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I would imagine in the setting that Miguel plays in, a hotel, where people are away from loved ones and are lonely, non-flamenco, sitting in the lounge drinking, and then listening to a lonely soleares which they probably don’t understand, wondering why the music sounds so depressing…instead of happy, cheerful…
Kinda like I don’t like to hear a country and western song, about a man that lost his wife and dog, his house burned down, and his boss fired him, all the while in the background, a steel pedal guitar is bawling it’s eyes out!!! See what I mean? (or not)?
I’m sure if I were there when Miguel played that toque, I would absolutely love it! But, some geek away from home, I’m not so sure….
But, I will take your advice and pull a Rip Van Winkle, and just go back to sleep.
Merle, If you want to know the kind of music I play, it's really easy: just go to QVC Home Shopping Network and listen to Esteban. Hey, he's from Phoenix too so I am just following in the footsteps of the Maestro.
No, really, what I play is a mixture, about 30% flamenco, 10% classical, 30% traditional latin american, 30% latin popular/rock.
For my flamenco, I have a bulerias, soleares, tangos, and several rumbas. My small classical rep. is The Magic Box from John Williams' album, Romanza (yes that song), and Pachelbel's Canon (although when I have time I am going to relearn Recuerdos and Capricho Arabe), my latin songs include Chan-Chan, El Condor Pasa, La Paloma, Girl from Ipa, Malaguena (yes that song), my latin pop includes Gipsy Kings and Ottmar Liebert arranged for one guitar, Europa, Samba pa Ti, Guajira from Santana...
All in all about 35 songs, plus I improvise on simple patterns like Alegrias chords or the Cuban guajira progression, and put together 3 45 min set and 1 hour set somehow. This is for solo guitar.
For my duo, we play quite a few originals that my partner wrote and the dynamic shifts more to a "he plays leads and I play rhythm guitar." I like playing solo!
I am really excited because I am tired of playign with other guitarists (too much ego) and want to get into playing with a bassist or a percussionist. With two guitarists there is always that conflict of who's going to be playing rhythm and who's going to be playing leads. There is also the problem of guitarists having bad rhythm and poor dynamics. I'm excited to learn from and be exposed to other types of musicians.
Miguel, that sounds like a real good mix of music for that kind of gig! :>)
I wish I could be playing there!! I've been told that save the best for last...and that would be your flamenco toques (see we're neighbors) .
Do you play them last? If not, then try it...you will see that the crowd that stays around when you play flamenco, are the one's that will LOVE and appreciate it! If your up to it, I would start a lounge crowd with a kick ass bulerias, SOLO! Say, Hello....
play your other material for the remainder of the gig....
and when YOUR ready to call it 'quits', end a few numbers with some lovely flamenco toques...
Try finding them - a flamenco bassist is a tough call. They are even rare in Andalucia.
Simon, guess what? Miguel is not in Andalucia! He's in the same geographical area as I am ! ;>)
In this area, we have a lot of Mexican influenced folks that play music, and most have good rhythem!
Finding a percussion player and bass player that can relate to flamenco is not really hard to do at all. And all that's needed is someone willing to learn the compas, and then if they will learn from you, the SOLO guitar player...heh...you in!
But, that is not meant to not take flamenco music serious...I guess what I'm saying is that it's not Spain ...
However, you can do the best you can with what you got!!! ;>)
Actually, I just talked with a percussionist who used to play with our local flamenco band here, and he's interested in gigging. He specializes nowadays in Arabic rhythms...which is great, because I want to record Capricho Arabe, make it sound more flamenco, lots of rest strokes, and have him put some authentic Arabic beats, maybe some oud stuff in there. Now I'm getting excited. I also ran into a great bassist around here the other day who told me we should jam because he's been getting into Carles Benavent. Now isn't that luck?
I also ran into a great bassist around here the other day who told me we should jam because he's been getting into Carles Benavent. Now isn't that luck?
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