Conrad -> RE: On "Guitar Diarrhorea" (Sep. 22 2007 21:02:43)
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For me, it's rarely purely about being technically awestruck by these modern guys, just for the record... Okay, definitely, the current Jeronimo might be perceived as less musical or whatever... but I really believe the melodies are there if you listen. They are not as sensational and elegant or classically beautiful, but the motives and phrasing are there. "Musical" can mean many different things for different people, obviously... I mean, bulerias, I'm sure everyone can agree, is conducive to a great variety of mood. Furthermore, for some, music is a reflection of life and you wish your music had a progressive "development" or that it has a tangible story arch, but even with that ideal in mind, I think life can be quite unreasonable and even nonsensical at times, and going even further, some people want to transcend or discard these musical conventions completely. For me, a lot of good flamenco aspires to do this or does it by default because as some people feel, flamenco has more to do with spirit and spontaneity and not tucking away a little composition that is cut and dried. And I'm not saying Jeronimo is doing this or what he's doing, but for the purposes of discussion, I want to express this, perhaps in rebuttal to Luka's post. And Luka, I am sympathetic to your views, absolutely, but I want to offer an alternative, too. In the latter two Jeronimo vids, I see a guy who is not anguished and/or macho, but a guy who is trying to provoke and have fun, someone who provides a real challenge to the listener, and someone who is genuinely searching in the moment. I even hear some tenderness in his playing at times (in the third video, at 3:40, and the falseta after that at 4:15) Sure, some of the trademarks of diarrhea (or whatever) in Ron's revelatory post are there (the unfortunate power chords, large intervals - which I actually like here - etc...) but for me he just does it in a more genuine way than Eduardo, for example. And for me, comparing those two, Eduardo is too symmetrical in his falsetas, starting a lot of compas' with pronounced downbeats and similar rhythms etc... but to each his own. I also kind of relate to Jeronimo because he is just weird sometimes, or avant garde, whatever term you use. He wants to fuuck with you a little bit! And I slurp up that contratiempo stuff, personally. Granted, Jeronimo's composition, if you want to call it that, can sound very disjointed, but that's not always the point, as someone said earlier, suggesting how all these falsetas might sound individually in support of cante. I also don't like to knock any guitarists or speculate on what they are thinking, but I'm bored and I want to share my personal reflections here. F.Y.I. I never listen to Jeronimo's record cause it's out of tune/not recorded in my favourite fashion. And he's not even in my top list of guitarists, but he really does aim for a unique sound and I admire that. I think he could be much better, and he is sure trying to innovate.
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