You Say Flamenco, They'll Say Camaron

In one of my first days at my high school I asked what Spanish musical artist I should listen to. The name "Camaron" always came up in every class. He is the crown jewel of the flamenco singing tradition. He's one of those artist so renowed that if you gave a free association test using the words "flamenco singer", Camaron's name would probably be given instantly all over the world.

I want to sing flamenco by the end of my one-year trip here. He would probably be the best place to start. Geographically to the contrary, when I was walking the narrow streets of Toledo yesterday and heard shopkeepers softing wailing those flamenco laments, it felt as if I had one foot in the deserts of northern Africa, where I might chance to find a call to prayer being wailed from the minarets of a mosque, and the other foot on the sandy hills of Spain. An old saying says that Africa begins south of the Pyrenees (the mountain range on the border of France and Spain). When you leave the cosmopolitan confines of Madrid you see plains streched out as far as the eye can see with just a few trees spread here and there. It's landscape is a close cousin to the deserts that lie just south of Spain in Morrocco. When Italians wanted to film their westerns in Europe, they picked the central regions of Spain (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was filmed in Spain).

Analucian flamenco gives off the same feelings as the landscapes of Spain--that in-betweeness, the feeling of not being European nor African.

The song you'll listen to is the immensly popular "Como el Agua" (Like Water) by Camaron de la Isla (His full name in English is "shrimp of the island"). He is accompanied on guitar by that other master of flamenco we met before, Paco de Lucia. Camaron popularized flamenco and gave it a new form that was very digestible for a global audience. Traditional flemenco music before Camaron (and really ever since)is very raw and its roots are deep in the lower-class villages and countryside of Andalucia. One day I'll take you, my fellow readers, to Andalucia where we can discover this Spanish tradition together.



(On the left is Camaron and on the right is Paco de Lucia)

Here, by the way, is a authentic example of raw, passionate traditional flamenco. The kind of flamenco sung is called Soleá (I've yet to know the difference between the styles). It is sung by a master of flamenco singing--José Menese. Notice how less digestible the music would be to say an average American listener. I put my vote for Menese, but you be the judge.