Flamenco Spotlight, August 2022

Registration Open for Master’s Degree in Flamenco UCM

The Department of Musicology UCM at Complutense University of Madrid is currently accepting registrations for its Máster Propio en Flamenco (Master’s Degree in Flamenco). Registration deadline is SEPTEMBER 15, 2022.

Students will receive training from flamenco researchers and specialists from different universities, master classes, repertoire classes and combos with artists of recognized international prestige.

Instructors include Víctor Monge Serranito, Carmen Linares, Juan Manuel Cañizares, Rocío Márquez, Eva Yerbabuena, Diego del Morao, Diego García Peinazo, Pedro Ordóñez, Paco Suárez and Felipe Conde.

The course will also teachings by professors and researchers such as Rubén Olmo, Esperanza Fernández, Lola Fernández, David Leiva, Fernan del Val, Marta Rodríguez Cuervo, Bernat Jiménez de Cisneros, Alicia González, Marco Antonio Juan de Dios, Lucía Gutiérrez, Teresa Fraile, Diego Fernández, Julio Arce, Cristina Cruces Roldán, and Guillermo Castro.

Go to www.ucm.es/titulospropios/flamenco/informacion to register

Suma Flamenca Joven

Suma Flamenca Joven will present young emerging flamenco talent. This program The program will precede the main Suma Flamenca event, bringing together artists under 30 years of age at the Sala Verde de Teatros del Canal from September 22 to 25, 2022.

The four galas will feature guitarists, dancers and singers, including José del Tomate, Ismael “El Bola”, Alba Heredia, David de Arahal, Teresa Hernández, Gabriel Matías, Álvaro Mora, Juanfra Carrasco, Ana Latorre, Alejandro Hurtado, Manuel de la Tomasa and Águeda Saavedra.

Flamenco and Arab music meet in the fagotiño, the new instrument of ‘Niño Rubén’

The bassoon is an instrument suitable for flamenco. This is how Cordovan Rubén Jiménez, popularly known as ‘Niño Rubén’, has been shaping it in recent years.

The capacity that the bassoon has to contribute to flamenco was shown for the first time at Doña Mencía’s Vendimia Flamenca. The fagotiño is a variant of the bassoon that ‘Niño Rubén’ has been studying for eight years. This proposal seeks to provide the instrument with an independent identity from that of the bassoon, managing to extract melodies that are closer to the Arabic sounds that coexist in flamenco. This instrument is based on the fagotino, a smaller bassoon that is usually used exclusively in the educational field so that children can use it with these dimensions.

The voice of the new jondo generation

On Friday, August 26th, Rocío Márquez and the electronic musician Bronquio presented the songs from the album Tercer Cielo, in Room B of the Auditorium Theater of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

Exalted by the press as “the voice of the new generation of cante jondo“, Rocío Márquez (Huelva, 1985) has spent more than a decade building a solid artistic career that today overflows the flamenco scene, where she is already a clear reference and figure consolidated.

Her restless personality and her enormous curiosity are evident in her discography, which transversally shows such a great love for the flamenco tradition as well as an urgent need to expand the limits of that tradition, exploring and experimenting with melodies, instrumentation, arrangements and lyrics.

Third sky belongs to this experimental will, an album made in alliance with Jerez-born creator Santiago Gonzalo (Bronquio), a young musician with a punk tradition and one of the sensations of the Spanish electronic scene. Bulerías, verdiales, tangos, seguiriyas… go through a process of transformation through the electronic music of Bronquio, coupled with the flamenco voice of Márquez.

The conscientious research work in melodies, arrangements and instrumental combinations is a unique aesthetic achievement. Both performers, as the Andalusian poet Carmen Camacho, author of some of the lyrics that Márquez sings, points out, “express themselves with a clear voice and in stammers, in sound textures, modulations, loops, beats, silence, accent, effects, breaths, iconography pop, wow and poetry.

Award Winning Guitarist Antonio Rey to Perform at Los Angeles International Flamenco Festival and New York

Antonio Rey, one of today’s finest flamenco guitarists and composers, will be making his Santa Barbara debut on Sunday, September 11 at the New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara, California at 7:00 p.m. A few days later, on Friday, September 23, 2022, at 8:00 p.m., Rey he will perform at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue at 3rd Avenue, Downtown Brooklyn, New York.

Rey’s 2020 “Flamenco sin Fronteras” album was awarded the Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album. He has composed for and played alongside artists such as Antonio Canales, the Japanese dancer Yoko Komatsubara, Rafael Amargo, Richard Bona, and Farruquito. He has also worked and toured with the late maestro Paco de Lucía.

Performing with Rey in Santa Barbara is guitarist José Tanaka, Diego Alvarez on percussion, along with dancer Maria Bermúdez. In New York, Rey will be accompanied by two guitarists, Javier Hinojosa and Pedro Cortes, and percussionist Jose Moreno.

