Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Flamenco is not a literary invention...and it didn't come from India or anywhere else! Flamenco comes from the land. From the concrete historical conditions of lower Andalusia...where people lived in medieval settings, exploited by the land owners... with the law and the civil guard on the land owner's side...and so flamenco became the voice of the marginalized and exploited people."

Francisco Almazan/Author

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Classic, authentic Flamenco recipe for a hot summer day. Delicious and refreshing in its simplicity, like great flamenco. The longer it stays in the refrigerator, the better it tastes, as the flavors have time to marry and develop! Garnish to your taste with chopped tomato, egg, peppers, onion or croutons.


GAZPACHO ANDALUZ

8 red tomatoes (they must be ripe, flavorful and juicy...don't scrimp on this ingredient or you will have a bland puree). 2 small cucumbers. A slice of (stale if possible) French bread. 2 cloves of garlic. 2 small mild red or green peppers (Mediterranean-style. If uncertain, use only 1 red or green bell pepper). 1 cup of olive oil. 1-2 tablespoons vinegar. Salt. Water.

Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds and pulp; put them in a blender and add the tomatoes, peeled cucumbers, garlic, slice of bread, oil, vinegar, salt and a small amount of water. Blend ingredients well. Pass mixture through a sieve and add water and/or more salt to your taste. Serve well chilled with garnish platter on the side.

8 tomates rojos. 2 pepinos pequeños. Una rebanada de pan. 2 dientes de ajo. 2 pimientos. Un cuarto de litro de aceite. Vinagre. Sal. Agua.

Se parten los pimientos por la mitad, se le quitan las pipas y el corazon; se vierten en una batidora y se le agregan los tomates, los pepinos pelados, los ajos, la rebanada de pan, el aceite, el vinagre, la sal, y un poco de agua. Se bate todo muy bien, se pasa por un colador y se le agrega el agua que se quiera. Se sirve muy frio, pudiendolo guarnecer con pepinos, tomates, pimientos, cebollas muy picadas y daditos de pan.


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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Spanish Dancer

As in the hand a sulphur match, first white,
stretches flicking tongues on every side
before it bursts in flame– so in the circle
of close watchers, hot, bright, and eager
her round dance begins to flicker and fan out.

And all at once it is entirely flame.

With a glance she sets her hair ablaze
and whirls suddenly with daring art
her whole dress into this fiery rapture,
out of which, like startled snakes,
her bare arms stretch, alive and clacking.

And then, as if the fire grew tight to her,
she gathers it all up and casts it off
disdainfully, with imperious demeanour
and looks: It lies there raging on the ground
and keeps on flaming and does not give up.
But triumphant, self-assured, and with a
sweet greeting smile she lifts her face
and stamps it out with little furious feet.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"That's where the sorrow comes from. After drinking a bottle of wine, there was no more pain. But the pain would always come out anyway. If you can't feel that pain, you cannot sing. It's a struggle inside the heart. A fight with the gods. A struggle with something that is in the air. No one knows why this battle began. That is where flamenco was born."

Luis Agujeta/Cantaor from the film "El Turista Soy Yo"

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

A handsome dark man
walks up and down my
street saying that he loves
me more than his mother.
But this is life;
he who promises the most
forgets the quickest.

Un moreno garboso
ronda mi calle
y dice que me quiere
mas que a su madre.
Esta es la vida;
que aquel que mas promete
mas pronto olvida.

Fandanguillos/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I am afraid...that we have just a few years left, perhaps, with luck... to savor a living, breathing, significant art of flamenco. After that it will surely continue to exist, but in an academic manner far removed from flesh-and-blood life, a curious and highly-sophisticated reminder of a great folk art of a more primitive age.

Don Pohren/Author

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I liked Camarón a lot.  He came here to Jerez in Semana Santa and there was a big fiesta with Tío Borrico and some old gypsies, and he heard me sing and said “how this gypsy lady can sing!”  When I was single I saw a lot of fiestas, the rich landowners would call us for their parties, el Conde de los Andes, but they hardly gave us anything, it was very unfortunate.  Nowadays, when you go to sing someplace, you make a little money, but what they’re doing to flamenco is a crying shame.  Then they tell you it started with Camarón, and yes, it’s true that Camarón renewed flamenco singing, but it’s not that.  Afterwards people started down a path that has nothing to do with flamenco, and the time will come when all this is lost."

A mí me gustaba mucho Camarón.  Vino aquí a Jerez un año por Semana Santa y había una fiesta con Tío Borrico y unos cuantos gitanos viejos, y entonces me escuchó cantar y dice “¡cómo canta esta gitana!”  Estuve en muchas fiestas cuando soltera, que nos llamaban los señoritos, el Conde de los Andes, pero no nos daban na’ casi, y eso es muy fuerte.  Hoy sí, hoy para ir a los sitios, vas ganando un dinero, pero lo que han hecho con el flamenco es una verdadera pena.  Luego dicen que empezó con Camarón, y es cierto, Camarón renovó el cante, pero no era eso, entonces la gente ha cogido un rumbo que no es, y llegará el día en que esto se pierda.

Excerpted from an interview with Maria Bala, deflamenco.com/Flamencos de Gañania, Seville 2007, Ediciones Giralda

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Behind today’s slick flamenco, there exists a backdrop of generations of humble people whose unassuming art gives a pungent flavor and color to the genre, while providing the foundations.  These are people who understand little of pure and impure, or the amalgamated 12-beat compás, or “put it on 3 por arriba” or “I need more reverb”.  They sing as naturally as they breathe..."

"Detrás del flamenco actual, hay un trasfondo de generaciones de gente humilde que da un color y un aroma específicos al género.  Son personas que no entienden de la pureza ni de la impureza, ni que el compás tiene doce tiempos, ni ponla al tres por arriba, ni que falta réver.  Cantan con la misma naturaleza con la que respiran..."

Estela Zatania, 4/21/2014, Interview with Maria Bala, deflamenco.com 

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

It wasn't the blackness of your hair
nor the brown beneath your eyes,
it was the passion of your
kisses that enchained me.

No fue el negro de tu pelo
ni el marron de tus ojeras...
fue la pasion de tus besos
que me pusieron cadenas.

Solea/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Don't ask me to forgive you,
for I won't look at your face.
I won't ever look at your face again.
If I didn't love you so much,
perhaps I could forgive you.

A mi no me pides el perdon,
porque no te miro a la cara.
Que yo no vuelvo a mirarte
a ti a la cara.
Si no te quisiera tanto,
quizas te perdonara.

Solea/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"It’s flamenco, the oldest music of all, that has the deepest roots, that provokes tears and laughter. I didn’t call the attention of David Bowie or Prince or Sting with my voice, it was flamenco that caught their interest, pure flamenco."

El Pele/Cantaor 2004

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

My mouth hurts and hurts me
from asking you, gitana,
if you love me.

A mi me duele, me duele,
la boquita de decirte,
gitana, si tu me quieres.

Bulerias/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I don't sing because I know how, nor even so that people will listen to my voice; I sing because one should not mix sorrow with pain.

Yo no canto porque se, ni porque escuchen mi voz; canto porque no se junte la pena con el dolor.

Letra Flamenca Popular

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Ay, how much work
it takes to love you as I do!

Because of your love the air hurts me,
my heart,
and hat.

Who will buy this sash that I have,
this sorrow of white linen,
to make handkerchiefs with?

Ay, how much work
it takes to love you as I do!


¡Ay qué trabajo me cuesta
quererte como te quiero!

Por tu amor me duele el aire,
el corazón
y el sombrero.

¿Quién me compraría a mí
este cintillo que tengo
y esta tristeza de hilo
blanco, para hacer pañuelos?

¡Ay qué trabajo me cuesta
quererte como te quiero!

Federico Garcia Lorca/Flamenco Poet

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Americans approach flamenco in exactly the opposite way that it is approached in Spain. In Spain, the singing is first, the dancing second and the guitar third. Take Frank Sinatra, for example. Americans pay to hear Frank Sinatra sing, not to hear the band play or see the chorus line dance. Americans have the right idea about their own music, but it will take time for them to think of flamenco in this way."

Chinin de Triana/Cantaor 1982

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Everyone asks God
for health and freedom.
I ask for death,
yet he will not grant it.

Toitos le piden a Dios
la salud y la libertad,
y yo le pido la muerte
y no me la quiere mandar.

Polo/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Something that is fundamental is to respect one's own instincts. The day that you stop fighting against your instincts is the day you have learned how to live."

"Algo que tambien es primordial es respetar los propios instintos. El dia en que deja uno de luchar contra sus instintos, ese dia se ha aprendido a vivir."

Federico Garcia Lorca/Flamenco Poet

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

The bell of mourning
tolled one;
until two I thought of the love
you gave to me.
As it tolled three,
I was weeping.

