Rafael Riqueni

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Rafael Riqueni

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ViejoAmargo

Posts: 39
Joined: Jun. 29 2016

Rafael Riqueni

Guitar virtuoso and troubled soul, back on his feet again... http://www.en-expoflamenco.com/single-post/2017/05/09/Rafael-Riqueni-back-on-stage-again

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 10 2017 4:53:30

Piwin

Posts: 3566
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

Looking forward to it.
but...
it's starting to get ridiculous how they always manage to bring his personal problems to the fore.
The man isn't "back". Sure, he disappeared for almost a decade after his brilliant Alcazar de Cristal in 1996, and we all know why. But he's been back since around 2007 and pretty much at the same rythm ever since. Sure he had a stint in jail but after a few weeks he got tercer grado so he could keep on touring on weekends even while he was still technically in jail.
The man inaugurated last year's Biennal de Sevilla for Christ's sake. He was up in Madrid last summer several times and has done occasional shows here and there since then. He's around as much as he wants to be. Hell, if I had to face this wall of self-indulgent pity everytime I did a show, I'd just do like El Viejin and disappear entirely.
I'll end with a prediction: Riqueni's going to play during the 2018 Biennal, and, oh surprise, people are going to be saying that he's "back on stage again".

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 12 2017 10:07:23

sartorius

Posts: 206
Joined: Mar. 7 2017

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

So... back to the future

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2017 11:09:25

ViejoAmargo

Posts: 39
Joined: Jun. 29 2016

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to Piwin)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Piwin

Looking forward to it.
but...
it's starting to get ridiculous how they always manage to bring his personal problems to the fore.
The man isn't "back". Sure, he disappeared for almost a decade after his brilliant Alcazar de Cristal in 1996, and we all know why. But he's been back since around 2007 and pretty much at the same rythm ever since. Sure he had a stint in jail but after a few weeks he got tercer grado so he could keep on touring on weekends even while he was still technically in jail.
The man inaugurated last year's Biennal de Sevilla for Christ's sake. He was up in Madrid last summer several times and has done occasional shows here and there since then. He's around as much as he wants to be. Hell, if I had to face this wall of self-indulgent pity everytime I did a show, I'd just do like El Viejin and disappear entirely.
I'll end with a prediction: Riqueni's going to play during the 2018 Biennal, and, oh surprise, people are going to be saying that he's "back on stage again".

Interesting perspective Piwin... I'm a newcomer to flamenco and the first time I heard of Riqueni when he was about to be released from jail on "tercer grado" in 2015, and the whole of Spain seemed to be in tears of joy at the good news. I had the sense that everyone thought that it had been a "great injustice" to send Riqueni to jail, apparently because whatever crime he committed had to do with his ("now cured") health (mental?) issues...

By the way, Riqueni was scheduled to open the Bienal in 2016, but had to be dropped from the program a few days before the festival got under way. I gather that he may have ran foul of his tercer grado conditions (because of his mental issues resurfacing, apparently?) and sent back to jail again, before he could perform at the Bienal...

I guess a lot of people just love the idea of a gifted artist being a "tortured soul" or something, adds to the mystique I suppose...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2017 17:38:35

Piwin

Posts: 3566
Joined: Feb. 9 2016

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

quote:

but had to be dropped from the program a few days before the festival got under way.

lol. Damn it, I got busted!

Shows how closely I followed the Biennal...
I don't disagree with the impression a lot of people have of him. The few times I met him, well, I didn't come away with that impression but I can see where people get it from.
I just don't think that if he's playing a show that means he's better and if he's not that means he's worse and I also don't think it's any of my business when it comes down to it. When he came up to the Madrid circuit last year he was brilliant and wasn't making a big deal out of it. Clearly not a Manolo Sanlucar type of comeback. (ok that was a cheap shot!)
But like you said, it adds mystique and if you sell every show as a comeback, then maybe it's easier to get a full audience?. It particularly peeves me when I read about it from the hand of a journalist or an art critic as an easy way to fill up space when they really don't have anything to say about his work...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2017 18:01:46

ViejoAmargo

Posts: 39
Joined: Jun. 29 2016

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to Piwin)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Piwin

lol. Damn it, I got busted! Shows how closely I followed the Biennal...

