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I thought it d be interesting to know what is the experience for everybody that made him/her got stuck to flamenco.
For me, I first listened to paco de lucia - cositas buenas when I was 17 (I was in a pretty popular punkrock band back then guitar and vocals). That was my first experience with flamenco. . But cositas buenas didn't grab me so much and I found it hard to listen to 75% of the cd (nowdays I am kind of addicted to cositas buenas, you can always put it on and I'm happy though). But the very very first real connection with flamenco was Nino de Almaden. I bought this cd named flamenco de triana with de Almaden, Escudero & Ramos when I was 21. The fandanguillo on that cd (I suppose a synonym for fandangos de Huelva?) made me cry every time I listened to it. Until now. I think he is a really really nice cantaor with a lot of feeling
Cancion del Mariachi -> Youtube Guitar Lesson (first time guitar playing) -> sal bonavita Rumba -> Graf Martinez Book -> local flamenco teacher -> flamenco
My first exposure to flamenco was in 1979 when I went to see Paco de Lucia in a solo performance in Albuquerque. It sounded like a duette if you closed your eyes....but I couldn't keep my eyes closed because I was trying to follow his fingers. Truly amazing performance. I had never heard nor seen flamenco before this time.
Roll forward a few years (1999). My 10 year old daughter, who was a performer at the local Children's theater, was bored and wanted to try something else. We both went to the local flamenco dance studio (the National Institute of Flamenco - www.nifnm.org ) and decided that we would give it a try. She signed up for dance classes and I started to learn flamenco guitar. Several years later, Romerito became my first flamenco guitar teacher. He helped open up my eyes to possibilities. Today my daughter is a professional flamenco dancer and I (slow learner) continue my journey. I teach a child's flamenco guitar class weekly and accompany a couple of dance classes.That is is all I can handle. Flamenco is my passion but no my job! I have studied with many great guitarists...we have access to many teachers in New Mexico. This week I am studying with a young guitarist named Ricardo Anglada. A great guitarist for dance.
I dont remember when I first heard flamenco. I played rock/pop guitar for 8 years or so, then went to music school. I learned all kinds of techniques from flamenco while studying classical guitar in music school. I played mostly electric guitar in rock bands for 10 years, then decided I didnt want to bother with bands and hauling around amplifiers anymore. I decided to focus all of my practice on flamenco guitar. That was 3 years ago. Ive always preferred the puro stuff so I mostly listen to the pre-de Lucia guys, and Paco Peña. I little Tomatito though.
I was into rock and metal as a kid. During a summer camp for guitar, the teacher asked us all to bring in a song we liked to share with the class. After tons of stuff from Rock to metal jazz , blues, Country, etc, the teacher put on a record of this song:
I went home and asked my dad if he knew about Paco and he said the best flamenco guitar was Sabicas, and let me hear Queen of the Gipsies. I couldn't stand the singing and stomping feet at first, but the guitar solo "soleares" was amazing. I remember thinking "too bad this guy Paco doesn't play real flamenco like this sabicas guy, cuz he could be even better". LOL
It was after my father died several years later that I started digging up things to listen to including Paco, but other music too. I found a partial discography in a old classical guitar magazine (clearing out my dad's library) of Paco and was shocked to learn he had such a recording career, and started to collect the recordings in the discography. They were so hard to find and it was an expensive venture back then. Now youtube doesn't make things so challenging to learn anymore, and perhaps BECAUSE it is so easy, people don't appreciate what they listen to as much as we did in the old days. (man I sound old )
great question! These responses are pretty fascinating.
My father played some "Spanish guitar" and so from a young age I wanted to play this style of music. Whenever I would hear anything that I thought sounded like Spanish guitar I was hooked. I learned the three basic chords of a farruca when I was nine (I had to really beg my father to teach me, perhaps he was afraid I would want to become a musician). Around this time, the Gypsy Kings were exploding, and I was pretty much hooked to their stuff. This is maybe the late 80s and I was around 10.
Realizing I could not play this complex music, I got into Hendrix and other electric styles, until I met a busker who was a flamenco. He guided my way telling me to listen to such and such artists, and the french Chants du Monde series become my go to. I picked up the Ramon Montoya, Nino Ricardo and Sabicas compilations (great figures of flamenco), as well as a Camaron cd and a Paco de Lucia compilation. The busker recommended Paco Pena for a more traditional approach at first, and I sold my imitation strat and bought a sycamore sides Raimundo flamenco guitar. Once the internet took off, it became easier to learn.
