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RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to Morante)
Always loved the peculiar style of Vicente Amigo: he started playing like that when many others were just following the sound and way to play of Paco. Nonetheless it was quite obvious that Tierra was a little too far from what he did before and the people expected to listen.
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to Echi)
quote:
Nonetheless it was quite obvious that Tierra was a little too far from what he did before and the people expected to listen.
I heard he was going to take the "folk fusion" a little further and do an album with a group of English Morris dancers, but I guess that was just a false rumour....
Posts: 15189
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to mark indigo)
quote:
ORIGINAL: mark indigo
quote:
Nonetheless it was quite obvious that Tierra was a little too far from what he did before and the people expected to listen.
I heard he was going to take the "folk fusion" a little further and do an album with a group of English Morris dancers, but I guess that was just a false rumour....
damn, I'm in a weird mood this morning....
I hope he does the Diego del Gastor Buleria repeating forever thing with some river dance footworks
Posts: 15189
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to methionine)
Jokes aside, I had skipped over this album that was briefly mentioned in "new releases" topic end of 2014, having had enough of the camaroneros lately....but came across this track and was quite impressed with the playing, singing, production and overall vibe. Hope Vicente and friends continue along this vein, the stand out track of this album:
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to Morante)
Actually he is playing in my hometown tonight and i wasn't planning to go but the news he's going back to his roods made me change my mind so i'll see him in about 1,5 hours from now. It seems the (flamenco) intrest is equally bad over here as in Ricardo's area because so far the extremely big concerthall has only sold a fraction of the available seats. Still i couldn't get the seat i wanted because it would left 1 unsold seat in that row :-(.
Funny enough i found out yesterday that a concert Vicente gave at Rotterdam Conservatory 33 years ago (he was 16 at the time) basically triggered the Conservatory to start their flamenco department in 1985. I attended the first event as a spectator and the second one as a student (playing Sabicas Farruca and Vicentes childhood Tarantas at my qualifying examination).
This is how Vicente looked 33 years ago starring in the most populair dutch talkshow of the time. Unlike the claim of it's poster this was not his first performance over here because earlier that week he gave a pretty long interview on Dutch Radio. The same week he also played at an art exhibition and at Rotterdam Conservatory. I believe at the time he played flamenco for about 2 years. From the money he earned at Rotterdam Conservatory he bought himself a radio for his grandpa. I might very well have scored his first authogram ever during that concert although he gave a couple of more concerts over here in the early 80ties, some of them possibly predating the one i attended.
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Erik Maybe that's why he chose this show for the premiere. That is pretty cool. There are already some concert samples of the new album on YouTube of a bulerias, Seguiiyas, and a little solea exceprt. The album is mostly just his guitar and palmas from what I understand
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to Morante)
Actually he had a concert in Amsterdam previously this week and football wise Rotterdam and Amsterdam are sworn enemies :-). He most certainly has a special band with the Netherlands and Rotterdam but unfortunately he never visited Rotterdam Conservatory as an adult. Still he very much liked my father (who at the time was the head of the classical guitar department and co founder of the future flamenco department) and he had a couple of close friends among the first students of RC, Ruud and Egbert, who previously to their study in Rotterdam spend a couple of years in Cordoba were they lived in the house of a dutch aficionao/guitarist called Ad Rooymans. That happened to be the period Vicente started playing flamenco and when everyone in his surrounding complained about the noise it produced and the only place he was more then welcome to study was the house of the dutch flamenco guitarists Ad, Ruud and Egbert a lifetime friendship was born. As far as selecting the Netherlands for a premiere is concerned, i guess it's safer to premier over here as in the Meastranza :-)
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The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to Erik van Goch)
Erik, that's interesting to hear some more of the story with Ad. All I had previously known was that he gave him the Gerundino because he was so impressed with his talent. Then that video of him at 16 came out and verified that rumour (for me). So essentially he was sort of incubated with Dutchmen in Córdoba before going on to Manila Sanlucar's school I assume...
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to JasonM)
quote:
ORIGINAL: JasonM
So essentially he was sort of incubated with Dutchmen in Córdoba before going on to Manolo Sanlucar's school I assume...
Let us know what you thought of the performance.
I have no idea when Sanlucar came into his life but i guess both events probably happened around the same period of time. All i know for sure is that Vicente basically had no place to study (and that study material might very well have involved things he learned from Manolo) until he met his future friends Ad, Ruud and Egbert who lived in Cordoba at the time (early 80-ties) to study the art of Flamenco and were more than happy to offer this promising youngster their friendship, the key of their house and even that wonderful Gerundino.
In a 1983 radio interview Vicente mentioned that his father only agreed picking up the guitar on condition he would find himself a proper teacher. So he went to a local music school that could only offer him a classical guitar teacher who obviously had no clue what to do with someone like Vicente. I guess around 1981 both Sanlucar and his Dutch friends came into his life. Obviously one learns from everyone who is able/willing to show you a thing or two so it's fair to assume both Vicente and his new found friends benefitted from that situation. Ruud Stoop (1 of them) tells in his biography that he settled in Cordoba in the early 80ties to study at El Conservatorio Superior de Música with Manuel Cano as wel as La academie de Merengue de Córdoba y Concha Calero to master the art of accompanying singing and dancing. In 1985 he returned to the Netherlands to study at Rotterdam Conservatorium.
