Chula Vista

Got to see him along with Al DiMeola and John McLaughlin back in Boston. Steve Morse was the opening act. Then the four of them played an encore.

I counted and there were 17,363,454,519 notes played that night.

Seriously though, Paco, using his fingers, stole the show from DiMeola and McLaughlin who were both using picks.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Aloysius

That would have been awesome. Paco picked up a lot of ideas from those guys, especially John McLaughlin, that he wove back in to his flamenco stuff.

Frownland

I'll be getting through all of the albums on this list (only heard the Paco de Lucia one) but I started off with this one because of the description and it's brilliant. Thanks for sharing!

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Chula Vista

Yes. Extremely cool stuff.

OP: What's your thoughts on both Strunz and Farah (who I got to see here in San Diego about 15 years ago) and the more recent Rodrigo y Gabriela?

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Aloysius

An awesome album for sure. Glad to return the favour, I've listened to lots of your recs.

To be honest I'm not a fan of that sort of thing. The music they play is rumba, a Cuban form that can be pretty cool in it's original form, but this is highly commercialised (there is also Ottmar Liebert, Jesse Cook and countless others). Asking a flamenco fan what they think of this is a bit like asking a death metal fan what they think of Nickleback, or an avant-garde jazz fan what they think of Kenny G. That first video you posted had a cool intro, but once the rumba rhythm kicks in it sounds cheesy to me - just my personal taste.

Aloysius

10 Flamenco guitar albums you have to hear - part 2


6. Rafael Riqueni - Mi Tiempo


The Brian Wilson of flamenco guitar - Rafael is one of the greats, and would be much more well known except for his turbulent life which has included bouts of mental illness, drugs, living on the streets and recently some time in jail, making his recording and gigging sporadic throughout much of his life. His whole discography is worth listening to, with each album telling a distinctly different story. Unusually for a flamenco player he sometimes uses written music as a compositional tool.



7. Manolo Sanlúcar - Tauromagia


Unquestionably Manolo’s greatest work, cited by many as their favourite flamenco album. The rest of his discography is hit and miss - with orchestral experiments and some commercial releases with poorly arranged strings that haven’t aged well. As well as this album Manolo will be remembered as one of the greatest teachers of all time - a massive number of important players have been his student, including Vicente Amigo, Juan Carlos Romero, Rafael Riqueni, Niño de Pura and many more.



8. Tomatito - Guitarra Gitana


A Gypsy from Almería, Tomatito combined the complexity of Paco’s playing with the kind of groove you get from growing up in a family where pretty much everyone plays guitar.



9. Moraíto - Morao Morao


Moraíto sits so far into the groove that rather than following the groove, the groove follows him. He comes from an important Jerez gypsy flamenco dynasty where all the artists have a nickname somehow derived from the word ‘Morao’. He’s played on well over 50 albums as an accompanist but recorded only 2 solo albums - it should be noted that within those gypsy clans being a great accompanist is considered more important art than playing solo.



10. Diego del Morao - Orate


Moraíto’s son, and since his dad’s death the most sort after of the Jerez guitarists. Compared to his dad his playing is more syncopated, but still very earthy. My favourite guitarist in the world of any style.

Chula Vista

Appreciate the candor. I don't come from a flamenco background so I'm a prime target for this watered down version of the genre. I will say that at the Strunz and Farah show, which was outside and right along the bay on a beautiful San Diego night, I've never seen so many beautiful women dancing uninhibitedly (and beautifully) over the course of a concert.

That rhythm and beat is a drug and I've been addicted to it for decades.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Aloysius

I don't think anyone could argue that's a bad thing.

To be fair I've heard some rumbas that I've liked - the aforementioned trio of Paco, John and Al used rumba a fair bit as it was a convenient common ground that they could all jam to, and because of all the different stuff they each brought to the table the results were at times magical. Also I really dig this rumba, Tomatito with George Benson:

Aloysius

Flamenco guitar albums you have to hear - honourable mentions

Really these albums are as good as the ten already listed, they only just got edged out. Again I’m limiting things to one album per artist, and I’m not including any artists already listed in the top 10.

Antonio Rey - Colores de Fuego



Possibly the most important up and coming player today, with an unbelievable technique and amazing compositions.



Pepe Habichuela - A Mandeli



An outstanding album from undoubtably the most important player of the Granada school, Pepe Habichuela.



Jeronimo Maya (self titled)



Jeronimo was a child prodigy and performed for Spanish TV several times through his childhood - some of the clips look like he is about 8 and already a virtuoso. He is one of Madrid’s Caño Roto scene (Caño Roto is a barrio of Madrid where lots of guitarists live, thus it has become synonymous with the style of flamenco played there). His self titled is debut amazing and unfortunately hard to get hold of. His more recent ‘Como Soy’ is also really good.

There’s nothing on youtube from this album, but here’s a recent clip of him tearing up the fretboard:



Parrilla de Jerez - Guitarra Flamenca



A great example of pure traditional Jerez playing. He recorded 4 solo albums, 2 vinyl and 2 on CD, all of them very hard to get in their original formats (it’s taken me years of active searching to find them all). His playing can also be heard on many albums of singer ‘La Paquera’.



Manuel Parrilla - Pa Mi Gente



Nephew of Parrilla de Jerez, his playing is a more modern take on his uncle’s style, with an influence from Madrid’s Caño Roto school.
All the tracks from the album are on youtube, but here I’ve posted a clip of him absolutely destroying it live:



Manuel Valencia - Entre Mis Manos



A recent recording from a young Jerez player, nephew of the legendary singer ‘Terremoto’. The Jerez school is in safe hands with dudes like this around.

Again I’ve decided to post a live clip because he absolutely kills it here: