Paul Magnussen -> RE: Musical quotes (Mar. 19 2023 7:16:04)
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Review of New Flamenco L.K. Coleman, 2003 The NovaMenco brothers are long on hair and short on everything else. From the reviews I expected to hear something new and different. ("Best modern flamenco-jazz fusions," one said.) Regrettably, it was nothing of the sort. "New flamenco," "jazz-flamenco fusion," etc., are labels that are both extremely inaccurate and highly misleading because this is no more nor less than muzak carried on the back of a rumba flamenca rhythm—which latter, unfortunately, it succeeds in smothering. But there's your "fusion": Muzak +rumba. The folks who keep calling this stuff "new" flamenco are, very obviously, extremely ignorant of flamenco. There are only two things that this music has in common with flamenco: (1) The use of the flamenco rumba's rhythm, and (2) the occasional use of the Andalusian cadence (a modal sequence of four chords, one minor followed by three major). Flamenco's forms are much, much, MUCH larger than just rumba (there's approximately 106 different forms altogether, give or take a few, with innumerable variations) and the rumba is one of the most minor. Yes, it is fun, it is fiesta music—but flamencos, whether Gypsy or non-Gypsy, don't play it at all like this. The Gypsy Kings, for example, play almost solely rumbas, and the rumbas they play are anything but traditional, yet what they do play has the drive and "umph" of flamenco, particularly of the Gypsy style. There's no Gypsy in this music. There's likewise little to no "jazz" here either. Real jazz musicians wince as hard as flamenco artists when they hear this stuff called "jazz-flamenco fusion." Add the title of this album and you've succeeded in insulting jazz, flamenco and Gypsies all at the same time.
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