Ricardo -> RE: future of flamenco (Sep. 3 2022 17:24:58)
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quote:
It has been a constant source of dismay to me since getting totally hooked on flamenco that so many flamenco artists seem to want to dabble in the most corny/cheesy/schmaltzy soft pappy pop music, but hey, it's their culture, they can do what they like with it. This is taste issues again. Although I think the main concern Morante has is not that there are these experiments, but rather, there are not the heavy hitters to balance things out as before. They have called these artists âflamenquitoâ for decades now and it no longer has the negative connotation, its more a cute thing or a complimentary thing. I feel that history repeats itself in this regard. Flamenco is traditional and still is part of the gypsy life, to a certain extent. And the general population is not privy to the family traditions generally so we canât really say how flamenco is doing in that regard. Cellphone videos of gypsy weddings do show some things are disappearing, and the camaronero flamenco is still influential vs great grandmaâs old cante. Back in the 1920s when flamenco was becoming a thing thanks to vinyl etc, the heavy hitters were making a living from singing and that had to be in the big cities obviously. They were inspired by one and other to expand the fandango musically, and some people were impressed by that and others were purists and were NOT. Some donât consider it âflamencoâ and called it âopera flamencoâ, due to the focus on the fandango forms. In the past, it seems the libre cantes, or expressive and ornate singing, was reserved for the Cantes Levantes, malagueñas, Granaina, cantes mineros etc, and these songs somehow became associated with payo singing rather than gitano, however, collectively, all these were part of heavy cante. But the fandango started following the pattern of long and ornate Melodies and for whatever strange reason, was thought to be hurting the genre (in a similar way as these fusions). Most of these singers were later viewed as great masters, Vallejo, Marchena, Pinto, later decades inspired by them you see Valderrama, Porrina, Farina etc. Post Camaron you have people like Arcangel, Poveda, etc. Now, all along there were those that donât respect that stuff, and prefer quite simply the cantes basicos (Solea siguiriya buleria para escuchar Tiento tango, tonas and all those). The flamenco opera thing is the inspiration for the 1922 contest by the so called intellectuals, as if to reignite the passion for the cantes basicos. To the pros up in madrid or whatever that was a joke⊠and the implication of the event itself was that flamenco was âdyingâ some how. 50 years later we see the same exact sentiments from the artists in Rito y Geografia where they lament the popularity of Rumba, and of course the interviewers have a prejudice against those opera flamenco styles by their questions reveal the same bias toward gitanos and cantes basicos. Everyone there flatly admits flamenco of old was better and now mostly gone. Except for the young guys, Morante and Camaron. And we know what comes AFTER rito is all the crazy fusion. So this trend is nothing new, although I admit the advent of internet has changed things drastically. But it is, as I often say, a double edge sword where we can get a lot of Autotune ragaeton flamenco garbage, side by side with the original wax cylinders of the oldest cantes ever now extinct. Anyone can reignite those old cantes and perhaps are doing it and we donât know. I met the 15 year old kid in Sanlucar that only likes old cante and plays very well for it, and had no clue what Tauromagia was. Flamenco has always been for a smaller elite group of aficionados and artists, and that is ok.
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