I Love Flamenco - Part 1

Flamenco is one of the great gifts of Andalucia, Spain to the world.  In this melting pot of Christian, Islamic and Jewish musical antecedents, with the unique traditions of the Gypsies thrown in for good measure, this unique and emotionally powerful musical art was born during the 18th century.

Flamenco came of age in the last half of the 19th century, where it became all the rage at music halls all over Spain and, finally in the 20th century, in other parts of Europe, North and South America, even as far away as Japan.

Two of flamenco's most iconic artists, the singer Camarón de la Isla and guitarist Paco de Lucía, met as young men in the 1960s and, together, formed perhaps the greatest musical partnership in the history of flamenco.  They infused flamenco with a freedom of form and technical brilliance that continues to impact the art form even today, more than 40 years after their first meeting.

This first video clip is from a television program recorded in the early 1970s.  With Paco on guitar and Camarón singing, they give a veritable clinic in how to sing bulerías, flamenco's most elastic and rhythmic musical style.  The music is semi-improvisational.  Within certain rigid rhythmic formulas, the guitarist lays down both rhythm and improvisational melodic riffs.  The singer can sing any of thousands of lyrics to any of dozens of melodies, all of this on the fly, with the lyrics and melody fitted to the strict rhythms of bulerías.  It is up to the guitarist to recognize, within the first word of two and first few notes of the melody, which melody and which lyrics the singer is singing and to adapt his accompaniment accordingly.  It is in the breaks between verses that the guitarist is given leave to play his own, here technically brilliant, brief solos.  The interplay between the singer and guitarist is almost eerie.  At times it feels not only like Camarón and Paco can read one another's minds, but that they are even feeling the same feelings, so tightly bound are these two artists within their performance.

Video: http://http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gm8FYF96BXE

Flamenco is not only a performance art presented in a theater for a paying audience, it is also an integral part of Gypsy life in Andalucía.  At most Gypsy celebrations, especially baptisms and weddings, celebrants gather together to perform flamenco for one another.  This next clip shows Camarón singing and accompanying himself on the guitar at such a Gypsy party, called a juerga.  Other participants can be seen clapping to the rhythm of bulerías and calling out encouragement to the performer at key moments.  At the very end, a woman gets up to dance to the singing and guitar, another integral part of such celebrations.  T

Video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q3MkPhp9Ms&feature=related