RE: Bass in Flamenco

Costs are rising and times are tough.
Please consider a donation to keep this
place going.

Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.

We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.

You are logged in as Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >>Discussions >>General >>

Page: << < 1 [2]

Message

<< Newer Topic Older Topic >>

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Anders Eliasson)

quote:

I have a friend working with using a lever harp in flamenco. Difficult task, but she is from jerez and has a natural compás and thats always a good start.

Would love to hear some of that if ever she manages to get some of it up on the Web!

Thanks for the info on "accordeons". It's really not a kind of instrument I'm familiar with at this point, but oddly enough, somewhere in my mind I had put it as a "flamenco-friendly" instrument.. Go figure.
Up here in Madrid, Semana Santa was quite different than what I had grown accostumed to in Andalucia. Basically, my neighbourhood emptied out as people left to go visit their families in the pueblos. There were a few processions but nothing even close to what goes on down South. I used to curse Semana Santa when I lived in Andalucia, and it didn't help that my band of local friends didn't care for it either. But now that I don't "have it", I kind of miss it!!

_____________________________

"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 29 2016 8:40:38

edguerin

Posts: 1589
Joined: Dec. 24 2007
From: Siegburg, Alemania

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

In the two last PdL concerts I attended, harmonica and pianica sounded pretty flamenco (to my great astonishment)

_____________________________

Ed

El aficionado solitario
Alemania

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 29 2016 10:21:15

Aretium

Posts: 277
Joined: Oct. 23 2012

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

"flamenco" who the fk cares. Carles kicks ass. Anything Carles does is gold. If you want flamenco go listen to cante.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 30 2016 21:51:59

Guest

[Deleted] (in reply to jamh2000)

[Deleted by Admins]

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 30 2016 22:40:38

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Aretium)

quote:

"flamenco" who the fk cares

Turns out, a lot of people care.

I find if funny how on this thread there seems to be some idolizing of certain musicians. No matter how good the musician, shouldn't you learn to appreciate music on your own? There is no musician out there of whom I could say "anything he does is gold".

_____________________________

"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 31 2016 2:59:38

Aretium

Posts: 277
Joined: Oct. 23 2012

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

No i meant who cares if it is "Autentic Flamenco". Authentic flamenco exists elsewhere and is best live.

Everything Carles did with Paco I found very good and interesting. Of course he has bad stuff too.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 31 2016 20:05:35

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Aretium)

Got it. I was just splitting hairs, or, as the French expression goes, "f...king flies" (no idea where we came up with that expression...

).

_____________________________

"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 1 2016 5:24:50

sim999

Posts: 73
Joined: Aug. 18 2011

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

Absolutely love the work that Carles has done with Paco. I love his tone and his personal way of playing the bass. The duet on Monasterio de Sal is legendary for me. I'm not a fan of bass in flamenco but in the "sextet context" it was a great addition and added depth to the music. I feel the same way regarding the double bass in Gerardo Trio. However there are many albums particularly 70, 80s albums that have indeed a really ****ty bass & drums sound.

I prefer Carles playing over Alain Perez playing in the sextet.

Great intro to Entre Dos Aguas (45:40) with a nice tone there :

Anyway, the man is a legend :)

A really great album with double bass is the last one by Pepe Habichuela and Dave Holland (2010)
The recording has a really great production. Really good work by dave on it (and by Pepe of course).

YouTube sound sucks so you better buy it !

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 1 2016 19:49:48

Guest

[Deleted] (in reply to sim999)

[Deleted by Admins]

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 1 2016 20:58:46

BarkellWH

Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Guest)

I just find a bass in a flamenco performance annoying. in my opinion a bass interferes with, rather than complements, the flamenco guitarists and diminishes the overall quality of the performance.

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 1 2016 21:35:35

jamh2000

Posts: 41
Joined: Jan. 13 2012

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

I absolutely love Benavent to be honest. I think he's the most underrated bassist ever (other than Jeff Andrews) and I think he added a lot of depth and colour to the Paco band. Alain Perez could groove, but he wasn't the genius Benavent was with the band, not that that's much of a criticism. When it comes to fretless bass, I think it's a fine line- Jaco was not 'farty', but a lot of those who've copied his style are- too much midrange, powerful pickups, active eq. My overall view is I don't think bass really works with pure Flamenco- the dry guitar sound is so much part of it, but it definitely has a place in fusion and rock crossover. Why there is so much fretless farting is beyond me, however.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 12:00:06

Aretium

Posts: 277
Joined: Oct. 23 2012

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to jamh2000)

I wish Carles played more and did more solos. I loved the farty noise he brought in on some tracks. I am not really that familiar with other bassists and the use of farty fretlesses.

I adore Jaco though, definitely up there as one of my favourite musicians.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 13:09:05

JohnWalshGuitar

Posts: 517
Joined: Aug. 10 2009

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Aretium)

To be honest I can't stand the guitar in flamenco. It should never have been introduced as an accompaniment instrument. Things were much purer when singing was done on its own. Bloody modernisers

_____________________________

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 13:17:27

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to JohnWalshGuitar)

Nah man, it wasn't the guitar, it was even before that. Real puro flamenco was ruined by those damned cantaores. It was so much better when flamenco was just about knocking your knucles on a table

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 13:24:02

JohnWalshGuitar

Posts: 517
Joined: Aug. 10 2009

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

You're right! I hadn't thought of that. In fact it's the human interference in flamenco that I really dislike now that think of it

_____________________________

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 13:27:38

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to JohnWalshGuitar)

quote:

In fact it's the human interference in flamenco that I really dislike

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 13:30:15

BarkellWH

Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to BarkellWH)

You want modern? You want fusion? Forget the bass. Forget the harmonica. The coolest of the cool would be a flamenco guitarist backed by a Javanese gamelan ensemble. Javanese gamelan has the added advantage of reaching its present form under the Majapahit Empire, and the singer, known as a sindhen, was and is heavily influenced by Indian music and singing (traces of gitano origins?). A guitarist as part of a gamelan ensemble backing a Javanese cantaor singing letras in Old Javanese. Now that's fusion.

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 14:05:12

Morante

Posts: 2179
Joined: Nov. 21 2010

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to BarkellWH)

quote:

You want modern?

Forget flamenco puro: this is what the Andaluces really like

http://es.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=iry&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_003&type=wny_ggbc_15_16¶m1=1¶m2=f%3D4%26b%3

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 14:35:44

jamh2000

Posts: 41
Joined: Jan. 13 2012

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

Fine. Since there is clearly a clamour to modernize I recommend we incorporate the Theremin into Flamenco immediately- it could do the cante part.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 2 2016 15:21:29

sbalderrama

Posts: 3
Joined: Jun. 19 2010

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to Piwin)

I want somebody to use one of these.

Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 8 2016 17:53:35

BarkellWH

Posts: 3458
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to sbalderrama)

Oh no, sbalderrama, a mariachi and his guitarron! That's all we need is mariachi-flamenco fusion! I will make a full confession here. As much as my family has been tied to Mexico, and as much as I have traveled in Mexico, like things Mexican (especially the food!), and like much of the music of Mexico, I am repelled by Mariachi music. I find Mariachi music loud, noisy, busy, and boring. For me, it is the antithesis of listening enjoyment, best relegated to a a college bar on that faux Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo celebrated in the U.S., and accompanied by scores of college students drinking their Corona beer with the lime stuck in the lip of the bottle, which they think makes the holiday more "authentic."

I'm not opening this up for debate or argument. Just stating how it affects me.

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 8 2016 18:25:15

Piwin

Posts: 3559
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Bass in Flamenco (in reply to sbalderrama)

You could probably smuggle a few Condes through the border inside one of those. Just saying...

_____________________________

"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 8 2016 18:55:48