When i met Vicente in 1983 (he joined his friends visiting the Netherlands) i didn't know that many flamenco guitarists yet. Manuel Cano (4 tracks), Juan Matin (the famous method that seemed to have inspired my whole generation), Sabicas (playing scardaz and another song in duet with Paco), Manitas de Plata (not my cup of tea), Paco Peña and Paco de Lucia pretty much sums it up. Also i had seen a couple of flamenco dance shows (da Silva's Fiësta Gitana) but my focus was still very much guitar related. I had no clue what happened in Spain. Don't forget the www did not exist yet. All we had over here were records and flamenco records were pretty hard to get. On top many fabulous records were yet to be made, Tomatito hadn't recorded a solo album yet, nor did Nuñez, Riqueni and many others. My knowledge at that period of time basically was restricted to the complete repertoire of Paco Peña and some records of Paco de Lucia (the ones i was able to find).
Vicente's 1983 "stage" repertoire as i know it existed of:
Bulerias (the one in the video, as i know now it embeds a lot of Tomatito material) Soleares (as i know now clearly showing the influence of Manolo Sanlucar) Tarantas (including a lovely fandangos theme i haven't identified yet) Granainas Entre dos aguas some fragments of Rondeñas (Paco de Lucia)
At the time i earplayed both the soleares, the tarantas and the granainas. In the late 80ties/early 90ties i got hold of a concert he gave in Spain, very impressive material and basically the stuff that shortly afterwards made his first record. It was nice to see how over time his original variations were replaced by better ones until he decided it was time to make a record. A lovely free introduction to his alegrias that was part of his repertoire around the time he made his first record never made it to the record. I have a lovely street record were he is jamming with some friends and plays the fairly unknown intro to invite others to join in Alegrias but no one seemed to notice that open invitation. So a couple of minutes later he tries it again....and again....and again until finally the others join in (a bit like that rare super-8 film were a still unknown Charlie Chaplin makes his first public street appearance in front of a mass audience and is totally ignored while 1 year later thousands would show up just to see him). From his 1983 repertoire only parts of parts ended up on his record, mainly because at the time his toques were constructed from material he learned from his teachers, records and videos. Over time i was able to trace some of it down to it's source like that epic video of Tomatito (playing that bulerias with his pulgar de plata) or old records of Paco de Lucia accompanying singers using variations that were not included in his solo records. I still wonder were Vicente found himself the lovely fandangos theme he included in his childhood tarantas, traces of which can be found in his later compositions as wel as mine.
As far as last night concert is concerned, over time Vicente choose paths that are not my cup of tea anymore and my hope this "back to the roods" performance would restore my interest unfortunately did not pay off for me (bad luck for me since obviously he is a hell of a player). He started with a couple of toques from his first record, pieces i happen to love very much but this time in stead of the fabulous stage sound that was his trademark in the days i still visited his concerts it sounded like the amplifier used a snare drum in overdrive. Although there was indeed a huge drumset on stage i don't think the problem came from that source. So (unlike the old days) i seriously hated the stage sound which apart from a snare drum effect seemed to involve some kind of artificial sound "improvement" a kind of synthesizer that somehow "enriched" the sound. But don't let it hold you from visiting the show because no one else seemed to notice and like them you most probably have a great night out.
The line up was as usual and the concert hall seemed more filled with people then the floor plan of available/sold seats suggested (the theater wisely did not check seat numbers so people of the 5th class balconies were free to occupy the lower seats if they wanted, suggesting a more filled theatre).
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The smaller the object of your focus the bigger the result.
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to Erik van Goch)
Hi Erik,
I saw Vicente and su grupo perform in Munich a few days before the Amsterdam date. I'd not seen him before, always found the CDs (save for one of the very early ones) over-produced and slick, so I was looking forward to perhaps hearing a more puro version of his music.
When he came out on his own I, too, noticed the odd sound that you describe as "snare drum in overdrive". In theory, it could have been the (unused, at that point) loose snare drum resonating, but I think it was just a bad choice of reverb! The Prinzregententheater in Munich has great acoustics, it really doesn't need any gimmicks, and I'm no fan of excessive reverb anyway. My thoughts were, "Oh dear, this is going to be challenging."
Thankfully, when he was joined by the band, the reverb was either drowned out or deliberately reduced by the engineer. I also felt he and the band took some time to warm up, but when they were in full swing during the second third of the show it was elating, really nice musicianship. They lost a bit of momentum toward the end, but all in all I was very impressed. If the new album is more puro and along the lines of what I saw I'm all for it.
RE: New disco de Vicente in October (in reply to mark indigo)
quote:
the race is on, who will get their "new album" out first, Vicente or Riqueni?
At this rate, the next PdL tab book will be out before any of these albums!
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