Whenever we say a guitarist is \u201cflamenco<\/i>\u201d or \u201cvery\u00a0flamenco<\/i>\u201d, what do we really mean? Are guitarists considered \u201cflamenco<\/i>\u201d just because they are able to play flamenco\u00a0palos<\/i>, or because they do in a certain, special way, with soul,\u00a0pellizco<\/i>\u00a0or feeling? This will always be an endless debate, like it is in\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0baile<\/i>. I mean, defining what is or isn\u2019t flamenco, whether or not it\u2019s labelled as such.<\/p>\n
Juan Manuel Ca\u00f1izares is currently the Spanish guitarist with the greatest worldwide renown, with a discography, flamenco or otherwise, unmatched by any other contemporary guitarist. I would be a hypocrite if I said that he is my favourite guitarist because, although I admire his work, I\u2019ve always considered his type of flamenco rather cold or too technical. We all end up with whatever cultural wisdom we can manage, and I\u2019ve never pretended to understand all kinds of music, because I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
When Ca\u00f1izares released\u00a0Noches de Im\u00e1n y luna<\/i>\u00a0(1997), I remember having trouble trying to assimilate so much flamenco music, certainly because I was into other ways of playing flamenco: Paco, Manolo, Vicente, Gerardo, Riqueni\u2026 I thought it was perhaps due to the coldness of listening to a recording. Yet, I attended his live performance at the\u00a0Bienal de Sevilla<\/i>\u00a0and I confess I only felt goosebumps because of his high technical skill.<\/p>\n
He released other flamenco albums, such as\u00a0Punto de encuentro<\/i>\u00a0(2000) and\u00a0Cuerdas del alma<\/i>\u00a0(2010) which, added to his last CD,\u00a0El mito de la caverna<\/i>, comprise all his flamenco discography, solo albums I mean, as he features in others. Is that enough to be considered the number one guitarist, considering the discography of the other great flamenco masters?<\/p>\n
After eight long years performing non-stop around the world and recording other rather non-flamenco pieces (even as he has a high regard for Spanish music and guitar), he brings us\u00a0El mito de la caverna<\/i>\u00a0(\u201cThe Myth of the Cave<\/i>\u201d) with ten new flamenco compositions in an album where, right off the bat, we must highlight his composing work, something that is always very important for master Ca\u00f1izares, as he has never been a parasite of music, but a creator instead.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve listened to this album just once (time is scarce) and, frankly, I didn\u2019t expect this master from Catalunya to completely change his way of feeling flamenco. Eight years is a long time in the life of a musician, so I was expecting a least a little change. Yet, no. Ca\u00f1izares is still an amazing guitarist, whatever he plays, but his academic discipline, his capacity for study and technical perfection make his flamenco seem like it\u2019s from another planet. Perhaps that\u2019s the new trend in flamenco guitar, which Ca\u00f1izares started way ahead of his time, before all others from his generation.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s impossible to play the guitar with a better technique than Ca\u00f1izares. Out of his ten flamenco pieces, the one which I liked the best was the\u00a0seguiriya<\/i>\u00a0(El mito de la caverna<\/i>), because this\u00a0palo adquires<\/i>\u00a0another musical dimension in contemporary flamenco guitar. Then there is the\u00a0garrot\u00edn<\/i>, (Bosquecillo de pinos<\/i>), where he surprises us with a very graceful phrasing and its atmosphere. Everything is good, of great quality and new, but those two pieces, at least in my opinion, lead the way and suggest new details when it comes to the harmonies.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most important of all is to celebrate the return of Ca\u00f1izares to flamenco discography. I would even dare to propose him a project: to make a trilogy about the great masters of flamenco guitar. Reviewing the basics as a starting point to seek new expressive worlds.<\/p>\n
Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever we say a guitarist is \u201cflamenco\u201d or \u201cvery\u00a0flamenco\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-archivo"],"yoast_head":"\n