Manolo Sanlucar

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Manolo Sanlucar

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Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

Manolo Sanlucar

This Saturday (11/15/03) , Manolo Sanlucar is playing in Tijuana Mexico for anyone not aware. I have a table reserved at the restaurant for the post concert dinner.

I hear Manolo has a lot to say about flamenco, and according to a friend it may be pretty easy to get him to talk.

Does anyone have any really good questions which would make for an interesting conversation and that might be enlightening for us?

Anthony

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 12 2003 20:33:41

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Paleto)

Hi Paleto,
I think everybody would regard Manolo Sanlucar as someone who is in the A Team as far as exponents of Solo Flamenco Guitar go.
I would be interested to know how he feels the guitar in Flamenco will develop in the future.
Does he see it as developing into a separate form (a la Gerardo Nuñez, perhaps V.A)
Or does he see it as always being associated with the Cante and Baile, even when played in a solo way.

cheers

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 12 2003 20:44:47

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Paleto)

Paleto,
how fortuitous! I have been trying to get in contact him with a specific question. This is something that you, knowing you, will like, too. In his interview with flamenco-world, he talked about a "system." He said it was something that was lingering on the edges of his consciousness, and that he finally got and codified. It was a way of harmonizing flamenco guitar and cante into different keys, expanding it, but keeping everything from within flamenco. I wanted to ask him to explain this system because it appealed to my nerdish quest for ultimate knowledge! If you could get the gist of this thing and report back I would be very happy!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 12 2003 20:54:16

Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

I read that too. I will definitely try to see if I can get him to talk about it, the only thing is that it would be a very involved conversation, and I don't know if the circumstances will permit it, not if he will want to have such a deep discussion with someone he doesn't know.

But I was thinking of asking about that very thing.

Anthony

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 12 2003 20:57:12

Florian

Posts: 9282
Joined: Jul. 14 2003
From: Adelaide/Australia

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Paleto)

Anthony !!!

hello my friend , good to see you :)

Hey this sounds very interesting to me. I cant wait to so how the dinner went , is this the dinner Kerry is going to also ?

DO you like the Losadas ? Is one of my favourite cds at the moment.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 13 2003 4:16:19

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Florian)

Hi Florian.

The Losados, are that the Losado brothers, Tito, Jose, and Diego?
They played a while "under the wings" of Paco Pena, and recorded a few cd's.
I lost track of them, since they do not play anymore with Paco.

If it is what I think, can you please give me the titel of the cd, so I can look for it?
I am curious what they are up to now, the recordings with paco where fantastic!

Thanks, Peter.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 13 2003 8:23:37

Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Ron.M)

Ron,

Given that he is performing with a singer and another guitarist (rather than solo), I'd say he definitely sees flamenco guitar as being something that stems from and is intimately tied to cante.

Although he has pioneered solo guitar playing, he has always accompanied too. His own most recent recording, as well as Tauromagia, both had quite a bit of cante. Even though many of his 70's and 80's recordings were solo projects, he accompanied then as well - I haven't thoroughly checked his accompanist recordings before saying this. Perhaps Estela can jump in here?

But how it will develop in the future, I'll throw that in there if the context seems appropriate.

Anthony

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 13 2003 21:59:11

Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Florian)

Losadas?

hmm. Its alright. I don't want to discourage you from sharing things with me. They definitely sound modern. I do like the Madrid sound, and I'd call what they do Madrid style.

One complaint I have more generally is that there appears not to be very good arranging and composing. There isn't such a clear flow from one section to the next nor in the smaller context of harmonic progression. It sounds to me like it works this way:

Oh this chord sounds cool, and this little falseta sounds kinda cool, and this chord sounds neat and so on and on they go stitching together their songs.

What seems to be lacking is a unified idea or theme that kind of naturally progresses through relevant/interesting changes. Not to the degree of a classical piece necessarily, but some upper level coherence that shows more than the presentation of fairly random musical ideas. Know what I mean?

This criticism could be thrown and many gutiarists especially in flamenco and probably mostly at modern style guitarists. And believe me - I like modern playing, a lot.

Losadas play nicely, I don't dislike it. But I'm not as drawn to that cd as some others.

But thanks Florian, I really do appreciate the exposure and I'll continue to listen to see if it grows on me.

Paleto

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 13 2003 22:10:30

Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Florian)

Florian and Peter,

Just saw a new Losadas cd.

Here's a link:

http://www.deflamenco.com/tiendaflamenco/ver.jsp?cod=1436

Anthony

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 14 2003 15:57:19

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Paleto)

Thanks Anthony!

I will try to find it in the store, so I can listen to it.

Thanks for the link! Peter.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 14 2003 17:09:25

Florian

Posts: 9282
Joined: Jul. 14 2003
From: Adelaide/Australia

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to gerundino63)

Yes thanks Anthony

Peter sorry missed this post for a while, the cd we were talking about earlier was :Losadas Pa LLorar De Momento.

I love the falseta from: El haren flamenco (tangos) that starts at 02:49 I wanna work that out.

I took me about 15 listens to grow on me , but is not to say that everyone will and thats fair enough. With all thos modern guitarists i have to listen about 10 times before it grows on me , eg : Nino Josele's new album.

Hey give me an example of your favourite Madrid flamenco style guitarist so i can get an idea of your taste.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 16 2003 2:53:45

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Florian)

Hi Florian!

thanks for your reacton.

