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Guys, I understand this may be purely subjective, but I was wondering if there was any agreement amongst forum members which were the top 5 best Flamenco albums ever. Personally, I am mainly interested in the solo guitar albums, but I see no reason why it can't include ALL Flamenco albums. There must be THOUSANDS of albums out there, but obviously some will be better than others. I'm not asking for everyone to agree with eachother, but if there is at least some similarity in opinion, it will help me a lot to decide which CDs to buy.
Or failing that, maybe there is some concensus about the top 5 Flamenco guitarists?
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
hm.for me it´s this for the moment. And im only going to put guitar albums in the list. It would be impossible for me to make a top 5 list of all flamenco albums i´ve heard. So this is guitar albums that has made a big impression on me.
1. Sirocco . PdL 2. Fabolus flamenco. paco Peña. (Im not sure this is the correct name of the cd.) 3. La fabulosa guitarra de Paco de lucia 4. paseo de los castaños. Tomatito 5. Rey del Flamenco Sabicas. (maybe thats not the name of the album)
Now i could go on and on and on. There so much left out of this list!! Niño ricardo, Gerardo nuñez, Vicente. etc etc etc
Henrik
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Posts: 786
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: San Francisco Bay Area
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
James;
I find it difficult to name five but my favorite is Queen of the Gypsies" with Carmen Amaya and Sabicas. Many call it the best flamenco recording made and I have to agree.
Posts: 233
Joined: Apr. 7 2005
From: Adelaide, Australia
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
1. De mi corazon al aire - Vicente Amigo 2. Bola - Agustin Carbonell (Originally released under the title "Carmen") 3. Siroco - PDL 4. Jucal - Gerardo Nunez 5. Rosas del amor - Tomatito
If the list could be one longer I would definately put Sanlucar's "Tauromagia" in there.
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
Top 5 albums that have left an impression of me, the not the best but for some reason they stick in my head the most and i have gonne back to them the most.
Vicente Ciudad de Las Ideas <---- I think this album fas revolutionary for Vicente Gerardo Nunez Salome <---- this one really really touched me and inspired me Carlos Pinana POLOSANTO <---- I love the voice of Curro Piñana in this album El Pele & Vicente Canto <---- very creative accompaning of cante by Vicente DUQUENDE Samaruco <----- My favourite Paco stuff
but tomarow my list be totaly different ;-) greate post btw
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to Florian)
Thanks everyone, some very helpful information. I will do my best to check out the albums that you have suggested. One that was mentioned several times was Paco De Lucia's "Sirroco", so I think this will be my first to buy.
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
My favourite is Vicente - Vivencias Imaginadas - (just coz I've heard a million times and still like it) Manolo Sanlucar - Turomagia (coz it's magic) after that anything but I lean more to the cante rather than guitar so I think Camaron - Potro de rabia y miel (or anything esle for that matter) Capullo de Jerez - Este soy yo (has to be heard) Martires de compas - anything by them (coz there so cool) - Flamenco Billy
Maybe not a very decicive list just off the top of my head.
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
Hmmm... well, Almoraima is AWESOME. By Paco. I don't see how Siroco beats that one out. And Tauromagia by Manolo Sanlucar is definitely one of the greatest ever.
Posts: 15242
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
1. Tauromagia-Manolo Sanlucar 2. Fantasia Flamenca-Paco de Lucia 3. Jucal-Gerardo Nunez 4. Vivencias Imaginadas-Vicente Amigo 5. Paseo de los Castanos-Tomatito
I would actually put Paco's whole discography at no. 2 with Fantasia at the top, but figured you wanted variety. I don't like ALL of Sanlucar's work, but Tauromagia is an amazing album, always top of my list. Even though these are my favorites, the two albums I can't get enough of lately are from last year, Cositas Buenas and Andando del Tiempo. Not the BEST of either artist, but I just can't stop listening to these two.
My cante list would be separate. I can't mix up the two lists for some reason.
1. Paquera-anything 2. Maria Vargas w/ Paco de lucia 3. Indio Gitano w/ Nunez 4. Luis el Zambo -Gloria Bendita 5. Camaron-Nuestro
When you get into cante, you should get the Flamenco movie or CD by Saura. A great mix of different style singers.