I would say the first time I listened to Ramon Montoya's playing I was hit pretty hard with the difference between flamenco and Gypsy Kings...I made my classical teacher listen to the cd and that was my last classical guitar lesson.
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"I'm just a poor crazy man in love with his art." Santos Hernandez
In 1989 I bought an LP, 'Encuentros' - El Lebrijano and Cepero with the Orquesta Andalus de Tanger. I was more interested in Arabic than Spanish at that time but, inspired by the record, I took a job in Madrid! In Madrid I went to Casa Patas and Revolver and the flamenco at Veranos de la Villa. Along the way I discovered Camaron and that was that. Toma ya!
In the mid 60's I came across the album La Zambra by Fernando Sirvent and I was hooked. Perhaps too lame for many members on this site but I still love it more than any of the 16 PDL recordings I have. I pretty much wore it out. After that I discovered Sabicas. Still "El Rey" to me.
piano -> electric guitar -> shred -> seeing a mariachi on the street in mexico -> buying a flamenco guitar and the juan martin books -> spent a few months on the book then forgot about it -> picking it up again 6 months ago due to youtube and losing my job.
For me it was a Paco Peña vinyl called "Flamenco Guitar".
I discovered it in a collection of maybe some two hundred records that were left to my father by his deceased friend. Something about it piqued my curiosity, so I put it on the turn table and was instantly hooked. I proceeded to borrow my then girlfriend's classical guitar, buy a copy of Toques Flamencos and spend the next 3 months trying to learn En Las Cuevas.
I still have that vinyl. It's still one of my favourites.
PDL concierto de Aranjuez… PDL paco de lucia mediterranean sundance.. Solea by everyone… local Jazz guitar lessons tht developed theory… local flamenco teacher.. FLAMENCO POR SIEMPRE:))
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This is hard stuff! Don't give up... And don't make it a race. Enjoy the ray of sunshine that comes with every new step in knowledge.
I remember as a little kid sitting around eating jamon, chorizo, cheese and bread, passing on the Paella because it was to fishy, and listening to my Dad and his friends talk and drink Vino. They had all come to Mexico from Spain to escape the Gov't. They would sit around and talk for hours (politics, politics, politics) and flamenco was always on the background. My dad took my brother, sister and me to Bellas Artes and enrolled us in a guitar course, I think I was around 9-10 years old, after the first day the teacher told my dad that I was probably not going to do well and for him to focus on the other two. So my guitar venture was derailed. 35 years later I decided that I was going to learn, I found a great teacher with a lot of patience. It has been almost 4 years now, I am a slow learner but I love every minute of it. I am just glad that I did it. Sometimes late at night, all alone and quiet, when I practice and it sounds good to my ears, I can see my Dad and his friends having a heck of a time. May they rest in peace and I hope they are enjoying the best Vino in Heaven.
A Sabicas record derailed me from making my living playing electric guitar. It was in 1983 and I was 25. I met Mariano Cordoba and studied with him for almost five years. There was little in the way of written music back then, but I remember buying classical guitar mags published in England with an occasional article on flamenco by Paul from the forum. Thanks for that Paul.
Mariano gave me all sorts of solo gigs and I found myself embarrased on a couple of occasions when a dancer or singer showed up. Mariano introduced me to Cruz Luna, a great dancer, but it took a few false starts before I actually started really learning to play for dance. A few guys in the bay area helped, David in particular, who had me playing with him for Rosa Montoya, and got me a gig playing for classes. I spent five years playing in dance schools and doing gigs with students. It was extremely satisfying when I finally got an opportunity to perform with a company of dancers and singers, but the reality was that feeling was fairly short lived. The whole time I was playing with a group playing a sort of fusiony rumba music, and it started to do pretty well, whereas the flamenco thing paid pretty much nothing. With a kid about to go to college, I left the flamenco scene to focus on earning money and haven't been back. It's been ten years or so.
Posts: 3433
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
RE: your entrance into flamenco (in reply to Escribano)
1953 or 1954, heard Segovia on WGMS, the Washington, DC classical music station. Went to Rey de la Torre concert. I was a kid trumpet player at the time.
1957 at University of Texas met some students of Ed Freeman, the Englishman who taught real flamenco guitar in Dallas, Texas.
1957 schedule conflicts ruled out playing trumpet in University Symphony and Symphonic Band. Went to Paracho, bought a guitar and tried to take up classical. No decent teachers in Austin. How times have changed!
