Richard Jernigan -> RE: Forecast: Flamenco is dying out. Outlook and suggestion to recover! (May 2 2017 3:19:24)
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ORIGINAL: Arash Ok, on a serious note, here is what is really going on. I believe learning and playing musical instruments is on decline in general. And its nothing exclusive to flamenco. Recent musical experiences: Last Saturday night, concert by the Beijing guitar duo--truly amazing virtuosity and musical sophistication from Meng Su and Yuja Wang, both born in Qingdao. To paraphrase Xuefei Yang, they learned to play the guitar in China and learned music in the USA, studying with Manuel Barrueco, a Cuban immigrant. The mariachi at the Charreada of the San Antonio Charro Association, Fiesta San Antonio event weekend before last. A really tight band of middle aged musicians, playing great old songs. How long has it been since you have heard "El Gavilan?" The Texas Cavaliers' San Antonio River Parade. After dark variuos civic arts and school groups float down the river as it flows through dowtown. The river is narrow, the chairs were right on the edge of the paved river bank, and to my consternation, every single boat had a "musical" group on it. The noises they made all shared two characteristcs: they were insanely, painfully, earshatteringly loud, and they were astonishingly incompetent. I'm not talking a little funkiness. The dudes and dudettes just couldn't play their instruments. They didn't play anywhere remotely in tune, they coudn't play together, they couldn't play the right notes. One or two of the drummers could keep a beat, but nobody else could follow it. I was amazed, and appalled. I used to stick in my ear plugs and go hear The Stones, the Grateful Dead, The Who, Santana, and a very long list of others. I'm not against loud music, by people who can actually make music. But the people on the river were just incredibly incompetent louts. Very loud ones. Next day as I checked out, the gray haired bell boy asked me about the guitar I had with me, and said he knew Willy Champion "Curro" who used to play flamenco at the hotel restaurant. He also said he was a bass player and was having a blast playing bossa nova at a bar with a kid who was studying classical guitar at a local universty. The river runs right behind the hotel, so I asked him if he watched the parade. He said, "I know it's an old tradition, but it's got where I can't stand the noise." "So I guess those people are amateurs, members of the various parade groups? " "No, I hear they get paid." "But they can'r even play--they can't play at all ! " "Nope. It's a mystery to me." So apparently a lot of people who play instruments these days are not interested in learning how. RNJ
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