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Jazz and Flamenco?


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I wasn't even aware he's still around, but Pedro Iturralde did two albums, combined onto a fine EMI Spain CD in the 90s, likely OOP by now, but worth looking for!

iturralde.jpg

(EMI Spain also released his 70s quartet album with Hampton Hawes, just in case...)

Thanx Florin. I'll check that CD out. BTW, I have Iturralde's album with Hawes and enjoy it a lot. No Flamenco there, though :)

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There's an excellent LP by Lionel Hampton, Jazz Flamenco, recorded in Madrid. The LP is also on RCA, and is copyright 1957.

More recently, Nino Josele, a Spanish flamenco guitarist, has been working on fusing flamenco and jazz. He focuses on songs associated with Bill Evans. His excellent 2007 release was Paz.

http://www.amazon.com/Paz-El-Nino-Josele/d...1918&sr=1-1

I was lucky enough to get to see Nino Josele perform at the Village Vanguard last year with a quartet, two Spanish musicians, plus Esperanza Spalding on bass and vocals. It was very compelling (even better than the recording).

Edited by kh1958
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It is undoubtedly the most obscure session I ever produced, but there is a Prestige International album (INT 13052) that bears my production credit, and which I did as a favor to Bob Weinstock: The Sound of Flamenco - Los Morenos with Elena Marbella. We did it at Rudy's and they brought their own floor to dance on.

I searched for a photo of the cover, but all Google can come up with is 2 or 3 discographical listings.

If memory serves me correctly, it is just as well.

Sorry for this aside--it had nothing to do with jazz, but your thread reminded me of it, Barak.

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There are actually a number of Spanish musicians working on a jazz/flamenco thing - pianists Chano Domiguez and Diego Amador, reed player Jorge Pardo (who was with Paco de Lucia for a long time), drummer Guillermo McGill and... dang, there are more people, but I'm drawing a complete blank! Chano D.'s performance in the film Calle 54 (you can get it on DVD) is very nice.

Bebo Valdés has been doing some fusion (Cuba-jazz-flamenco), too - his album Lagrimas Negras (with Diego "El Cigala") is the one to get.

My favorite out of everything that I've heard is the Jerry Gonzalez disc mentioned above. (Might be my fave recording by Jerry, too...)

Edited by seeline
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I'm no flamenco expert, and I'm certainly no purist, but generally I tend to prefer flamenco on its own, no jazz added (that includes Miles's Sketches of Spain). For me there's too much substance and nuance in Flamenco (I'm thinking of Camarón's singing) for it to have it mixed heavily with other stuff, rather than having a few drops added.

The way foreign (non-Spanish) media mistake Flamenco with Mexican music and even Salsa is hilarious.

F

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Before I kill this thread completely :blush: , in Jazz - A Quarterly Of Music #2 (Spring 59), there's an interview with Carlos Montoya, and it says that "Carlos just recorded the first jazz flamenco record for Victor, with Osie Johnson, Barry Galbraith and Milt Hinton".

Montoya recorded quite a few albums for RCA. Is it From St. Louis To Seville? Anyone heard it?

F

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  • 5 weeks later...

By no means I would call this jazz-flamenco, but

you can see flamenco singer El Cigala doing "Inolvidable", a tune from his album Lágrimas Negras which for my money is "You'd be so nice to come home to" by other name (although the melody is closer on the album version).

The pianist is Bebo Valdés, Chucho's father, and the bass player is Javier Colina.

F

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By no means I would call this jazz-flamenco, but
you can see flamenco singer El Cigala doing "Inolvidable", a tune from his album Lágrimas Negras which for my money is "You'd be so nice to come home to" by other name (although the melody is closer on the album version).

The pianist is Bebo Valdés, Chucho's father, and the bass player is Javier Colina.

F

"Inolvidable" ("unforgettable") was composted by Julio Guitierrez and published in 1944, while the Cole Porter song in question was written for a 1943 movie, Something to Shout About. "Inolvidable" is one of the great boleros...

It would be interesting to see if Guitierrez ever acknowledged a debt to Porter. I'd never thought about the connection before, but it makes complete sense. (There are so many borrowings of this kind - Cachao and his brother Orestes reworked part of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for their piece "Africa Viva!," which Cachao talked about in a documentary that's o.p. now.)

Edited by seeline
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  • 10 years later...
On 3/27/2008 at 4:36 PM, Fer Urbina said:

Before I kill this thread completely :blush: , in Jazz - A Quarterly Of Music #2 (Spring 59), there's an interview with Carlos Montoya, and it says that "Carlos just recorded the first jazz flamenco record for Victor, with Osie Johnson, Barry Galbraith and Milt Hinton".

 

Montoya recorded quite a few albums for RCA. Is it From St. Louis To Seville? Anyone heard it?

 

F

 

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