Haha, I don't think you missed much, the best part was reading the critics and the people's reactions to the most outrageous performances... One has to wonder if whoever puts together the Bienal actually hates flamenco, deep inside, and strives to put together the most non-flamenco performances they can think of, in the name of "artistic freedom" and "innovation"...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 16 2017 1:01:41

Manitas de Lata

Posts: 811
Joined: Oct. 9 2018

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

great album

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 12 2024 17:47:24

Manitas de Lata

Posts: 811
Joined: Oct. 9 2018

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

forgot to say , Rafael is on tour.

First date (march?) Madrid i guess

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 13 2024 15:53:31

Manitas de Lata

Posts: 811
Joined: Oct. 9 2018

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 27 2024 8:47:23

Manitas de Lata

Posts: 811
Joined: Oct. 9 2018

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

Rafael out from festival jerez due to health issues , Yerai was the sub.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 4 2024 17:31:34

Filip

Posts: 439
Joined: Apr. 23 2006
From: Paris

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

I've been thinking lately about some of Riqueni's falsetas that seem to me have been inspired by Paco, but my musical abilities are rather poor so I am not really sure about it.

For example, I think I hear bits of Compadres in the end of Nuevos Sones.

Then there are these fast arpeggios from Al Niño Miguel which (the beggining of them) sound a bit like the ones from Almonte, but here it might have been Paco who was inspired by Riqueni.

So, does it sound the same to you or it's only me ?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 25 2024 20:14:33

Manitas de Lata

Posts: 811
Joined: Oct. 9 2018

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

going to purchase the ticket for the show after summer , the first date its in my town
hope that he goes..

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 25 2024 21:02:51

Ricardo

Posts: 15160
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to Filip)

quote:

So, does it sound the same to you or it's only me ?

There would be no Riqueni, Tomatito, Nuñez, Amigo, Cañizares, etc. without paco. IN the doc. Francisco Sanchez, Riqueni admits to literally crying tears of emotion, while listening to Paco.

_____________________________

CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 26 2024 10:36:52

Filip

Posts: 439
Joined: Apr. 23 2006
From: Paris

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to ViejoAmargo)

quote:

There would be no Riqueni, Tomatito, Nuñez, Amigo, Cañizares, etc. without paco. IN the doc. Francisco Sanchez, Riqueni admits to literally crying tears of emotion, while listening to Paco.

Absolutely, there is no question about that! There was recently a thread here when the same thing is mentioned.
My question is about whether for the two particular falsetas that I mentioned could indeed be said that they are musically similar (or whatever we want to call this, I honestly do not know). Because they might not be and it's just me connecting what could not be connected. And whether it's correct observation or not, there are probably tons of examples out there that I never notice.

Btw, regarding the influences, there is this moment on TV in which Marife de Triana is a guest and Paco joins over the phone for a short conversation, in which he says that when he composes he listens to a lot of music and to her music as well, and that her music is in his disc but that it's hard to notice (he says something like lo que pasa es que yo le doy mil vueltas y no se nota).

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 26 2024 21:51:05

12850bd

Posts: 149
Joined: Nov. 9 2006
From: australia

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to Ricardo)

I get your point but that's a bit of an overstatement. In the case of Riqueni and Amigo yes. But I think Tomatito has just as much influence on Paco as Paco was on him especially in bulerias.
I remember hearing the Canizares brothers in the late 1970's playing at Candela and they were crazy from another planet...already well known and established in another off the page direction.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 26 2024 22:21:31

Ricardo

Posts: 15160
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Rafael Riqueni (in reply to 12850bd)

quote:

ORIGINAL: 12850bd

I get your point but that's a bit of an overstatement. In the case of Riqueni and Amigo yes. But I think Tomatito has just as much influence on Paco as Paco was on him especially in bulerias.
I remember hearing the Canizares brothers in the late 1970's playing at Candela and they were crazy from another planet...already well known and established in another off the page direction.

Yes, I never said it was a one way street. But it is a case of he inspired them, then learned new ideas from them and upgraded his own music along the way. A bit of a healthy competition until his final concerts. It is no coincidence that he asked Cañizares to join him on stage for years, or that he was padrino to Vicente’s kid, or named Nuñez as one of the best in interview (that I how I looked him up), and a big etc. But it is NOT an overstatement that is was because of his own work that those guys developed new concepts. It is just that unlike all other flamenco players, Paco learned new concepts from the young and put out new albums that reflected those developments. Most players develop some personal style then stick with it. For example, Paco did not get into the D# phrygian thing like the next gen had for a decade already. Only on Luzia he has a single Tango which live he dropped to D anyway.

_____________________________

CD's and transcriptions available here:
www.ricardomarlow.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 27 2024 10:41:40