El Torta singing soleá.

This is the first of what I hope a permanet serie of post by wich we explained a letra from great singers of flamenco.

These are not scores or tablatures. Are transcriptions of the song and how it machs in compás, but they migh be not musically accurate. It just a tool for English speakers that love flamenco and want to know how it is sung. 'Compas' is alwars refered to flamenco compás conception.

We start with 'El torta' and his soleá. El Torta sings here a fantastic quiet and slow solea. We transcribe the first letra that he sings with 10 (one marked as 0, starting in the previous 1,2 ) compases. In the third compas El torta is in silence and the guitar carried out a falseta.

Pepe Habichuela, making arabesques on flamenco guitar.

Pepe Habichuela (1944, Granada) is a survivor. Sometimes he remember me to Serranito because, against the supremacy of the Cadiz's school of guitarists in the evolution of flamenco guitar in the second part of the XX century,  from Granada and Madrid, they were there loyal to their roots. 

You cannot compare Serranito or Pepe Habichuela with Paco de Lucía because, simply, they are totally different. the solutions of the these three great masters are different because he learnt from different schools of flamenco. But, for me, Pepe is the the most human. Pepe has not this hallo of superhuman guitarist. He had never a long list of singles and LPs.

Andrés Segovia vs Paco de Lúcía Generation.

Manolo Cano, Andrés Segovia, Sabicas and Rafael Gómez Montero

This post translate som e texts from the document "ANDRES SEGOVIA: SUS RELACIONES CON EL ARTE FLAMENCO." That you can find here (Spanish)

Especially if you are not very good with proportions,it is difficult to distinguish a classical guitar from a flamenco guitar can be complicate. I know, nowadays the World is full of people that have obsession for flamenco guitar and its manufacturing ... but behind the so identical appearances there is a history of arrogance and haughtiness from classical guitarists to flamenco guitarists.

Who was Demofilo? Flamenco collections.

There are two poets in Spain that you hear especially in the Spanish schools: Lorca and Machado.

Flamencos usually know Federico García Lorca. He and his imagery has been really important for flamenco dissemination. In the second case we the can read something about the second name in records. But Antonio Machado was not a really important for flamenco. "Sevilla without sevillanos, what a wonderful” was one of his sentences and he prefered to live in Castilla. But, Curiously, his father, Antonio Machado Álvarez, is so importat for flamenco as Paco de Lucía.

International flamenco. Lost in translation.

Last month, I started writing in an international flamenco forum. The main reason of writing in English about flamenco is to improve my poor English, but I am discovering what the perception of international flamencos is. And, sincerely, I am stunned about how the flamenco background and philosophy has been transferred from Spain. I know that it is really complicate, but flamenco is a mixture and so on internationalitation has been really good for it.

Enrique 'El Mellizo'. The first great flamenco master.

One the most important historic places for flamenco amateurs should not be a tabern or a stage. It is a cathedral. It sounds rare, but it is. The catedral of Cadiz in not only a temple por christians  but a flamenco  a temple. The reason are the long time that Enrique "El mellizo" was there, seating, hearing the organ sounds, thinking in music.

Manitas de Plata. Great 'flamenco Guitarist', but not 'tocaor'.

Manitas de Plata is a Gypsy French Guitarists. A really virtuoso guitarists. But, as you can see we are not include this guitarist tag "Great Guitarists (tocaores)" of this blog. He will be a good example for the true tag of this post: Understanding Flamenco. And this section is mainly for talking about the conceptual frame of flamenco.