I returned final week from a three-week music tour of Spain, principally Flamenco, however some jazz and kora music. We visited flamenco golf equipment, festivals, colleges, events, and we noticed loads, principally late at evening. One competition wrapped up at 4 am.
First, a bit about flamenco. Whereas there may be flamenco in Mexico and different nations, its birthplace and coronary heart are in Spain. It’s the iconic artwork type identified for its fiery dance, emotive singing, and rhythmic guitar and clapping that sprang from southern Spain’s Andalusia area. It’s a fusion of Romani, Moorish, Jewish, and native Andalusian influences that started mingling as early because the fifteenth century. By the 18th century, these blended traditions crystallized into flamenco, first thriving in intimate, neighborhood settings earlier than bursting onto the general public stage within the nineteenth century’s bustling cafés and theaters. From the primary soulful strains of cante (track) to the stamp of nail-studded heels in baile (dance), flamenco grew to become a method of storytelling and emotional catharsis for marginalized communities. At present, it’s as frequent in Spain as rap is within the USA, and a few say there are parallels in its capability to inform the folks’s tales.
Regardless of flamenco’s preliminary male-dominated world, we noticed at the moment’s flamenco in Spain, through which women and men each led. Trailblazers like Carmen Amaya broke the male mildew, combining technical brilliance and vibrant stage presence to form the picture of the bailaora (feminine dancer) that’s the fashionable picture of flamenco.
The core parts of Spanish flamenco are guitar enjoying (toque), singing (cante), clapping (palmas), and dancing (baile). Of those, singing (cante) is extensively regarded in Spain as crucial facet of flamenco, though it’s the dancing that many come to see. The singer (generally known as the cantaor or cantaora) not solely leads the group but additionally units the emotional tone, rhythm, and depth of the efficiency. One of many least understood parts outdoors of Spain is the clapping (Palmas), which supplies rhythm and percussive assist to the singers and dancers, and intertwines with the beat of the dancers’ footwear. No, we didn’t see castanets – they don’t seem to be quite common.
We started in Madrid, went to Barcelona, then to La Puebla de La Cazzalla, then to Seville, Zaragoza, and again to Madrid. Our information, Emelia Galvez, a dancer, flamenco instructor, filmmaker, and cajon participant (cajon typically seems in Spanish flamenco however extra usually within the Mexican model), took us to a Movie and Flamenco competition the place her movie, Revolando Historias Pepe La Marca, in regards to the well-known flamenco photographer Pepe La Marca premiered. That evening we noticed flamenco performed as comedy on the city sq., then we moved to a flamenco museum, Museso de Arte Contemporaneo, for a full-blown flamenco exhibition with many dancers and musicians that went till 4 am.
Within the massive cities, we went to flamenco golf equipment, that are simply what they sound like – nightclubs arrange for flamenco. Our first expertise was in Madrid in a small neighborhood flamenco membership, Café Ziryab, that was scorching – no A.C. – and filled with locals. It was an all-male efficiency, and the three dancers have been wonderful. We noticed considered one of them later within the flamenco competition in La Peublo de la Cazalla.
We went to flamenco golf equipment in Sevilla and Madrid that have been primarily high-end nightclubs with phases, theater seating in some and tables in others. All of them featured high quality skilled sound and light-weight techniques. Flamenco is severe enterprise!
I’ve posted hyperlinks to flamenco right here, however I’m placing up many extra on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@musicfridayvideo.
One factor that strikes me is the potential for the distinctive flamenco clapping beat in rock and pop and different music types. Palmas is a technical artwork with 4 various kinds of clapping that fluctuate with the hand place, the depth, and the combination with the opposite music parts. Clap-beats in rock and pop might combine the nuances of palmas to alter emotional tone and rhythmic feeling. Only a thought.
Lastly, we additionally noticed the African kor grasp Momi Maiga at a beautiful live performance in a museum in Zaragoza and jazz, together with a New Orleans Jazz band from Spain and Venezuela in Madrid, plus a really nice Spanish jazz trumpeter on the Membership Velvet in Barcelona, one of many highlights of the journey.
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