Maki's playground
March 2, 2012 Leave a comment
A short play list. Some fine Flamenco guitar you might want to listen to over the weekend. Sabicas, Tomatito, Serranito, Manolo Sanlúcar, Pepe Habichuela, Juan Habichuela and Paco de Lucía. Hope you enjoy it!
February 26, 2012 Leave a comment
Apropos of absolutely nothing. A happy play list. All flamenco (or almost) and all songs that are happy, upbeat and just fun. Enjoy. You might even try having a dance. Mrs Maki says it isn’t that hard!
January 4, 2012 2 Comments
The Flamenco guitarist Enrique de Melchor died yesterday at the age of 61. He was one of the best of his generation, as highly regarded as both Paco de Lucía and Manolo Sanlúcar. Born Enrique Jiménez Ramírez in Marchena, Seville, he was the son of the guitarist Melchor de Marchena from whom he took his stage name. A brilliant accompanist, he played with the likes of José Mercé, El Lebrijano, José Menese and Carmen Linares amongst others. He “understood the secrets of el cante” better than any other of his generation according to those who were lucky enough to sing with him.
Here are a couple of performances, by way of tribute:
First off a “Soleá“:
And here’s a “Rondeña“:
December 28, 2011 1 Comment
Carretas Gitanas
We can’t end our exploration of Flamenco without going back to the beginning and talking about the music and cultures that have come together to make Flamenco one of the best known artistic and cultural movements in the world. So we’re going to take a short trip through time trying to find out a little about all the factors that over the ages have influenced and contributed to what today we know as Flamenco. The origins are hard to trace and pin down – a lot of what has been written is based on oral tradition and tales handed from generation to generation (no doubt getting embellished and twisted over the years) – but this is what we’ve found out and we want to share it with you.
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December 24, 2011 Leave a comment
Today’s the day in Spain. Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, is when we get together with all the family, have a slap up meal, drink a little more than is customary and maybe even exchange the odd present. Although if we’re being strictly traditional the presents should wait till the Magi bring them on twelfth night. My family’s lucky we get Santa and The Magi. Double pressies!
FELIZ NAVIDAD FROM THE MAKIS
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December 16, 2011 1 Comment
This is the second of our posts highlighting the work of a number of artists we felt we had to mention before we bring the series to a close. We hope you enjoy it.
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December 9, 2011 1 Comment
As our series on Flamenco draws to a close we are going to round it off with a couple of posts in honour of the artists we have perhaps only mentioned in passing or missed out altogether. It doesn’t feel right to finish without mentioning them. Some of them are artists from a long time ago and despite being an integral part of the history of the genre have only a limited presence on-line. Others are still active. This is the first of two posts, the second will be next Friday (16th December). We will be doing a special post for Christmas Eve and finish the series the following Friday (30th December) with a look at the history and origins of the genre. We hope you have enjoyed the series.
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