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David Aragon -> Greetings from Oregon (Jan. 4 2015 8:02:48)
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Been lurking here for about 2 months and decided it's time to join. I've been on a few forums but I'm not much of a poster so I'll make this intro one big long post and that should get me by for a while. Originally from Los Angeles but have been living here in the Portland Oregon metro area since 96. I'm a part time luthier that builds mainly jazz style type guitars like archtops and semi-solid laminate tops. I say part time because I still have my day job and hopefully within the next 6 years I can retire from that rat-race and devote more time to luthiery.
Back around Oct. 1972 I entered the military and by May 73 found myself stationed in Germany. My grandfather was from Spain and I always dreamed of exploring the country one day. I realized that a one or two week vacation would not do it for me so in my final year of military service I began making plans for an extended stay in Spain. I found a 2 year satellite college of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa that accepted the GI Bill. It was located in Barcelona. I knew absolutely nothing about Spain but I was in for some eye opening experiences.
I got off the train from Germany and set foot on Spanish soil in mid November 75. One of my main goals there would be to learn Flamenco guitar. I had studied guitar from the age of ten and was a pretty good reader of musical notes. One professor at the college taught flamenco guitar and helped me purchase a decent guitar with my extremely tight limited budget. Although I had some wonderful experiences there I found that Barcelona and Catalonia was not the Spain I was interested in. I searched and luckily found another 2 year satellite college in Sevilla. I completed the spring semester I was enrolled in and stayed a couple months of summer in the north before heading south.
Sometime in Aug. 76 I arrived in Sevilla; Southern Spain, Andalucia. The Spain I had been seeking finally became a reality. The second day in Sevilla I came across the John Fulton art gallery. He was also selling Don Pohren's book The Art of Flamenco which I immediately bought and I began to immerse myself in it's entirety. Not long after I acquired another book The Flamenco Guitar by David George. These two books were godsends at the right time and set me on the path to discovering flamenco. I set out for Moron de la Frontera in search of Diego del Pastor. He was not in town that day but I met his nephew Augustin Rios. To my disappointment the cost of regular lessons with either of them and bus trips out to Moron were beyond my means. He gave me an hours worth of instruction for what little I had that day and I headed back to Sevillla. Later I thought about getting a quality made flamenco guitar from Manuel Reyes as he was the featured luthier in David George's book. He greeted me as I entered the shop and I told him what I was looking for; then he showed me his least expensive model and told me it was so many pesetas which was the equivalent of about $750.00. My heart just sank, I didn't even have a third of that. Another big disappointment so back to Sevilla I headed. Not long after I befriended a local guy in the neighborhood who played flamenco guitar in his front yard. Most spaniards play guitar but this guy was a true aficionado of the art. He wasn't a gypsy or pro or anything like that but people would occasionally gather in his front yard and the next thing you know a little spontaneous juerga was happening. His name was Paco and he worked in the city center in some warehouse. He showed me quite a lot not only in his front yard but he often took me to juergas that I wouldn't have ever discovered if not for him. The school year came to an end in June 77 and I was totally depleted of funds. I had just enough for airfare to get back to LA. I had acquired 2 pretty decent guitars; a classical and a flamenco. I could only take one back with me so I decided to give one to Paco since his guitar had seen some pretty rough days and he always admired both my guitars. The classical had a clear golpeador and looked really nice and so did the flamenco. I told him to choose and of course he chose the flamenco. I miss that guitar but seeing Paco's face and the hug he gave me was priceless and I just felt so good about doing it.
That's just a brief summary of my year and a half in Spain but enough time there for countless memories. Flamenco pretty much fell to the wayside when I returned to the States. Jazz became my main focus and it's kept my attention for all these years.
About 5 years ago my wife met a Spanish woman from Madrid. My wife is from Peru and they hit it off pretty well. Her husband was on a teaching sabbatical here in Oregon and he teaches english back in Spain. They were here for only one school year but we became very good friends and we always stay in contact with them. We recently have been seriously thinking of visiting them hopefully this year. When that started happening I began to reminisce of my time in Spain. I took the old classical out the closet and started hitting the rasqueados again. I can still hear the sound of the flamenco I gave Paco. Time for me to start building a flamenco.
BTW I've gone through all 22 pages of the luthier section on this forum. I haven't read every subject post but just the things I am unfamiliar with. I have on occasion been a GAL member; that usually depends on whether I'm deciding to go to a convention or not. But the sharing of knowledge whether at a luthiers convention or here on this forum is something everyone should appreciate and be thankful for. I'm late coming to this forum; late in the sense that I never got to experience any of the late great Ron Mitchells post, but thank you Ron for this forum and thank you Simon for carrying on this great looking forum.
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