played for Falo. I saw a concert he gave in the 80's in San Francisco. There was a cassette sold and I enjoyed it for years until it was stolen from my car. I took a lesson from him once and he was ready to show me anything I wanted. He sized up my ability and gave me good material I could play. Really good teacher. Mariano Cordoba told me Serva came to him in the late fifties or early sixties for a lesson, guitar in one hand, strings in the other. Said he saw him a number of years later at a juerga speaking Spanish with an andauluz accent and singing cante. He seemingly assimilated. I've seen him play a few times, both solo and with dance/cante. His music is really clever. I think the guy is a very cool character and certainly would not argue with the opinion that he's the best of the Americans.
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Mark2)
A great flamenco guitarist is one who can accompany cante. I have played with David Serva en juerga, accompanying a very complete cantaor whom he had never met before. Afterwards they embraced: David said "you are an encycopedia of cante" and the cantaor said "you can accompany anything, and very well, better than almost anyone who has played for me."
Posts: 786
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: San Francisco Bay Area
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Mark2)
quote:
David Serva
David (Jones) Serva has lived in Spain for many years and supports himself playing flamenco. That is the true test of a good American flamenco guitarist!
David, Freddie Mejia, Eddie Lastra, myself and many more, had Mariano Cordoba as our teacher many moons ago. The late 1950’s and early 1960’s were fun in San Francisco. Playing at the Old Spaghetti Factory was very enjoyable.
I think there was something about Mariano that rubbed off on us. His playing accompaniment for Antonio and the Spanish Ballet was a vehicle that we learned from.
Posts: 432
Joined: Jan. 7 2005
From: Iasi, Romania
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Guest)
Thomas could u help me ....i'm trying to read some about David Serva,not much results in google ..no official page ,no nothing.Where can I find a bio and maybe some samples of music ?
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Guest)
I met David in Madrid with Jonathon Nagy when we went to hear some cante jondo. A retied cantaor from Murcia whose name escapes me right now. I did not hear David play but he was great company and muy flamenco. That night I took a friend who had never heard flamenco in any form and here she was being introduced to hard core. She looked a bit uncomfortable for the first set but in the interval heard us talking about the guitarist skill of improvisation and that how the guitar has to follow the singer. In the second set she got it, her eyes were shining and we had another convert on our hands
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Thomas Whiteley)
I had lunch and a few drinks with David in Jerez last year - he is a friend of Jonathan's. Doesn't say much, a dry sense of humour but had something like this to say about guitars "a good guitar can make a poor player sound better".
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Guest)
Check out this Flamenco group. Val Ramos (Connecticut). The dude is awesome! He's definitely one of the best Flamenco guitarists in the U.S. He and his brother Jose Ramos (New York City) are considered to be amongst the best in the Northeast, along with Arturo Martinez (New York City) and Juanito Pascual (Boston). His website is: http://www.Valramosflamenco.com
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to Yojimbo)
If JG7238 had the same level of experience in Cante and Baile as Ricardo or Jason, I would say he would be the best American Flamenco guitarist. just kidding.
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to jg7238)
quote:
ORIGINAL: jg7238
If JG7238 had the same level of experience in Cante and Baile as Ricardo or Jason, I would say he would be the best American Flamenco guitarist. just kidding.
Don't know about best, but fastest picado east of the Mississippi for sure.
Hendrix's 'Machine Gun' is about you!
On a serious note - thanks for the vids of David Serva, I think my aire got better just from listening to his buleria.
RE: Best American Flamenco guitarist? (in reply to chester)
this is like one of those conversations... who would win out of Bruce lee and "fill in the space"
there are many brilliant guitarists in the us, its hard to compare as they all do their own thing...different tastes, different goals, different ideas on the guitarists they wanna be.. and if Jg had the experience of Ricardo and Jason in cante and dance he would defenetly be up there too, same goes for todk...and perhaps many others i dont know
the only way one might possibly ever say whos the best on anything is to have them perform the same piece, under the same circumstances and using the same guitar and recording setup...and even then perhaps still not set in stone
a guitarist could be really good at playing his stuff...falsetas he has been doing and practicing for years i soposse but how does he handle something completely different for his style ? does that affect your scoring of the best ?
someone like moraito was amazing at what he did and the aire but i am betting theres just no way he could pull off something Anotion Rey or Jeronimo plays technically
lol just noticed, i am replying to a thread that started in 2005
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