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I'm traveling to Spain, my cities of visitation are going to be Sevilla, Cadiz, Jerez. Unless you have a better input. I have no idea of where to stay, or where I should go. Been studying flamenco for 9 years as a passion, and have very little exposure to real flamenco other than YouTube and many books,DVDs , and Skype lessons from the mainland. I live on Maui, and there is no flamenco here. I need to know where to stay. Right now, I'm thinking 5 days in each place. Your thoughts? My wife is going with me, so enjoying our stay is just as important as Flamenco guitar lessons. Please any input would be great. If you have any landmarks of where We should stay, I welcome your feedback.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
Congratulations! The only place on that list I've been is Sevilla. Just make sure you stay in the city center, the entire city center and all the big tablaos are all walking distance from each other and even getting over to Triana is not far. Best advice would be study the map like hell cus there's no rhyme or reason to the street directions(not a grid) the streets change names every few blocks and the names are in tile on the buildings. The tourist office is between the cathedral and the university near the museum of the West Indies. Have fun!!
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to Leñador)
quote:
Congratulations! The only place on that list I've been is Sevilla. Just make sure you stay in the city center, the entire city center and all the big tablaos are all walking distance from each other and even getting over to Triana is not far. Best advice would be study the map like hell cus there's no rhyme or reason to the street directions(not a grid) the streets change names every few blocks and the names are in tile on the buildings. The tourist office is between the cathedral and the university near the museum of the West Indies. Have fun!!
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
sevilla is not the best place to learn flamenco IMO !Stay away from expensive toursit tablaos, its all BS commercial flamenco ! if you speak spanish then you can have a much more richer experience, if not, then what you can do is limited, and you would have to stay in those english-tourist places like seville and cordoba..
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From: England, living in Italy
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
I found Jerez the most accessible for flamenco in the peñas, but I was there during the festival where the always one peña open to the public each evening. Not sure how it works outside of that time.
Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla are beautiful places for a tourist visit, Jerez less so in my opinion.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
WHEN you come is very important. In July and August there is more flamenco but the coast of Andalucía is full of tourists and refugees from the heat of Sevilla and Madrid, which empty in the summer. So hotels here are full if you have not booked. Festivals, such as de Jeréz, have specific dates and even if they fall in the springtime, due to internet booking, they are often full of Japanese tourists, who are sufficiently sin vergüenza to fight for all the best seats . You need to make more concrete plans, then you can find out where not to be.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
quote:
sevilla is not the best place to learn flamenco IMO !Stay away from expensive toursit tablaos, its all BS commercial flamenco ! if you speak spanish then you can have a much more richer experience, if not, then what you can do is limited, and you would have to stay in those english-tourist places like seville and cordoba..
I have friends that worked the tablaos in Sevilla and they're top notch performers. There's nothing wrong with tablao flamenco, it is what it is, a polished show. It's not like tablao players aren't the exact same players as the bars peñas and juergas, it's just them in a more professional enviornment.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
When in Sevilla don't forget to pay La Corboneria a visit, if not as a change to meet some of the locals then at least for historical reasons. Against better judgement i also visited los Gallos there, not really my kind of place.
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The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
Sevilla is good for flamenco venues. I went to Los Gallos which a local dancer told me had some of the best performers in town. It is pricy and touristy though. It was pretty annoying when during the finale 70% of the audience takes out their video cameras and starts recording. Contrary to what Kudo says, the flamenco itself isn't touristy (I'm sure in some places it is just not in Los Gallos) it's just that there are a lot of tourists in the audience.
I also went to pena Torres Macarena and it was a really great show and there were less tourists. However I heard that it closed just a few months ago due to noise complaints. http://www.torresmacarena.com/
If you go to Sevilla I would also recommend going to T de Triana which is just on the other side of the river from the centre of town. This is just a bar but they have live flamenco which I thought was great. Also great tapas.
For flamenco I did find that Sevilla was the best out of all the towns I visited (Madrid, Granada, Jerez, Cordoba, Sevilla). Jerez was good too though and I actually quite liked it there but I think I just like smaller towns with fewer tourists. Flamenco aside my favourite place was Cordoba. Just a very nice small town I could spend all the time in the world in.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to Leñador)
quote:
I have friends that worked the tablaos in Sevilla and they're top notch performers
. The first time I saw Juana Amaya she was in Los Gallos. Recently theyhave had artists of the calibre of El Junco, José Salazar, Encarnito Anillo etc. This is real flamenco: not the same as sitting at a table with a bottle of manzanilla and playing guitar for Rancapino, but one scenario is available to all, the other available to very few.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
It depends on what you're looking for. If you want to see flamenco shows every nights of the week, then go to Sevilla and stay there all your trip. I think at the end it gonna be expensive, but if exposure to gig is what you want, then you will find it there 7/7 days. Not all of them at the same level, but it's good to be able to enjoy different level of artists. That way you could find out what you like or dislike most.
I think the prob in other city like Jerez or Cadiz is that there's not alot of gig during the week. All happen during (thursday) friday-saturday. So you could see shows but on a minor scale then in Sevilla.
What you should do is have a look to a ressource called guiaflama. It's a monthly agenda sort of thing, it's in paper but I think it's also available on the net. Have a look at it, and see the scedule. City by city. You would have an idea of what happen, where and when. Then made your plan based on this. e.g Tomatito is playing in Almeria that day, then take the bus and go to see him and came back to your city. See if there are Pena festival organized here and there in small town around, then take the bus...
If you want to visit cities, then the logic should be a little different.
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"The most important part of Flamenco is not in knowing how to interpret it. The higher art is in knowing how to listen." (Luis Agujetas)
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
mmh, people say a lot of different things. some love seville, some granada, some jerez, a friend of mine lived some years in barbate and had great experiences, I doubt anyone have heard about barbate before hehe. it depends on you. flamenco's everywhere, just go to andalucía with your guitar and you'll get what you want.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
Seville, Triana; I spent all night in two places where my friend and I were the only two non-natives ( this was in 20ll). It was the highlight of two weeks in Spain. I did go to some other touristy flamenco shows in Seville and Madrid but was totally disappointed. Do not hesitate to ask the locals; it will take many inquiries, but it can be found. The two best places we went in Triana were not "shows" but gatherings of locals to drink, play, dance, and sing for each other. It was great.
RE: First time to Spain, flamenco en... (in reply to MauiFlamenco)
We found flamenco difficult to find in out of season Jerez though there was a workaday student performance in a Tablao near Terremoto's statue. OK, but just going through the motions. But they did have Juana La Pipa and Paco Cepero on later in the month but not when we were there. There's also Gonzalez Byass - but no evident flamenco there! You should visit or better stay in old Cadiz. It's a beautiful town, has the bluest sea, a fantastic market and the peña is great too. Home of Perla de Cadiz and Aurelio de Sellé, not to mention Camarón just down the road.
Hope you have a good time. I think feeling Spain is a good way of understanding flamenco so I'd spend a few days going into the interior for the vibe - and maybe have your picture taken at Diego's wall in Morón de la Frontera! The drive from there to Marbella is wonderful.
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. You need to make more concrete plans, then you can find out where not to be. 
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