Aquella campana triste
esta dando la una;
hasta las dos estoy pensando
en el querer que me diste;
y me dan las tres llorando.

Malagueñas/Antonio Chacon

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"The most important part of Flamenco is not in knowing how to interpret it. The higher art is in knowing how to listen."

"Lo importante del flamenco no es saberlo interpretar. Es mayor arte saber escuchar."

From the documentary "El Turista Soy Yo" de Luis Agujeta


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Flamenco Quote of the Day*

Who were your teachers? Who taught you to play?

"I had a brother that taught me some things. Pepe Naranjo. And then I looked for guitarists to listen to. Once I got to hear Montoya, another time Niño Ricardo. Always Niño Ricardo. I always used to follow him around."

¿Quienes fueron sus maestros? ¿Quien le enseñó a usted a tocar la guitarra?

Yo tuve un hermano mío que me puso lecciones, Pepe Naranjo. Y después ya yo buscaba a quien escuchar. Una vez escuché a Montoya, otra vez al Niño Ricardo. Niño Ricardo siempre, iba detrás de él siempre.


Diego del Gastor/Guitarrista 1969


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Flamenco Quote of the Day

If I call you sun I abuse you.
If I call you moon I wound you.
When I call you morning star,
it seems as if I'm killing you.
Would you like, perhaps,
for me to call you sky?

Fandangos Grandes/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Port of San Fernando,
Port of Santa Maria,
the songs that come
from the ports
are shorter,
but wound more,
they wound more.

Puerto de San Fernando,
Puerto de Santa Maria,
los puertos tienen
los cantes cortos,
pero mas duelen,
mas duelen.

Alegrias/Popular

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"When my little boy Dimitri died, everybody was crying. Me, I got up and danced. They all said, "Zorba is mad." But it was the dancing, only the dancing that stopped the pain."

From the film "Zorba the Greek"

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

On the street
of The Winds
I devoured you
down to your beauty
mark.

Tangos sung by La Caita in the film "Vengo"

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

At night in my Triana,
my gypsies cried their pain
to the river,
for gone forever is
the song of the forge, pure Triana,
the song of the Caganchos,
purest essence of what is gypsy.
My God! What I would give
to be in that cave,
listening to those gypsies
of my ancient race.

De noche en mi Triana
le apenaba al rio
mi gitanillo y mis gitanas,
porque se habran ido
el canto fragueros,
puro de Triana,
los de Cagancho,
eran los mas puros esencia gitana.
Dios mio, que yo diera
por estar en la cava
pa' yo escucha' aquellos
gitanos de mi vieja raza...

Solea/Jose de la Tomasa

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I put a cross on my chest
so the devil would not enter,
for one day you entered there,
and  it became a purgatory.

Hice en mi pecho una cruz
para que no entrara el demonio.
Porque un dia entraste tu,
y hiciste alla un purgatorio.

Solea/Popular

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Becoming a top dancer is far more complicated than it used to be, and only in part because technically much more is expected from today's dancer. Much of the grace and femininity of the female dance is being lost as the two sexes compete in the battle of complexity of footwork. Long displays of footwork, in tact, dominate both the female and male dance, causing spectator interest to wane, as it pretty much all looks the same to the non-performer.

Don Pohren/Author

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I don't know which is worse,
to love as I do,
or to have no heart at all.

Yo no se que es peor,
si querer como yo quiero,
o no tener corazon.

Bulerias/Popular

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I understood that the preferential treatment which we give certain fingers of our hands, in order to carry out specific tasks on the guitar, was nothing more than relegating the other fingers to a secondary importance. I focused my work on educating each finger, one after the other, so that each would have its own autonomy, and each would be capable of doing what the others could do."

Manolo Sanlucar/Guitarrista

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

When I hear a guitar,
I feel the urge to weep,
because I remember Spain,
land of my dreams.
In the clear night,
even the breeze sings,
and from someone's throat
I can almost hear
words of love
pass through barred windows.

Cuando siento una guitarra
me da ganas de llorar,
porque me acuerdo de
España, la tierra por mi soñada.
Y en la noche clara,
hasta el aire canta,
y de una garganta
yo creo escuchar
palabras de amores
muy junto a una reja.

Milongas/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Tell me whose company you keep, and I'll tell you who you are.

Dime con quien andas, y te dire quien eres.

Spanish/Andalusian Saying


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