Various: Acoustic World Flamenco (Coro Audio CD)

This disc, which contains live and studio performances, captures differing styles of flamenco through some of the most important names in the genre: Paco Peña, Diego el Cigala (Dieguito), Manolo Domínguez the Losadabrothers, and Paco del Gastor. It includes traditional tracks but also shows that flamenco is an ever-developing
tradition.

Flamenco is hotly emotional. An art form that has its origins in Arab influenced Andalusian folk music, adopted and adapted by the Gypsies only in the last two hundred years or so, flamenco has deeper roots and connections. It is true world music, partly because so many different peoples, cultures and religions have lived across southern Spain and also because geographically Andalucía is the gateway to the Mediterranean and the Americas across the ocean, and the bridge between Europe and Africa.
Flamenco involves three performing arts – song, guitar and dance. The quality of the voice is directly linked to the historical and social background of the music. There is a certain roughness that encompasses uncompromisingly strong emotions. The flamenco singing is sometimes of the Muslim call to prayer – not surprising as it was once
heard all over Andalucía. The guitar provides us with further blending of east and west in its use of melodic lines accompanied by more exotic sound, key and time structures. And the dance embodies the passion, delirium and fire of southern Spain. The mix of the three expresses the soul of the region.

Flamenco, with its roots in love and tragedy, contains a spiritual force which bridges both the secular and religious dimensions of human experience.