Palo Popularity

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Palo Popularity

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Paul Bruhns

Posts: 77
Joined: Jul. 14 2003

Palo Popularity

Hi all:

Here where I live, the most popular palos are those that are danced to by the local performers (which are dancers). I see a lot of Alegrias, Bulerias, Soleares, and then some Guajiras or Tientos or the occassional Tangos. Not much if any "cante jondo" palos: No siguiryas, minera, peteneras, or anything I can think of... Taranto or Fandangos for example.

If I only lived in a place where canteors flurished, I might get to hear more jondo palos on a regular basis. I miss that, as my main love of flamenco is the "song" But, as I would aspire to be an accompanyist, I would rather work with the singers than the dancers.

I guess my question would be, what gives rise to the popularity of certain palos over time? Is it just that the uneducated masses would rather see cookie cutter flamenco?

What are your experiences?

Regards,
Paul

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 29 2003 14:05:10

Jim Opfer

Posts: 1876
Joined: Jul. 19 2003
From: Glasgow, Scotland.

RE: Palo Popularity (in reply to Paul Bruhns)

Hi Paul,
Glasgow never had any flamenco in the past, at least if it was there, I never found it. I became interested in flamenco guitar late 60's. I guess language would have been the biggest barrier to becoming engrossed in Cante, but the truth of the matter is that I just never heard any.
It's a bit different now, with good dance classes over the winter months taken by a superb dancer, Felipe de Algiceras, who is the real thing, now living in London and travelling up every fortnight. As a consequence, there's a lot of interest and activity but as your experience, it's Tangos, Tientos, Alegrias, Soleares etc. But hey! that's good!
I'm fortunate to have a small group with dancer and palmero, my dancer, Lorna, took lessons in Spain, before Filipe started comming up, although she is his number one fan and attends all the senior classes, so I'm very fortunate that we have more material to present whenever we do a show.
I've had very limited experience playing por Cante, but just enough to know that this is fantastic. To play properly, the guitarist has to know the structure of each song and antisipate the chord changes, the real difficult thing is holding back and not leading. It's an absolute must that the guitarist follows even if your juces are screaming out 'change chord now' you can't till the cante lets it happen.
Cheers
Jim.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 29 2003 16:42:54