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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
By the 1980s fusion had developed a life of its own.
Madrileño band Ketama were the big fish, blending
flamencowith salsa, pop and North African sounds,
before moving on to reggae, jazz and, more recently,
hip hop.They split in 2004 after 16 albums and millions
of sales. Pata Negra (actually a type of Spanish ham)
added blues to the mix in the 1980s and 90s spawning
so-calledblueslería.The constituent Amador Fernández
brothers of Pata Negra have also made significant solo
contributions tonuevo flamenco; the elder, Raimundo,
has worked with the likes of BB King. More recently,
Niño Josele has fusedflamencoguitar with jazz, while
singer Niña Pastori makes easily digested pop coloured
by herflamencobackground.
Paco de Lucía
Nobody has come close
to quick-fingered Paco
for three decades - it’s
no understatement to
say he shaped modern
flamenco. He began
by accompanying
El Camarón de la Isla
and has gone on to
integrate other forms
intoflamenco.
Tomatito
Discovered by Paco de
Lucía and another one
who played with El
Camarón de la Isla,
Almería’s ‘Little Tomato’
has gone on to blend
flamencowith jazz, most
recently in collaboration
with Caribbean pianist
Michel Camilo.
Vicente Amigo
Sometimes seen as
Paco de Lucía’s natural
successor, Amigo
does the orthodox stuff
brilliantly but has also
performed in a rock
and pop context.
Collaborations with
the richly talented
singer El Pele have
proved particularly
fruitful.
Three modern
greats of
flamencoguitar
A star is prawn
One name towers over
modernflamenco.
José Monje Cruz was
nicknamed El Camarón
de la Isla, ‘the shrimp of
the island’, because of
his diminutive height
and blond hair, preened
into a prodigious curly
mullet in adult life.
One of eight siblings in
agitanofamily from
San Fernando, he oozed
flamencoauthenticity.
A visceral, haunting
voice, the master of so
manypalos, saw him
achieve god-like status
in the course of ten
albums recorded
with Paco de Lucía.
He apparently took drugs
by the bucketload but it
was the four packets of
cigarettes a day that
brought on lung cancer
and killed him in his early
40s in 1992. His legend
has grown ever since.
“GOOD SINGING
HURTS.”
Flamenco maestro
José Menese
