Remember when there used to be so much talk about “fusion”? Just 25 or 30 years ago, any unusual music sounding remotely like flamenco, we’d say it was “fusion”. Maybe it incorporated instruments or percussion not normally used in flamenco, or perhaps some of the musicians weren’t Spanish which for those of a certain age meant they weren’t the real deal, the concept, now mostly discredited, of <em>pureza, </em>purity. The word pureza now mostly provokes rolling eyes. It’s been a difficult birth, but little by little the concept of “fusion” has fallen by the wayside
Paco left us far too soon, but he managed to leave behind the keys to open the treasure chest. flamenco without appellations, nor flamenco Pop, not fusion, not Latin, nothing. Now, in any circle, everyone's talking about it. flamenco That's all, and if you prefer the Pastori girl that Pastora PavónNobody bats an eye. The seasoned fans had believed that after a certain amount of time, a few years perhaps, everything would return to the now-disparaged purity, and the men in berets would once again argue in the peñaFrom Andalusia, with the background noise of dominoes on the small tables, if he sang better Antonio Mairena o Pepe Marchena.
But it hasn't been that way; the great wheel of time propels us steadily and directly toward an environment of new sounds and movements that quickly become commonplace. Now, for example, it seems normal to us that a guitar recital includes six or seven musicians, the famous sextet format popularized by PacoMore than a fusion, it has been a graft to the core of flamenco, both on guitar and in cante and dance. If there are now chords that can be called contemporary, some guitarists also go further, accompanying the cante with previously absent harmonies, and you begin to doubt the rigid system you once knew… and not because it sounds bad! These curiosities that work surprisingly well with the cante Modal dissonances are those that accompany the cante teaching the ear to assimilate new musical landscapes. Guitarists come to mind. Paco Jarana o Juan Antonio Suárez canito, who master the practice of dissonance with good taste and sensitivity.
"Are I and others so disconnected that we are unable to detect the flamenco on a jazz guitar accompanied by flute, violins and wind chimes? Is it the same intensity that you feel when listening to Fernanda, Luis el Zambo or Chocolate? flamenco It is alive, the thread has not been lost. It is just that it is a little frayed.
I remember when not being able to tell one flamenco form from another marked you as a beginner. Now it means you're a veteran because unusual harmonies camouflage the identity of the music. This presented a dilemma for mainstream Spaniards. On the one hand they had struggled for decades to lose the flamenco-bullfight stereotype image of their culture. On the other, as flamenco enjoyed new-found popularity, they were in the global spotlight as never before, and the whole world was happily poised to indulge their fantasy image of a Spain that had never really existed. That was when you began to see flamenco in ads for luxury cars and perfumes, and Spaniards beyond Andalusia were sending their little girls to dance school to learn <em>sevillanas</em> (which for most non-Andalusians is the same as flamenco).
El flamenco It wasn't usually so susceptible to generational trends, and artists didn't age with time, they got better. Today's older fans still admire Ricardo, Sabicas and others who were at the end of their careers when we were just starting out. Many young performers follow a classical path, but their recordings may make use of contemporary harmonies in the accompaniment. It's like listening to Antonio Mairena accompanied by Kenny g.
In Utrera, the current generation venerates Fernanda, Bernarda, Perrate and Gasparand there is interest in the flamenco traditional. However, young performers have told me that when there is adequate funding for a project, the most contemporary performers are called upon, but when resources are limited or nonexistent, traditional artists are sought out, reflecting a lack of loyalty to a genre capable of stirring our emotions.
The changes in dance are even more striking. As much as we might enjoy flamenco dance, it was largely a contrivance that came about to lure customers to the cafe cantantes and theaters, in Spain and elsewhere. I think most of us accept derivative flamenco for what it is: pop music with flamenco elements, sometimes extremely well-done. Am I and others so out of touch that we are unable to hear flamenco in a jazz guitar accompanied by flute, violins and windchimes? Excuse the facetious tone, but the question is valid. Is it the same kind of pleasure you have listening to Fernanda or Luis el Zambo or Chocolate? Flamenco is alive and well and living in pockets of intensely cultivated tradition. It's not a question of revival - the thread was never broken, it’s just become a little frayed.