El Wilo to Release Debut Album

Jorge Ramírez, El Wilo, has recorded his first album, ‘Momentos’, and offered a press conference at the Diputación to present details.

El Wilo expressed his gratitude for the support of the Cadiz Provincial Council and the Peña el Chumi. He explained that the album is made up of 10 songs. He wants to recover cantes (flamenco subgenres) that are less popular, such as the milonga or the granaína. Thus, milonga, tango, granaína, bulerías, some alegrías de Cádiz dedicated to the Vaporcito-“an emblem of El Puerto” according to the cantaor-, or a romance por bulerías dedicated to his grandfather, make up the album ‘Momentos’.

El Wilo highlighted the participation of “great artists” on the album, including Rafael Lorente, Ezequiel Benítez and Juan Antonio Muñoz who contribute lyrics; the backing vocals of Noelia de los Ríos and Cherokee; as well as José de Puras, Jesule del Puerto and Miguel Ángel Ramos on guitar.

Flamenco Memory

It is not the first time that the Cadiz Provincial Council, the Peña el Chumi Cultural Association and El Wilo have collaborated on a project. Recently, the singer from Porto has held several performances for people with Alzheimer’s with the aim of recovering through music memories and emotions lost due to the deterioration caused by this disease.

For his part, the cantaor explained that this project has been for him “an experience that I will never forget, those tears and those people’s faces”. He has also highlighted the intense emotions that these performances arouse: “I’ve felt things that I’ve rarely felt in flamenco”. El Wilo has explained that he has composed several cantes for this project “so that they reach the heart”. Starting in October, the series will once again be held at flamenco clubs in the province.

Alcorcón Flamenco Night 2022

Flamenco festival Noche Flamenca de Alcorcón (Alcorcón Flamenco Night) will take place Monday, September 5, 2022, at the Plaza de España in Alcorcón (next to City Hall), at 9:00 p.m. Outdoors and free admission, until full capacity and on a first-come, first-served basis.  Alcorcón is a city in the southern Madrid metro area.

The lineup includes:

Ezequiel Benítez, with Paco León on guitar and Rafael Peral and Noé Barroso on handclap percussion..

Alfonso Salmerón with Rafael Andújar on guitar.

Loreto De Diego, accompanied by José Almarcha on guitar.

Dancers Mariana Collado & Carlos Chamorro, with Roberto Lorente on cante (vocals) and José Almarcha on guitar.

Rosario La Tremendita Releases “Oye mi voz”

Innovative flamenco singer and bassist Rosario La Tremendita has released a single titled “Oye mi voz“. On this track, Rosario collaborates with guitarist of a Raúl Rodríguez. They perform a colombiana (Flamenco subgenre) with tribal airs, inspired by the great singer Pepe Marchena.

Singer David Palomar presents the album “8 Miradas”

The new album “8 Miradas” is David Palomar’s personal vision on eight specific topics: gender violence, pollution of the oceans, life, the involution of man, laziness, madness as something indispensable and differentiating, immigration of the strait and evolution as a form of revolution.

“8 Miradas” begins as a bachata, Palomar skillfully transitions the song into flamenco.

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Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla to Celebrate the 1922 Granada Cante Jondo Contest

The XXII Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla will host a series of days of reflection and debate around the celebration of the 1922 Cante Jondo Contest. The Mayor of Seville, Antonio Muñoz, said “the programming of parallel activities that, like these conferences, highlight flamenco as a global concept as it happened a hundred years ago with the Granada Contest”. He made these statements during the presentation of the program at the Triana Ceramics Center, where he was accompanied by the rector of the UNIA, José Ignacio García, the vice-rector for Academic Organization of the University of Seville, Cristina Yanes, and the director of the conference, Pedro G. Romero.

The Granada Cante Jondo Contest held a few days before Corpus Christi in 1922 with the encouragement of Federico García Lorca and Manuel Falla was a key event for understanding flamenco as a genre and a formula that served as inspiration for many other similar contests. An event that was born with the aim of preserving cante jondo.

The conference will take place at the UNIA main building (Calle Américo Vespucio, 2), on Monda, September 19 and Thursday, September 22, while the CICUS (Calle Madre de Dios, 1-3) will host the scheduled presentations September 20, 21 and 23. The registration period is open from today until September 13, or until all available places are filled. There is a reserve of 25 spaces for students of the University of Seville who want a certificate of attendance. The rest of the seats to attend the conferences and shows are open to the public, who can attend by invitation until full capacity is reached. All the information on the conference is available on the website: https://cicus.us.es/el22laformaconcurso

(Suma Flamenca Joven 2022 presentation – Photo by Pablo Lorente)