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Erik van Goch -> RE: Paco Pena accompanying cante (Dec. 25 2013 9:42:35)
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As far as Paco Peña and accompanying cante is concerned i should ad something else :-)
When Paco started his master school of flamenco guitar at Rotterdam he wanted his students to become as complete as possible. Since cante is the very basic of flamenco we obviously had to study cante as well so every now and then Paco was joined by excellent singers (often the ones staring in his company).
Obviously we exploited those visits to the fullest and often spend a full day (or even days) with the invited guest teachers like above El Chaparro.
Paco's first aim was to teach us the ROOT VERSIONS of a melody, so the basic melody without personal addings. Although Paco was very well able to sing them himself (or better said to indicate a very clear melody line) he preferred them to be sung by a professional singer in stead. Obviously those singers every now and then distilled a different root-version out of a melody then Paco had in mind, resulting in funny battles between the singer (arguing his line) and Paco singing/arguing his version... guite often that discussion was about 1 or 2 notes only :-). The amount of melodies/variations Paco could sing himself was impressive (he's an incredible fond of knowledge) and for communicating/learning the melody lines we could have done without singers for quite a long time... but it was great to have them around.
Paco is not only able to sing many many cante lines himself, he is also very capable of composing/playing very modern day flamenco if he wants/needs to. Unfortunately his daily obligations all over the world never left him any time to study/compose on a serious base but you would be amazed what he could produce almost instantly when demanded. He visits Rotterdam 1 or 2 days a month (often teaching from 10 AM to 11 PM without serious breaks). It often happened a plain dropped him only hours before on london/amsterdam airport, leaving him no time to sleep between that Japan/Australian tour and a 14 hour working day in Rotterdam. Once (when he had to perform a classical guitar piece) my father had to teach him that piece from paper in between the mutual lessons they gave to the row of conservatory students waiting their turn for their monthly private session with Paco (in presence of my father who also covered the weekly lessons). They had no breaks during such a day (when in luck maybe a short lunch break) so my father could only play Paco that piece from paper during the time the leaving/arriving students needed to (un)pack their guitar, obviously exchanging only a couple of notes at the time. At the end of the day my father couldn't remember a single line and Paco could play the complete piece at concert level (as soon as he knew what to play his hands could play it, no need to study it first)
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