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Norman Paul Kliman -> RE: "New" recording of Paco to be released (Aug. 10 2024 20:02:08)
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What I read (and you, too, I’m sure) is that older brother Ramón studied privately with Ricardo and, back home, showed the ideas to Paco, who was just a child but learned them quickly and added his own variations. Ramón supposedly scolded him at first but soon realized Paco had a special gift.
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Ricardo was always extremely sloppy compared to other greats.
Not always. He made a series of recordings with Caracol and Pepe Pinto and later for one of Mairena’s anthologies in which his playing is very tight and precise. The Pinto recordings have all been readily available for a long time on a single album/CD, but the Caracol recordings are harder to round up. Most are on Caracol’s “Cante grande” album released in Spain in 1958 and the rest are on the “Orfeón” anthology, sometimes referred to as the Mexican version of the “Hispavox” anthology. But I agree that there’s sloppiness in most of the rest. I don’t like any of his solo recordings.
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It is like he did not really care.
I think he was conscientious about his playing and accompaniment but was wired to play fast and frantically like that. Also, his fingernails were brittle and grew in an upward curve, which prevented him from getting good tone and making maximum use of some techniques like the thumb-and-index mechanism. In my opinion, because of those two factors and his personal preference, he deliberately played the way he did because he considered it more flamenco than Montoya’s playing, which was highly influenced by classical guitar (especially and unusually so back then; not so unusual from today’s perspective). And let’s not forget Montoya’s tendency to stretch the compás to fit his ideas. The whole medio-compás thing, which I attribute to Montoya and his followers, is just one example. Ricardo rarely strayed from the compás while accompanying. Maybe in some of his bulerías, and of course his solo playing, but those are special cases, in my opinion.
“Deliberately” is a hard word to use here, and I’m not just referring to my speculation. People do what comes easiest to them, even when that means doing things the hard way. So both of them, Montoya and Ricardo, were probably just making natural use of their talents, anatomy and wiring. However, my guess is that Ricardo knew he didn’t have the hands or temperament to duplicate Montoya’s sound, and it made more sense for him to do his own thing (deliberately). Interestingly, he copied Montoya extensively in his malagueñas, granaínas and tarantas: the tremolos and everything.
Having agreed about the sloppiness, I’ll add that his playing has a roughness that sounds more flamenco to my ears than anything that’s been recorded since, with the possible exception of Marote, and excluding Ricardo’s sloppier recordings. As an amateur guitarist and musician, I prefer Montoya, Melchor, Sabicas, Paco and others for their perfect sound. Having perfect fingers, nails and touch is like speaking with minty-fresh breath. Don’t get me wrong: I have no serious complaints about the perfection of modern flamenco guitar, but I would like to hear a bit more roughness in tone and touch. In singing, I feel that flamenco loses a lot when it sounds too pretty, and I don’t see why the same doesn't apply to flamenco guitar. Not sloppiness but roughness. Just to be clear, a cartagenera or a guajira or whatever should sound pretty, and I’m referring to other styles.
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