|
Ricardo -> RE: Paco de Lucia concert last night (Feb. 11 2007 15:32:42)
|
quote:
This man is touring the world three times over with the same old tired stuff.
It is a bit of a catch 22. If he played the music from Fantasia flamenca for his entire career, many would say the same. When he came up with his newest music, people in the audience expecting the older stuff are like "what was that, is that flamenco?". I remember when he was on tour in 97 before Luizia, and I did not recognize most of the music. It was all fresh and new. I was a bit disappointed, since I wanted to see the fingering for the old la barrosa and stuff, but it was all new material. Other people in the audience I talked to were like "that was the same concert I saw him do 10 years ago". [8|]
The problem is the extra instruments and things are for the people in the audience that can't really focus on "faletas" or the music of "faletas". And believe me, that is the VAST majority. Even his worst night of playing, people will stay awake and excited until the very end (unless they are flamenco purists of course, again the minority). Of course for the folks who never saw paco before live, despite youtube and such, THIS concert what ever it was, will be memorable. Many say "that was the best concert I have ever seen!" and start looking for a flamenco teacher the next day.
OK, my view on the concert in DC. I have seen Paco 5 times. It was not his best night. He was off to a bad start as they messed up his monitor sound, forgot his footstool etc, he missed a note here or there. Once you get on that track as a performer, it is hard to get out of that funk. I recognized ONE new falseta in his bulerias solo piece, although part of it was aranged from "Volar", but to the por medio key. All the rest of the show was as I would expect it to be, but keep in mind he "improvises" a lot, there are not a lot of set in stone arrangements. It is just that I am familiar where the source material is drawn from and can predict where he will take it. I am not "bored" by that actually. He tosses in older falsetas into the group number bulerias and tangos, but nothing "new" per say, but it was a nice surprise considering the concert footage I have seen of recent shows. So over all, I am glad I went, but not his best. The others in the group were nothing special for me. Although Chonchi sang one traditional bulerias letra that "did it" for me, very nice. Montse is going deaf I think, poor thing. N. Josele has gotten his picado's into gear for the ZYRAB trade offs, very impressive, though his soloing is not in league with Canizares or Banderas at this stage. It is obvious that he is working hard on it, so good on him.
What I saw here in 2004, was maybe the BEST guitar concert I have ever seen. Paco had no second guitarist, and really carried the whole night on his shoulders. I had binoculars and watch EVERY note (I am nerd I know), and he made almost ZERO mistakes, and further more had a lot of fire in his playing. He played Solo Quiero Caminar note for note I remember. The backing band was very secondary that night, so he must of felt a need to keep the show moving. I have a DVD of him in Germany from only a few months after that night, he had a bigger group, and alot of you have seen that or parts of that show (with montse Duquende josele, etc). Nothing close to what I saw, it was like a different guy playing, very sloppy, silly mistakes and such. He played Zyrab on the wrong fret in the begginning!! The show I saw 2 nights ago was comparable to that concert video.
So I don't think is fair to write off Paco as burnt out and tired old guy cashing in just yet. Since it was not long ago and similar material music I saw that blew me away, I think he still has potential to be a butt kicking guitar monster. I agree that he has learned to rely on his group for a lot of the tour, but as I said, better that for the big audiences (totally sold out here), then for people to sit through only a guitar concert with Paco having an off night. At least the cute girls sing nice and the harmonica plays good. [8|]
Ricardo
|
|
|
|
