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Posts: 3446
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
Niño de Pura
After my faint praise of Niño de Pura in the Paco Peña thread, it is only fair for me to report that I ran across a good deal of his stuff on Youtube that I really like. There are at least alegrias, bulerias, guajiras and soleá that are very nice. The fast pieces are virtuosic, but very musical. The soleá has its showy passages, but it is deeply felt.
A major problem with the concert the other night was the P.A. It made the guitar simultaneously tinny and boomy. The blasting bass obscured detail, while the treble was ironed out dynamically compared to what I can hear on Youtube. The cajon sounded more like a bass drum left out in a hailstorm, and the foot part of palmas sounded like the accompanying thunder.
On the Tube Niño de Pura comes through as the true artist he is.
Flamenco needs to rethink the cajun. Something more dignified than sitting on a box with legs apart and slapping a small area just below your nads.
You can thank Paco de Lucia, who brought the cajon back from Peru and introduced it to flamenco.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
I have never seen a better grupo flamenco than Aurora, Pansequito, Niño de Pura with Bobete y El Eléctrico a palmas. Every one a monstro de compás.
In the first part, Panseco sang his version of flamenco puro and Daniel accompanied muy flamenco, without florituras.
Aurora is muy festera, she sings, dances, rests. Here Daniel changed his style. Accompanied de maravilla, but when Aurora was resting and drinking water, Daniel played to lucir: picado increcible que pusó el público de pie.
When she returned, he went back to playing for her.
He is the most complete tocaor I have ever seen. (When he was 14 años I saw him play a concierto de guitarra solo, though all the aficionados went to the bar )
I just saw him in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. He was very good, but seemed немного not in the mood for whatever reason. Incredible technique, crazy picados, but he played без вдохновения that night. I guess it happens to the best of us.
I just saw him in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. He was very good, but seemed немного not in the mood for whatever reason. Incredible technique, crazy picados, but he played без вдохновения that night. I guess it happens to the best of us.
I had that impression to some extent at the show here in Austin. (I think--I neither read nor speak Russian. I will have to ask Larisa...) but I noticed that he frequently wiped his nose with a handkerchief. Perhaps he was ill? Certainly his Youtube videos give an impression different from the one I received from the 6th row. Plus the P.A. was a serious distraction.
Yes, I had a similar impression. Something was off. He hardly ever smiled the entire concert.
Sorry for the Russian words. Similarly, my Spanish is limited to the following words: cante, baile, toque, palmas, compas, duende. I also know si and no. That's about it.
When he was 14 años I saw him play a concierto de guitarra solo, though all the aficionados went to the bar
Why do you think they did that? Personally i think he is a flamenco guitar virtuoso but i am not a big fan of his music to melodramatic almost cheesy at times which is strange since i like Manolo Franco a lot.
Wrong! As much as I like cante, I still like solo guitar as well. To like both is not a contradiction in terms. They are not mutually exclusive. One can appreciate both without sacrificing one for the other.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Yes, I had a similar impression. Something was off. He hardly ever smiled the entire concert.
Sorry for the Russian words. Similarly, my Spanish is limited to the following words: cante, baile, toque, palmas, compas, duende. I also know si and no. That's about it.
You should try to learn a bit more - and don't be afraid to use them. I always pay extra attention when some one makes a post with considered use of Spanish mots justes. They must know what they're talking about, right?
Nobody listens to solo guitar. They come back from the bar when the cante starts
My memories of the peñas was exactly this. The crowd talk over a solo guitar, usually at the bar, but shut up with a deep reverence when the cante starts, After all, they are being told a story.
Nobody listens to solo guitar. They come back from the bar when the cante starts
My memories of the peñas was exactly this. The crowd talk over a solo guitar, usually at the bar, but shut up with a deep reverence when the cante starts, After all, they are being told a story.
The common folk of the world are not so much into instrumental music...too cerebral. In Spain guitar music is even worse since everyone plays it or looks at the guitar as furniture decoration. In the US there was a time everyone had an out of tune piano to put their family portrait and vacation photos on.
In the US there was a time everyone had an out of tune piano to put their family portrait and vacation photos on.
In Britain too, you could once buy sheet piano music of top pop hits and bang them out on the old piano (as I tried to do) and every pub had one in the public bar for a sing-song. The lounge bar was too posh for such things.
At the heart of it was singing, that everyone could join in.
I am sorry, but as much as I love and respect cante, I find this attitude towards solo guitar to be degrading. Especially since it evolved into such high art and is so damn difficult. I agree that cante is the heart of flamenco. But what would flamenco be without the guitar? I just feel belittling achievements of guitarists such as Daniel that spent their entire lives perfecting their craft is unfair. Show some respect, people. You can always get your vino later.
I find this attitude towards solo guitar to be degrading.
Nobody is degrading solo guitar. We are merely documenting a fact, that in Andalucía music is live and aficionados have no interest in solo guitar. In other parts of the world, where cante is scarce and the culture is different, it is normal to give value to whater you have.
Morante, I was not talking about members of this foro. I was talking about flamenco aficionados in Andalucia. I found the same attitude when I was there.
You should take your earbuds and put on some cante when you're listening to live cante.
In the peninsula ibérica, everybody has a guitar at home (cheap classical usually). The majority doesn't play anything, half doesn't care for any guitar music, a third doesn't even care for any particular kind of music.
My memories of the peñas was exactly this. The crowd talk over a solo guitar, usually at the bar, but shut up with a deep reverence when the cante starts
My experience of peñas (which I freely admit is limited) is that most of the women have either been dragged along by their menfolk, or have come to keep an eye on them because they don’t want the said men to associate with strange women unsupervised.
So once they’ve worked out who’s there, they all talk nonstop (since they basically don’t give a monkey’s about the music), and hoik the men out of there at the earliest opportunity.