Visited Freeman in Dallas. Decided he really knew what he was doing, but that we wouldn't get along. Ed was a really great guy, but very much "my way or the highway." I've never been any good at taking orders. Found accurate Mario Escudero transcriptions and worked on them with tips from my friends among Freeman's students.
1961 got drafted into U.S. Army. Had my parents ship me my guitar after Basic Training. While stationed in Maryland for a few months, went to New York on weekends, saw quite a few flamencos at Fidel Zabal's Club Zambra. Got to see Sabicas in after hours juergas, met him and talked a little. Really a wonderful guy.
1967 my new wife gave me a Ramirez 1a blanca. Started really learning how to play. Over the next few years learned all the published Escudero stuff, a few Sabicas pieces, some Niño Ricardo, Carlos Ramos, Ramon Montoya, Luis Maravilla, etc. Some transcriptions, some copped off LP records.
19?? Heard Paco's set with Fosforito, really liked it. Took a little longer to get into Paco's solo stuff.
Maybe 1975, started listening to a lot more cante than solo guitar.
1975-1987 Over a period of years bought maybe two dozen Ramirez 1a classicals from Jose III at the shop in Madrid, sold them in the USA at a profit. Paid for my trips to Spain.
198? Bought a student model Bernabe classical from the shop on Arcos de Cuchilleros in Madrid.
1987 moved to Santa Barbara, California. Found a decent classical teacher.
1991 Bought a spruce/Brazilian Contreras doble tapa from Manuel Senior in Madrid. Moved to Kwajalein. Worked on classical a couple of hours a day. Played flamenco a couple of times a week when I got bored. Listened to all kinds of music: classical--all instruments and ensembles, jazz, rock, Mexican, Balinese and Javanese gamelan, flamenco mostly cante, etc. etc. etc.
2000 You can save a lot of money working at Kwajalein. Investments went pretty well, too. When I moved there in 1991 I was broke from a divorce and putting kids through college. Nine years later I bought an '82 Arcangel Fernandez blanca, absolutely, perfectly mint condition. Knocked my socks off! Wow! Also bought a '73 spruce/Indian Romanillos. Also Wow! Spent about half time on flamenco, half on classical.
I've loved classical and a wide range of other musics since I was a young kid, played an instrument since I was little. Organized, wrote and arranged for a band when I was in high school.
But it's flamenco that brings out the soul of the guitar.
as a kid, my parents couldnt afford toys and games for me. so I only had toy cars (I still love cars till this day) , TV cartoons (tom and jerry, bugs bunny). at one point, I dont know why, my parents sent me: @ age of 5: parents sent me for keyboard courses at a classical music foundation with my brother @ age of 9: I was in a band playing classical music on keyboard accordion for small shows. @ age of 11: I quit music, quit band, and got bored of classical music, and HATED music, and was completely against music of any kind, sold my instruments and didnt want to come back again.
one day, I was watching a hollywood movie, and there comes a scene I will never ever forget, it was a the foot and skirt of a flamenco dancer, she does all the foot work with no music, and I thought WOW that precussion and foot work is SOO COOL! I thought the whole concept of the compas was so amazing, and then came in the guitar with rasguedos and I FELL IN LOVE!! I didnt know what that music was called, and I thought that I would never ever see it in my life again. I asked my mom back then, " what is this? she said :" its spanish "flamingo" music"" .
2 years ago, I had to take any **** course as a "humanity course" for my degree, everything was ****, went into psychology, and dropped it after the first lecture, and then I heard my friend got into a " guitar 101 course" , an easy 6 credit A+ course, and I thought that was A SWEET DEAL!! I went in and my memory of flamenco came back and I asked my music prof to teach me flamenco, and he said that first I need to get comfortable with the instrument and learn the chords and all the basic music theory and etc. by the end of the course, I was ready to learn flamenco, and he said " Sorry im not a flamenco guitarist. I cant teach you flamenco, go to Bob Sutherby" . I thought it was expensive to go to Bob, so I learned some Rumba on youtube and until I hit a point that I thought I couldnt go any further. I went to him and thats how it all started!
But the very very first real connection with flamenco was Nino de Almaden. I bought this cd named flamenco de triana with de Almaden, Escudero & Ramos when I was 21.
I had that same record. I loved it.
My father started studying flamenco a few years before i was born. He quit Peabody conservatory to study with Carlos Ramos. He started teaching me early on. Ive always been in love with Flamenco.
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