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
El Camarón de la Isla con la Colaboración Especial de Paco de Lucía (1969) El Camarón de la Isla con Tomatito - Flamenco Vivo El Camarón de la Isla con Paco de Lucía y Tomatito - Como el Agua El Camarón de la Isla y Tomatito - La Leyenda del Tiempo Gerardo Nunez - El Gallo Azul Gerardo Nunez - Jucal (The Spanish version - the english one is missing some songs!) Gerardo Nunez - Calima Moraito Chico - Morao, Morao Pedro Bacan - Alurican Quique Paredes - De Maera
sorry.. I know that's 10 albums, but I really couldn't leave any out.
Posts: 243
Joined: Jul. 29 2003
From: San Diego, CA
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
1) El Pele & Vicente Amigo - Poeta de esquinas blandas 2) PDL - Almoraima and/or Siroco 3) Vicente Amigo - De mi corazón al aire 4) Gerardo Núñez - Flamencos en nueva york 5) Manolo Sanlucar - Tauromagia 6) El Pele, Isidro Múñoz and Vicente Amigo - La fuente de lo jondo
Unfortunately, 1,3 and 4 are not the best recordings in terms of studio technique, actually, given what was available at time each was recorded (1990, 1991, and 1989) they're lousy. But artistically, each one was a significant recording in my book.
Almoraima and Tauromagia were solid discs both artistically and as studio recordings.
For those interested in gorgeous recordings (though no flamenco yet) check out marecordings.com the guy who started the company says he's interested to do flamenco, but also said it is difficult to meet people. I wish he could meet the right people because all his recordings are done with all musicians in the same space, but done in acoustically adequate environments which give one a sense of space and just right reverb as well as amazing instrumental and/or vocal clarity.
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
Paco - Luzia Camaron - Potro de Rabia y Miel Duquende - Duquende y la guitarra de Tomatito Paco - Siroco Camaron - Arte y Majestad Vicente Amigo - Vivencias imaginadas Paco - Almoraima Gerardo Nuñez - Jucal Camaron - Viviré Diego el Cigala - Dieguito el Cigala con el Niño Josele en el teatro real ...
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to Guest)
Thanks for your comments everyone. I will be looking into these CDs, and trying to buy many of them when my budget permits.
Anders, I have to confess that I am the complete opposite, and prefer more solo guitar and less cante!
However, I was lucky enough to get to see Estrella Morente perform many of the songs from that album live recently, and have to confess, it was very entertaining!
Posts: 1945
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
1. Sabicas "flamenco puro" 2. PdL "Fuente y Caudal" 3. VA -first record 4. Losadas "?" 5. Nino Migel "Grand Figures etc" 6. Canizares-first record 7. Bola-first record
oh, that's more than five-it's like potato chips-you can't stop eating
Cante - Bulerias de Oro!!! All the Camaron/PdL stuff Two cries for freedom-by the two guys from jail.
Have to mention PdL live at the Teatro Real-wow what a performance-unequaled in chops, musical quality, and sheer talent.
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
Just went to local music (largest music and video entertainment 'superstore'), and found not a single CD you guys mentioned. : ( What they did have was some Gipsy Kings, Ottmar Liebert, and a couple of other names I didn't recognize all found in the 'World Music' section! Oh well. Good thread.
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
ok here's mine, in no particular order
Flamenco Vivo : Camaron con Tomatito De Mi Corazon Al Aire : Vicente Amigo Flamenco : Sabicas Recital De Flamenco : Manolo Sanlucar Fabulous Flamenco! : Paco Peña
on the subject of where to buy, the itunes music store has a reasonable selection, i've gotten Sabicas, Paco De Lucia, Vicente Amigo and Paco Pena records from there before.
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to hubby)
quote:
ORIGINAL: hubby on the subject of where to buy, the itunes music store has a reasonable selection, i've gotten Sabicas, Paco De Lucia, Vicente Amigo and Paco Pena records from there before.
Talking of iTunes Emilio Maya's album Temple is now available there to download.
RE: TOP 5 BEST EVER FLAMENCO ALBUMS (in reply to JBASHORUN)
Here's a hidden gem for you. It's an album by hEMIsphere (Note the "EMI") called The Story of Flamenco and it's developed from EMI-Odeon Spain archives. 17 tracks that are in many ways a great sampling, since they are all highly characteristic of this genre and its various manifestations.
(Note: Expect Cante. None of the tracks are wholly instrumental.)