Paco de Lucia & Cameron for the first time.

OK it's not, it's a TV film. But this is how it might have been. Possibly. Or probably not. But it's interesting. A little anyway.
Passed on by my Basque compadre Kakau.

Flemenco & Heart of Darkness re-done

I met the guy who taught me to play rock guitar this week-end. Hadn't seen him in over 20 years. I told him I was now learning flamenco guitar he said something like: you're going in deep....like Apocalypse now.
Is right. I'm told Denny Laine, ex-Moody Blues & Wings, gave up being a pop star when he discovered flamenco. Wikipedia suggests this is not true but I like the myth.

More Flamenco technology

This bit of flamenco kit might be useful, or it might not. It's a flamenco metronome from Graf-martinez. Thing is, I can't get it to do anything. And it seems nearly every function is blocked for the demo version. Which is hardly in the spirit of t'internet.
Anyway if you can get it to do anything,  let me know. It looks like it counts to 12, which helps.

Flamenco goes modern: Apps for iPhone/iTouch

OK, there not flamenco apps as such, they are guitar apps. But they are mightly useful.
I'm using two. Both have tuners, chord dictionaries and metronomes.
This one from Gibson is free. I'm mainly using it for the metronome on my iTouch and I've been checking out the lessons in bed. Crazy.You can get it here at the iTunes store.
This one is not free. It's five English pounds & from someone calling themselves Agile Partners. But it is pretty good. I particularly like the way you can tap in finger positions and it will tell you what chord it is. A must for a flamenco guitarist who inevitably plays all sorts of strange, fragment chords and doesn't know what they are. You can also set the chord dictionary for different members of the guitar family, like the banjo, mandolin, ukuele etc. I've been fascinated by that: i had no idea how they are tuned. And when you strum it, it has sound! So you can pretend you are playing the banjo in a meeting. How cool is that? One quibble: for that amount of money they might have thrown in some lessons. It also has a metronome but or some reason I play the Gibson one. Maybe cos it's free. I'm like that...

Flamenco Boot Camp. Nearly.

I decided I'm not getting brilliant quick enough. On Sunday the sun was shining. I played for an hour but I really need to be playing for more. Much more. I need to play with the metronome more. I've got a new one on my iTouch and iPhone. That's how modern I am. But just like the old metronome, it's a little fascist. )Maybe that's why flamenco blossomed in the 30s? Dunno, I'll let the historians work that one out.) It's also highly insensitive. It just won't stop reminding me that me timing is, let's just say, not flawless.
But I'm going to win.
So everyday, for the rest of my life, I'm going to get out of bed an hour earlier and play/battle with the metronome. And do some sit-ups. And eat a healthy breakfast etc. It's all change from here on in. You watch...

Paco Interview

There is very little of Paco de Lucia actually talking. Maybe he did when he was younger & he's probably bored with it. He's probably spent so much time with his guitar & his music that he feels the questions don't do him justice, that they couldn't even begin to allow him to express the insights he has about flamenco guitar.Sometimes you can do too much, sometimes you can go too deep. Like Marlow in Heart of Darkness/ Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. I like this interview from Flamenco World because there are clues into that experience.

Flamenco Heaven

This year is the bienal in Sevilla. Which happens every two years. Obviously. You didn't need to speak Spanish to understand that, I suspect. It's an outrageously beautiful town, pant rash hot and there's lots of wonderful flamenco.
Check out the site. Book your tickets. Pack your sun hat.
Seville flameco bienal site