BarkellWH -> RE: Who is"real" flamenco/ who is not? (Jun. 5 2013 18:23:41)
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You go first, Mr. B. Then I will tell. Look at my posting on another thread and it will help. In 1960, when I was 17, my parents gave me a guitar as a gift. This was at the height of the early 60s folk boom (Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, and a host of others). I learned the standard three and four chord progressions, with which one could sing 150 or more folk songs at parties (what were then called "hootenannies") and other get-togethers. At the same time, I was introduced to flamenco via the vinyl albums of the guitarist Carlos Montoya (and a little later Sabicas) and the Jose Greco dance group that one would occasionally see on TV. I grew to love flamenco, although I certainly didn't know much about it. And at that time I had no idea about the central importance of cante. With me, it was all a sort of crude appreciation of flamenco guitar and dance. Fast forward many years covering a career that involved assignments living and working in quite a few countries, primarily in Maritime Southeast Asia, but also in Latin America and Washington, DC. During that time I shipped my guitar with me everywhere but never advanced. Same stuff I was playing at 17. But I also continued my love for flamenco (crude though my understanding of it was). After retiring (though still keeping my hand in the business with occasional temporary assignments abroad as a consultant to the U.S. State Department and a Defense Department contractor), I decided I wanted to really bear down and learn flamenco guitar. I approached a well-known flamenco guitarist in Washington, DC, Paco de Malaga, and asked if he would take me on. He agreed, and for several years now I have been one of his students. He has become a very good friend, as well as my flamenco guru, and through Paco I have not only learned a great deal on the guitar (though I will never reach the level of many on the Foro), I also have learned a great deal about the origins of flamenco and the great guitarists and cantaors of earlier eras. Perhaps the most important nugget I picked up from Paco early on was the importance to, in fact the heart of, flamenco: Cante. Over to you. Cheers, Bill
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