1.7 Who are some recommended flamenco guitarists to listen to? A Video Resource: Carlos Saura's Sevillanas
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This article is from the Flamenco for Classical Guitarists FAQ, by Joshua Weage (jpweage@mtu.edu) with numerous contributions by others.
1.7 Who are some recommended flamenco guitarists to listen to? A Video Resource: Carlos Saura's Sevillanas
The best single video I know that succinctly illustrates the key points of
this FAQ is a fine short Spanish video called *Sevillanas* which circulates
widely in American flamenco circles, particularly among dancers. It was
directed by Carlos Saura, the same guy who did the popular Carmen and El Amor
Brujo films featuring Antonio Gades and Cristina Hoyos. And for purposes of
illustrating this FAQ it's better. Hard-core purists may balk, since the
form to which it is devoted (*sevillanas*) is a popular Andalucian folk
song/dance now incorporated into flamenco rather than part of the original
flamenco canon. Don't take that fine point too seriously. The video
consists of 7 or 8 renditions of the sevillanas form in quite different
contexts, with different guitarists, singers, dancers. The range is broad
indeed: you get genuine folk stuff, academic stuff out of the equivalent of a
Spanish ballet school, sentimental stuff, the inner gypsy cabal (Camaron
(just before he died), Tomatito, Manuela Carrasco), and, for guitar nerds, a
guitar duet of Paco de Lucia and Manolo Sanlucar, without cante or dance.
The unifying (and musically educational) thread is that the whole video is
devoted to just one form -- the literary equivalent would be an anthology of
sonnets. (If you're musically astute, you can probably figure out the basics
of that form, and its rich variety, from the video.) You will see that the
form is quite independent of the guitar or of any particular technique or
level of skill. The wonderful geriatric sevillanas that starts the film
doesn't even have melody; it's just a rhythmic chant (but still recognizable
to anyone who knows sevillanas); it illustrates the point that compas is
what's indispensable. You may note that the guitar doesn't even show up for
awhile. When Paco and Sanlucar do their duet, you will see (in proper
context) how sophisticated solo pieces originate, and the influence other
music has had on contemporary flamenco. In Tomatito's accompaniment of
Camaron you will see a superb technician using just two chords and the
simplest right-hand technique to support a singer (keep in mind that Tomatito
can sound like Paco when he wants to); and you'll also hear (if you can get
past all the hair and beards -- it looks like the 60's) the particularly
gypsy sound (not Gypsy Kings, they're French) so prized by flamencos. Most
important, if you happen to have learned a sevillanas as a solo, and haven't
a clue how to accompany, it will be an eye-opener: most of the guitar work is
accompaniment, some very simple, some quite sophisticated. You'll also see
how the baile meshes intricately with the cante (dancers have to know the
cante, too -- a strange notion to many non-Spanish dance students, who tend
to think of music as providing simply a beat and/or mood for movement).
I recommend this video here for what it illustrates about the role of the
guitar within flamenco, not as exemplary of my taste (or anyone's).
Saura's point was to show the variety of sub-worlds that use the
sevillanas form in various ways. Many of the performers you see would not
be comfortable with each other, or in each other's worlds, so you too can
relax if you find some of the stuff simply silly. Imagine the escuela bolera
girls in their ballet slippers going through their figures with Camaron and
Tomatito instead of the orchestra of mandolins!
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