Ricardo -> RE: Learn to accompany a singer (Feb. 17 2010 4:39:01)
|
quote:
Call me crazy, but anybody out of compas, be it the guitarrist, singer, dancer, is doing a big time disservice to a performance. You are not crazy, but there is an important angle to consider. Years ago I had a long wined arguement with Estela either here or over at FT regarding cante and compas. She kept stating that compas for a singer is different then for a guitarist, and I thought she was a complete nut to be honest. The reason was because I was used to playing for singers that sing the songs for baile, so that the compas fit like a glove, or right in a square box, so tightly intertwined with the rhythm of the guitar, it becomes easy to hear the singer alone and be able to come in perfectly with him or her at any point during the singing. But after many years of studying, especially older singers, and watching rito y geografia, I realize there is a big distinction to be made in flamenco. It is not so much modern vs tradtitional, because in the old days everything was traditional. The division is between amature flamenco vs professional flamenco cante. The interesting thing is that a huge body of composition and style is associated with amature singers. Hence the folk music type idea of the cante. In this sense, as the cante evolved, each generation had their own interpretion of both the actual notes and rhythms. Truly an oral tradtion until singers started making recordings, and performing for dancers choreografies. So a singer such as Lebrijano learned how to sing from his mom, but had to force his mom's sort of "freestyle" rhythmic approach, into a clear metered structure, so as it could work with any different dancer or guitarist. So even though it is thought of as the "same" cante, you can call the professional version more like proper and musical....but at the same time an important aspect of cante is removed. The freedom of the singer to place the melody as he or she feels over top of the compas. And I mean even those amature singers can keep compas with palmas or table knocking and sing that way. And a lot of singers from Jerez are self proclaimed amatures, and at the same time the CREATORS. Then you have mairena or who ever wants to record the same cante, all squared off. So you can't say the orginal way is WRONG cuz, well, that was HOW the song was suposed to go all along. And that is what I think estella was talking about. THOSE types of singers that did it since they were born and just let the guitar "find the chords" while keeping compas, and they were free to sing as they feel. Yet, to just kind of sing randomly is not really accpeptable now adays, and of course there is a fine line between improvising that way, and just doing "whatever". So, for a guitarist to accompany there is an art to doing it that way, where the singer is followed, and you don't stick to a solid boxed in chord structure, cuz that is actually over simplifying what cante is all about. I know it sounds hard to understand, or like any singer can sing however they want. I want to restate there is a difference there between someone that really knows the compas inside and can manipulate the melody "out of the box" so to speak, like many of the old creators were able to do. Nowadays few young singers are true creators or improvisors and interpret cante either as was recorded, or as learned for baile. In this sense, you can see why some aficionados of the old singers and style feel cante is "dying out" with each new generation. Hope that makes some sense. Ricardo
|
|
|
|