I am affraid that my taste is not too modern, I like the old stile very much, Paco de Lucia I like very much too.
Moraito, I bought a cd from, and that I like too.
The 'moderner'guitarists I like too, but I have a "bad" habit to like guitar solo, nothing else, no singing no other instruments, solo guitarra, and the modern guitarists nearly do not record guitar solo, (anyway, It is hard to find for me.)
I have a cd from Tomatito, and the solo's on it I like too.
( I think, that if a guitarist, allthough he is modern, when he is playing solo, he gets in touch with his roots, and that is what I like. )

The Losada brothers, did some recordings together with Paco Pena, ( Misa flamenca, and Azahara) especially the Azahara recordings I like very much, that made me curious what they are up to now.

Sory for the big answer on a small question,
greetings, Peter.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 16 2003 9:22:58

Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Florian)

My favorite Madrid style playing is Viejín's bulería - Mi graciosa. I also like his soleá too.

Ramón Jiménez is a good player, but I am not as attracted to his solo cd as I thought I would be. Ramón stated in the interview Flamenco-world did with him that all his material comes from his exercises, it very much sounds that way too, it's not that musical. His tangos - Llora mi corazón - has a very nice intro, but the rest isn't as interesting as the intro in my opinion. All in all I think its an ok cd, I think he's capable of better though. The rondeña isn't bad.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2003 16:19:33

Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

Well, I've been sick for a week straght and only now do I feel better - that was a mean flu.

In any case I did get to chat some with Manolo, but a lot less than I would have liked. Manolo was very easy to talk to and was signing autographs and chatting it up with anyone who wanted to talk with him, very gracious.

I got him started by asking about his teaching. He said he didn't each falsetas, but what he did teach was broad and fundamental and would serve throught someones artistic life. He did say there were some exercises that he thought served people well and that they were exercises he continued to do himself. He said each person who wants to attend his courses has to submit a recording of him/herself and that he took notes as he listened. Then each person would spend time with Manolo Franco or José Antonio Rodríguez to acquire skills in which they might be deficient.

When I was just starting to ask about his musical system, two more people interrupted wanting autographs and he decided to stop and oblige, saying he'd come right back to finish the discussion, but that was followed by several more people and as I patiently waited I realized they weren't going to stop coming up to him.

So I just let it go, figuring I'd finish the conversation in a couple years when I can go over there and take some classes in his festival.

I don't like being pushy with these guys and didn't want to monopolize his time. He was gracious enough to detail those things about his teaching so I figured that was all there was for that night.

Sorry there's not more to write here.

Maybe someone who has been to his course can write somethings they learned there?

Anthony

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2003 16:32:27

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Paleto)

Thanks for reporting back, Anthony. I would love to take his course. How was the concert?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2003 17:09:33

Paleto

Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA

RE: Manolo Sanlucar (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

The concert was very good.

We had 2nd row seats and I saw both his hands quite well. I tried to enjoy the music, but also picked up a thing or two about his playing in general. Manolo is quite short, and so has small hands and fingers. He was a master at the economy of movement technique, getting the most out of playing in a particular position.

His posture was similar to classical, but the guitar was on his right knee, he also used a foot stool. He had quite short nails, and it appeared they weren't thick or thin, but medium hard and it also *appeared* that he had nothing on them, no glue or acrylic or silk or anything. Again, I couldn't say for *absolutely sure* but it appeared to be the case that there was nothing on his nails.

He played 4 peices of older material, alone, which while complicated in articulation and phrasing, were fairly straght forward in terms of harmonic development - tonic-dominant or cadencia andaluza - the basic bread and butter flamenco preparations.

Then came material from Tauromagia which he played with Santiago Lara, a young prize-winning guitarist who accompanied Manolo very well. It was wonderful to experience him playing these pieces live. That recording, Tauromagia, most seem to agree was his best. He did the tremolo piece Oración, probably the best tremolo ever recorded by a flamenco guitarist (my opinion), Maestranza, Tercio de vara (a great, complicated and interesting bulería), as well as perhaps one or two more which are escaping my poor memory.

Then it was on to lots of material from Locura y brisa de trino with cantaora Carmen Grilo and Santiago. This was very complicated repertoire and all 3 of them performed it really well. We were all impressed by the delivery. I don't know how many of you have listened to that cd, but the music requires intense concentration and and a heck of an ear. The cantaora knew exactly where she was going, and given that the key changes required landing on non-traditional tones I was very, very impressed. Carmen has a little bit of a softer voice, not ronca, more sweet and I think it was very nice. For some, it might be payo to present flamenco that way, but I liked it.

Manolo introduced each piece, but has a tendency to mumble, so I didn't understand a lot of what he was saying. He bent his guitar mike to speak, but then sat back in his seat a little to introduce each piece, mumbling a paragraph or so about it. The sound tech ought to have increased the volume for the moments he was speaking, but didn't.

No dance. I like dance, but it was refreshing to see just cante and guitar. The sound system was not so good, but there are much worse. The main annoyance was some clipping when Carmen sang loudly. Apart from that there was one feedback incident which was loud as hell and developed so quickly that there was no time to head it off. I think it startled Manolo as much as me. I have gotten used to listening to some recordings from marecordings.com, a label known for intimate, natural recordings done in acoustically accurate and adequate structures. And so, I have been trying to gently prod them into recording some flamenco. So my ear is tuned to high end recordings.

Any way, I encourage everyone to see Manolo if at all possible.

Anthony

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 4 2003 17:46:22