Flamenco rhythms are most often expressed using palmas (hand-clapping) and the caj??n (box percussion instrument); the castanets (casta??uelas or palillos) are used with a few flamenco forms, such as the fandango and sevillanas. In the film El Emb…
Although piano is not one of the ???traditional??? instruments played in flamenco, there are now some prominent flamenco musicians who have transferred the art of flamenco onto the piano, such as Chano Dom??nguez (Cadiz, 1960), Dorantes (Lebrija, …
During 1939, when Carmen Amaya was in Cuba, she made a short film called El Embrujo del Fandango (The Bewitching Fandango). One of the central moments in the film is when Carmen Amaya dances a stylised form of fandango called El Embrujo del Fandan…
Fandango is probably a familiar-sounding form for most people, because it inspired many composers outside of Andalusia to write fandangos, including classical composers such as Rameau, Scarlatti and Boccherini. The fandango in flamenco is a style …
The 11th Annual Latin GRAMMY Award nominations have been announced. The flamenco singer Jos?? Merc?? has received two Latin GRAMMY nominations for his most recent recording called Ruido (EMI), which was released in May this year. It was nominated …
In last Friday’s film Los Tarantos I mentioned that Andr??s Batista was one of the guitarists who was accompanying Carmen Amaya as she danced. I thought I would share one of my favourite photographs of Andr??s Batista with you to help you identify…
If you managed to see Friday’s film of Los Tarantos, or even if you could only catch the excerpt of Carmen Amaya’s dancing which has been uploaded onto YouTube, then perhaps you have had your interest in Carmen Amaya stimulated. She was a wonderfu…
After last week’s silly indulgence of seeing Manolo Caracol in Embrujo, I feel we need something with some serious flamenco performances, so I have chosen Los Tarantos featuring two superb dancers Carmen Amaya and Antonio Gades. Los Tarantos is a …
The taranta is part of the cantes de Levante category in flamenco and within that belongs to the cantes de las minas forms (songs from the mines) and also include cartageneras, mineras, murcianas, grana??nas and media grana??nas. The taranta origi…
Over the past 40 years or so, there has been a new strand of flamenco which falls under the umbrella category of Nuevo Flamenco ??? new flamenco ??? however, it is a broad umbrella. It includes groups such as Ketama, Pata Negra, Navajita Plate??, …
My Flamenco Diary 