A Great way To Start The Year

The second weekend in January sees a tribute to Enrique Morente here in Madrid.
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Friday we’ll see:

José Mercé, Miguel Poveda and Eva la Yerbabuena.

Saturday it’s:

Arcángel, Tomatito and Carmen Linares.

And Sunday the Morente Family all together.

Tickets sold out quickly but we have managed to get a couple for each night. Links to performances after the break.
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Copla Española – Antonio Molina

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Antonio Molina
Antonio Molina de Hoces was born in Malaga on March 9 1928. He was a singer of Copla and Flamenco with a singular, falsetto voice and wonderful natural technique that led him to star in several shows and films.
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Duquende – Rompecabezas

Duquende is a cantaor from Barcelona who made his début at the age of eight with none other than Camarón de la Isla on guitar duties. Camarón had heard him sing and was adamant that he should reach a wider audience. He has since worked with all the leading guitarists and Paco de Lucía has invited him on innumerable occasions to take part in his shows. His recording career is not exactly prolific but everything he has done has been well received. His new album Rompecabezas, produced by Pepe de Lucía, is no exception.
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Copla Española – Sara Montiel

María Antonia Abad Fernández, whose stage name is Sara Montiel was born in Campo de Criptana in La Mancha in March 1928. Her parents were subsistence farmers scratching out a living in the land of Don Quijote.

From a very early age Sara stood out for her beauty and talent, both of which impressed Vicente Casanova, an influential producer and the owner of CIFESA film studios who saw her singing a saeta (an a capella religious song) during a Holy Week procession in Orihuela and arranged for her to have singing and elocution classes.
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Rocío Márquez – Claridad


Rocío Márquez needs no introduction, we waxed lyrical about her in the Flamenco series and her album Aquí Y Ahora was one of our favourites last year. This year she released Claridad in June and it’s better than her début. An album for flamenco connoisseurs made by a true connoisseur.
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Niño Josele – El Mar de Mi Ventana


Niño Josele comes from a long line of Flamenco guitarists and has played with the best of them. His accompaniment on Diego “El Cigala”‘s Teatro Real live album from 2002 is quite sublime. Like many Flamenco artists of late, he has broadened his horizons and has played in recent years with artists as diverse as Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys or even Elton John. He started out many years ago accompanying the great Enrique Morente but had spent some time away from the strictly Flamenco. Questions were being asked. “When are you coming back, Josele?” Well, he came back in June this year. And how!
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José Mercé – Mi Única Llave

Still getting my breath back after Estrella’s having broken her six year silence and José Mercé comes along with a new album.

There was me thinking that 2012 was shaping up to be something of a fallow year – how wrong can a man be? Dorantes, the Flamenco pianist, has also come up with the goods. I was too busy to share it with you but will post a review soon. But back to the matter in hand.
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Estrella Morente – Autorretrato


Almost two years after Enrique Morente’s untimely death and a whole six years after the last release, Estrella Morente has released her third album, Autorretrato. There is no way we can be objective about this album: we love her music and were lucky enough to get tickets to the show in Madrid where many of the tracks were showcased.
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La Copla Española – Carmen Morell & Pepe Blanco

There were a number of double acts that shone during the heyday of Copla Española. Pepe Blanco and Carmen Morell were one. Here we take a look at their individual careers and their work together.
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La Copla Española – Juanita Reina

Juana Reina Castrillo, whose stage name was Juanita Reina, was born in Seville on 25 August 1925. She was known as The Queen of Copla.
She was born and grew up in the barrio of La Macarena and studied dance at Enrique El Cojo’s Academy. Her grandfather paid for her classes thanks above all to the insistence of a producer of Zarzuelas that were performed at the Teatro Cervantes in the city.
She was the eldest of Miguel Reina Mijez and Dolores Castrillo Pascual’s nine children, and although at first her father was reluctant for her to become an artist, with the help of a loan of 125,000 pesetas from a cousin, he staged her first show: Los Churumbeles.
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