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I've put together a webpage on the recordings of soleá and bulería por soleá of Juan Talega. In these two styles, there are 25 cantes on studio recordings and 225 cantes on recordings made at fiestas and festivals. The fiesta recordings are particularly interesting as they contain a number of styles not found on the vinyl recordings. The problem, as many of you may be aware, is that these recordings have been copied and edited many times and some versions are incomplete and/or repeated. I bought cassette and CD releases of some of the material years ago, and other stuff has been given to me over the years, much of which is hard to listen to because of the repeated/incomplete versions and other problems. Drawing on all of the material, I've taken inventory of these cantes in order to make them more accessible for study. If you have any of these recordings and would like to contribute, have a listen to what you've got and check the letras against what's on my webpage.
RE: Juan Talega por soleá (in reply to NormanKliman)
Wow that is a formidable amount of information to take in. Do you have any ideas about which guitarists are playing on the private non commercial tapes?
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 26 2009
From: The land down under
RE: Juan Talega por soleá (in reply to NormanKliman)
Great work Norman!
That must have taken a serious amount of time to compile. I have about 50 cassette tapes with nothing written on them that my dad collected back in the 70's 80's. The thought of going through them all is tiring. I really should go through them, see what's there, and copy over interesting stuff. I have not forgotten about the Pedro Bacan recordings I promised to send you either, but i am still yet to get around to converting them. I need a free month
RE: Juan Talega por soleá (in reply to NormanKliman)
Thanks guys; glad you like it. I should have expressed myself more clearly in the OP when I asked people to listen to their copies and to check the letras. The idea is to use the letras on the webpage to identify your recordings and, ideally, to let me know if you have any cantes that aren't included in the study. I'm pretty sure I've covered nearly everything, but some of the series are very short. Also, I should have made it clear that I'm not trying to use these recordings for profit and that I'm not planning on uploading them to my website.
quote:
...a labour of love for "el arte".
There are in-depth studies and/or anthologies of Chacón, Torre, Pastora, Tomás, Vallejo, Chaqueta and others, and the Solers' book on siguiriyas and soleás covers nearly all the recordings of singers born up to 1920, so it seemed to me that the next artist to be studied in similar detail should be Juan Talega.
quote:
Wow that is a formidable amount of information to take in.
The letras are the bulk of the text. It's actually pretty easy to get one's head around his versions of these cantes as there's very little variation. His versions of some styles are different from those of other artists but he always sang them the same way.
quote:
Do you have any ideas about which guitarists are playing on the private non commercial tapes?
In the first paragraph, it says that Diego accompanies on nearly all the recordings. Nephew Paco plays on at least one series (number 31).
quote:
That must have taken a serious amount of time to compile.
A couple of months. The greater part of that time was spent on HTML and CSS issues and on three or four letras. Fortunately, some friends lent an ear and now all of the letras are on the website.
quote:
I have about 50 cassette tapes with nothing written on them that my dad collected back in the 70's 80's. The thought of going through them all is tiring. I really should go through them, see what's there, and copy over interesting stuff.
That's a very good way to consolidate your knowledge and appreciation of singers and guitarists. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but I get a great amount of satisfaction from identifying artists like that.
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 26 2009
From: The land down under
RE: Juan Talega por soleá (in reply to NormanKliman)
quote:
That's a very good way to consolidate your knowledge and appreciation of singers and guitarists. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but I get a great amount of satisfaction from identifying artists like that.
Over the years i have listened to all of them. Many are copies of albums that can still easily be found today. Singers like Juan varea, Fosforito, El turrunero, Chicettete (spelling?), pansequito, Lole y Manuel molina, luis de cordoba etc.. But there are a few that i don't think would be so easy to find.
Do you encounter many people in Spain with such a deep interest in the history and progression of the cante like yourself?
I imagine many singers just sing what they like and don't worry to much about the history?
Anyway, It's great that you are documenting so much for those who are.
Do you encounter many people in Spain with such a deep interest in the history and progression of the cante like yourself?
Many but I wouldn't say a lot. More in Andalusia. Another reason for choosing Talega for the study is that I'd been asking around and all the gypsies say that Talega is their favorite por soleá.
quote:
I imagine many singers just sing what they like and don't worry to much about the history?
Yes. As I said upthread, Talega always sang his versions the same way. Very methodical, as opposed to Caracol, Terremoto and others.
Thanks, Ricardo. You might find it interesting to look at the last letra of series 12. I think he cut it short because he realized he'd made a mistake as he starts the conclusion with the first line instead of the third line, which makes the rhyme impossible. Very rare in a singer of the caliber of Juan Talega (especially in view of his methodical approach) but then again it was a party and they were having fun.
This was one of the coolest letras to figure out. The guy with the letras page, Rafael Moreno, found it on the Internet. Apparently it is or was popular in the village Lora del Río and it refers to local customs of choosing names for newborn girls. I've mentioned it to a few people and nobody's heard of Setefilla.
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