2003 compilation featuring 16 key works from a virtuoso of the Flamenco guitar. A perfect introduction to both the musician himself & the genre in general. Detailed liner notes including comprehensive biographical & musical data.

Sleevenotes:
Paco Peña’s name illuminates both him and his way of working. Not the Paco part which is simply the Spanish nick-name for Francisco, but his surname Peña. In Spanish a peña is a meeting between passionate followers of an art form, be they poets, singers, guitarists or dancers, a space where they exchange and explore new ideas and possibilities. Flamenco peña’s are exuberant happenings and as the play on his name suggests, that’s essentially the Paco Peña phenomenon. For his renowned flamenco shows he gathers together a company from very best of the flamenco world to create from the intimate exchange a peña inspires. Making art for an intimate group remains both his and flamenco’s wellspring. On this disc Peña offers the listener such a personal recital.

Born on June 1st 1942 Peña is a self-taught flamenco guitarist. He began playing when he was seven, learning much from an elder brother. As he told me, “We grew up in a Casa de vecinos, ten or more families in the same huge house… a whole community… People shared everything from celebrations to upheavals such as death. By the time I was nine I was doing little performances. Then I joined a group which encouraged village traditions and flamenco and went to Madrid, Barcelona, Salamanca, incredible places for me as I was only about fifteen at the time.”

Peña came to London in 1964. The enthusiastic response he received eventually convinced him to risk going it alone out of Spain. By then he was deeply immersed in tradition, conversant in the music and approaches of great innovators such as Ramón Montoya (1880-1949) and Niño Ricardo (1904-74) as well as Sabicas (1912-90). Yet despite his full commitment to the great masters like all great artists he has always been open to other sources: indeed in September 1967 he took part in a ‘Guitar-In’ alongside the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Bert Jansch and others. He gave his first solo concert at the Wigmore Hall in 1967 and by 1970 had founded his own company. He has gone on to found an annual Guitar Festival in his native Cordoba; become a lecturer in Flamenco Guitar at the Rotterdam Conservatory (1985-); and received several awards including the Ramon Montoya prize for Best Concert Guitarist (1983); and ‘La cruz de official de la order del merito civil’ (The Civil Order of Merit Cross) from the King of Spain (1997). His keen interest in the links between guitar traditions in Spain and the new world has taken him to Argentina to work with the great Eduardo Falú.

Peña explains the power of flamenco as one of approach rather than of difficulty, “Division and classification into ‘chico’ and grande’ (‘small’ and ‘big’) forms is made but to a large extent it is arbitrary because flamenco is either good or bad. Of course there is a difference in the styles and what a form is trying to say…but you approach any form with different qualities of yourself and in that way make it into one thing or another. The rhythms of each flamenco form, the ‘compas’ as they are called, are a whole universe of specific atmospheres and emotions, nothing is lighter although it may be deeper and for that you have to go deeper into yourself.”

Peña believes that flamenco’s present and future are dependent on knowing its past history. “Flamenco is an oral tradition. To play well you have to engage with what it is trying to say. It’s a music that belongs to Andalucia and the history of flamenco people. When you belong to that community you know what is going on in the air: there is tragedy and generosity, there is happiness and suffering in the extreme and that crystallises in the whole culture”.

A vivid childhood memory dates to when he was six and his father, who loved to sing, took him to a concert of the legendary Montoya. “He was a guitar genius pushing the frontiers of flamenco further. Until Montoya the guitar was used only to accompany singers and dancers. He made it a solo instrument by transforming pieces like his ‘Rondeña: he made it a solo guitar piece rather than a folkloric-like fandango accompaniment. He changed the tuning of two strings of the guitar providing wonderful colours which were not normal then. His single handed creation has had enormous repercussions”. For Peña the work of great artists offers a “flood of truth” and illuminates the path of improvisation, “That’s when you become your own composer, even when playing what you have played before, or what someone has taught you. You create it yourself in that moment of performance, spontaneously bring it out of your soul. It’s got to be yours and it’s got to be distinctive. You have to create something with the music or else you die. Flamenco requires that constantly: it’s not written down and is constantly being re-worked and expressed differently.”

1. Canción: Legend has it that ‘peteneras’ were created for a beautiful woman from the village of Petenera, near Seville, who destroyed men’s hearts. Pure creations and based on popular verses they are quite dissimilar from all other ‘cantes’.

2. Solquema: ‘Burning Sun’ is a bulerías, a technically intricate form whose complex rhythmic accents make it possibly the most difficult for the guitarist.

3. La Rosa: ‘Alegrias’, literally ‘Gaieties’ come from Cádiz.

4. Tonada del viejo amor: Eduardo Falú’s verses tell how memories of an ‘old’ summer love keeps the winter cold at bay.

5. Zambra: composed by ‘Niño Ricardo’ one of the great Sevillean guitarists of the early 20th century.

6. Santo: Peña’s astonishing 1990 ‘Misa Flamenco’ is encapsulated in this ‘tanguillos’, sung by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chorus.

7. Soleá: Ramón Montoya was the first great master of modern virtuoso style, illuminating it with deep gypsy perceptions.

8. Gloria: ‘Fandangos’ are said to have descended from the ‘jota’ of northern Spain and are based on poetic verses.

9. Danza Cordobesa: The two Cordobas, Pena’s home town in Spain and that of Argentina are evoked here.

10. Farruca: The ‘farruca’ (‘courageous’) is an adaptation of an Asturian dance noted for displaying male virility, brought to the Cádiz by northern migrants.

11. Acerca del Río. Considered to be the oldest and most important flamenco form, these soleares (from ‘soledad’ meaning loneliness) tell about the river.

12. Claroscuro: These chiaroscuro ‘tangos’ have come into flamenco from Andalucian folklore and popular sources.

13. Rondeña: Ramón Montoya’s watershed composition.

14. Milonga Uruguaya: Beloved of the River Plate ‘gaucho’ horseman, the ‘milonga’ is also a form of tango.

15. Mantilla y peina: A flamenco ‘guajira’, a Cuban country dance, named for the classic comb and lace shawl worn by Andalucian women at Easter time and weddings.

16. La Huarmillita: With the dancing swing of the ‘cueca’ these verses sing of the desire of a man for his woman and his ‘poncho spread over the bed’.

Dr Jan Fairley is an Ethnomusicologist who specialises in various world musics, notably those of Spain and South America, and nurtures a long-term passion for flamenco.