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Manolo Franco has one from his first album that he features on his Encuentro La Guitarra Flamenco video. Very fine and I could see you play it very well.
I actually prefer the Peña Columbianas to the ones Manolo Franco plays. For two reasons: 1) They are easyer to play (I dont play the M. Francos)
2) They are "clearer". Paco Peña has a very good ear for a good theme. In this Columbianas the melody line is from songs. The second falseta is a traditional letra sung by Carmen Amaya and a lot of others. "Mirame cariño mio". The first falseta is another welknown song. The last falseta is really great and palys a lot with this rumba feel in the compás.
Manolo Francos stuff is impressing, but to my ears, the message gets lost in the enourmous amount of notes that he plays. Its a typical flamenco "error" that a lot of very good instrumentalists miss the musical point.... Thats why solo guitar albums can be boring. To many notes, weak message.
PDL has a wonderfull Columbianas. Cant remember the album. (Maybe quiero caminar) Again he shows his enormous talent, because he can play a ton of notes and get the message through at the same time.
I like columbianas. Its my favorite major key palo . Especially with cante. I love when they keep that E major chord for a long long time giving the singer space to show his/her melisma.
Anders I agree the taste control and performance of the Pena Columbianas is pretty well miraculous. I like the Manolo Franco too as a piece but as a performance, it sounds weirdly dated even though it is a more recent. I think that this is because he clearly has no Clave idea going on in his head so when the semiquavers kick in the feel is lost ( although they are neat and clear thats not really the point ) . The Pena has a rock solid beat and a clear and unwavering son clave feel. It seems superficially an easy piece but like the rest of the Toques Flamenco collection, very few people can really play those pieces with true conviction at concert level.
Another great example of Columbianas to study is the one included in the old (white cover ) edition of Hererro's studies where he again takes the opportunity to pinch lovely old melodies. It offers a nice change also in having scordatura and being in D.
Note to Grisha, a great preparation for Latin styles like this this would be to take a piece like Villa Lobos choro no. one and play it with a real ethnic feel. It works really well with the Son Clave and if you get slowly up to the 80bpm that Villa Lobos mentions with solid compas ( being able to recite the clave exactly in time with a click track as you perform ) you will get the feel for this into your head. You could also do this with the Suite Populaire Brasilienne and if you do you will start to find most classical renditions of this music pretty unlistenable.
Also there is Pernambuco.
For a great book on contemporary style Brazilian guitar music there is the excellent Brazilian guitar book by Nelson Faria which is a real bible for Bossa playing. Also it includes his recordings ( although he is not a full on fingerstyle player by any means ) which really show you how it is possible to be light and lyrical and also one hundred and ten percent in time. Basically the son clave ( 3-2 ) is the most crucial ingredient of this style. Go on everybody treat yourself go and buy the Feria book. It is incredibly well organised and has lots of one to four bar examples transcribed from the likes of Joao Gilberto and Baden Powell. Then you will start to hear this harmony in lots of contemporary players of flamenco like Juan Carlos Romero and even that Seguiriya on the Flamenco movie that Canizares plays.
Anders, I take your point. I was just trying to think of something a bit less well known that might be interesting for Grisha. I guess the list could be very long indeed and it was just that the Manolo Franco composition is available should someone want to pick it up.
David, You're right, Paco Pena Toques seems deceptively easy but to play these pieces properly demands great skill and technique. Hope all's well?
Thanks again! I need these colombianas for my semester project. I am doing my paper on Monasterio de Sal and I want to compare it to more traditional colombianas. I have to notate and analyze Monasterio and it would be nice to have the music for the others too. By the way, I play Monasterio and another colombiana by Sanlucar.
Yeah I'm good Jim, been enjoying the good weather, cycled to Kilwinning and back today and then over the Fenwick moors, we live in a beautiful country.
I'm looking forward to sharing some of my compositions here, just bought a good mic and am trying to learn to use some recording software. Thing is some I have been working on some of these ideas for three years and still really struggle with them. I need to learn to write easy music.