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Have been looking for a video of Paco Pena playing with a singer for a long time and this has just turned up- see around 30 mins. He keeps it simple but his musicianship and execution are first class as you'd expect!
RE: Paco Pena accompanying cante (in reply to jamh2000)
Neat video thanks! I've never found a video of him accompanying cante but both times I've seen him live he did quite a bit which was a great surprise. His accompaniment of the toque libres are sublime.
RE: Paco Pena accompanying cante (in reply to jamh2000)
Never saw this recording before. When i studied at Rotterdam Conservatorium El Chaparro happened to be our main teacher of Flamenco cante. Looking back on it it obviously is rediculous that i didn't learn cante by studying records (didn't even own any cante records at the time) but learned the main songs and lines first hand from this singer in hour long sessions. He used to sing us the songs copla by copla, line by line, repeating them over and over again (or showing interesting variations/alternative lines) patiently allowing us to find the chords and the correct way to drop them on top of his voice. Later when i got more knowledgeable i realized how incredible good this guy really was compared to many other professional singers i met over the years. I believe as a youngster he won a concourse and was promised a golden future. As far as i know he never made a solo record (my father actually painted a "just in case" record cover for him) but in the late 80ties he did sell a cassette tape with a couple of songs accompanied by the local star Paco Serrano (who did an excellent job, outclassing his later solo record). When he signed it to me it turned out he had miss interpret my name for years, hearing herit in stead of Erik :-). He's a marvelous guy/singer.
His son Rafael Montilla happens to be an excellent guitar player and (like his father) is an important contributer/member of Paco Peña's flamenco company for many many years.
RE: Paco Pena accompanying cante (in reply to jamh2000)
As far as Paco Peña and accompanying cante is concerned i should ad something else :-)
When Paco started his master school of flamenco guitar at Rotterdam he wanted his students to become as complete as possible. Since cante is the very basic of flamenco we obviously had to study cante as well so every now and then Paco was joined by excellent singers (often the ones staring in his company). Obviously we exploited those visits to the fullest and often spend a full day (or even days) with the invited guest teachers like above El Chaparro.
Paco's first aim was to teach us the ROOT VERSIONS of a melody, so the basic melody without personal addings. Although Paco was very well able to sing them himself (or better said to indicate a very clear melody line) he preferred them to be sung by a professional singer in stead. Obviously those singers every now and then distilled a different root-version out of a melody then Paco had in mind, resulting in funny battles between the singer (arguing his line) and Paco singing/arguing his version... guite often that discussion was about 1 or 2 notes only :-). The amount of melodies/variations Paco could sing himself was impressive (he's an incredible fond of knowledge) and for communicating/learning the melody lines we could have done without singers for quite a long time... but it was great to have them around.
Paco is not only able to sing many many cante lines himself, he is also very capable of composing/playing very modern day flamenco if he wants/needs to. Unfortunately his daily obligations all over the world never left him any time to study/compose on a serious base but you would be amazed what he could produce almost instantly when demanded. He visits Rotterdam 1 or 2 days a month (often teaching from 10 AM to 11 PM without serious breaks). It often happened a plain dropped him only hours before on london/amsterdam airport, leaving him no time to sleep between that Japan/Australian tour and a 14 hour working day in Rotterdam. Once (when he had to perform a classical guitar piece) my father had to teach him that piece from paper in between the mutual lessons they gave to the row of conservatory students waiting their turn for their monthly private session with Paco (in presence of my father who also covered the weekly lessons). They had no breaks during such a day (when in luck maybe a short lunch break) so my father could only play Paco that piece from paper during the time the leaving/arriving students needed to (un)pack their guitar, obviously exchanging only a couple of notes at the time. At the end of the day my father couldn't remember a single line and Paco could play the complete piece at concert level (as soon as he knew what to play his hands could play it, no need to study it first)
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Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
RE: Paco Pena accompanying cante (in reply to Erik van Goch)
quote:
Paco could play the complete piece at concert level (as soon as he knew what to play his hands could play it, no need to study it first
Paco is indeed amazing. Quite a few times I’ve played a classical piece to him, and he’s said ”Play it again". Then he’s taken the guitar from me and played it back to me.
Once he played the Allegro from La Catedral to me and said “Is this right?” He’d learned it by watching JW. He had one note wrong.
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