Dos Lunares investigates and promotes the intersections between Flamenco and Romani/Gypsy culture through printed matter, film nights, and special events.

January 16, 2010

El Peret

Filed under: clips,flamenco,Romani — Dos Lunares @ 12:17 am


Peret-Borriquito

I’m in the midst of reading Little Money Street: In Search of Gypsies and Their Music in the South of France, a nice little book on French Catalan Gitanos. It mostly focuses on the popular group Tekameli. But whenever I hear ‘Catalan rumbas’ my mind automatically goes to Peret and his charming rumbas. He is the master of the style.

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December 18, 2009

Favorite Video of the Week: Los Niños Flamencos

Filed under: clips,flamenco,Romani — Dos Lunares @ 2:03 am

I have a special fondness for children who develop arte at an early age. Considering how distracted kids are these days by computer and TV screens, it’s inspiring to see youngins so adeptly demonstrate compas and sentimiento in their baile and cante. The following are two clips that have blown me away!


Battle between El Piky y El Banana recorded in Algemesi (Andalucia)


Lole y Manuel accompany a film clip of Gitanos in the country

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November 25, 2009

Las Tres Mil Viviendas de Sevilla

Filed under: clips,flamenco — Dos Lunares @ 11:56 pm


Trailer for Polígono Sur

For hundreds of years, Gitanos in Sevilla lived in a neighborhood called Triana alongside the Guadalquivir river. Some of the most beautiful and intense Flamenco was created here amongst the culturally rich Gitanos. The Spanish authorities and developers eyed their enviable location with dollar signs in their eyes and as with happens with gentrification around the world, the Gitano community was flung to the outskirts of the city to live in government created high-rise housing. In this foreboding place they attempted to carry-on the traditions they practiced for hundreds of years but unfortunately the geography of the area made this difficult. (There is a well-known story of the man who would take his donkey up and down the elevator.) One tradition that did survive is Flamenco. The name of this place? Polígono Sur or Las Tres Mil Viviendas de Sevilla.

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July 29, 2009

Latcho drom

Filed under: clips,flamenco,Romani — Dos Lunares @ 10:50 am


La vie manouche

Beautiful video with music by Django Reinhardt!

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June 25, 2009

Bernarda y Diego

Filed under: clips,flamenco — Dos Lunares @ 9:32 pm

An amazing tientos with two of Flamenco’s finest. This clip is notable for the facial expressions Bernarda makes, que gitana!

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March 21, 2009

Carmelilla

Filed under: flamenco — Dos Lunares @ 1:54 am


Manuel Molina, La Negra y Carmelilla, 1986

This is the Flamenco era I fell in love with and pine for. If only there was a Flamenco time machine!

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March 5, 2009

Los Farruco in Los Angeles, review

Filed under: flamenco,review — Dos Lunares @ 1:53 am


La Farruquita sometime in the late 80s/early 90s.

The show last night was amazing! I’m not sure if the kind of Flamenco I like is well suited to a large stage production but parts of the show definitely surpassed any of my expectations. Most impressive was La Farruquita. Her son Farru can dazzle with his superior technique and his flashy moves but it’s Farruquita that can bring the house down with just the rolling of her hips. Every dance student I know was trying that move after the show! I jumped out of my seat when she performed her famous punta-planta footwork that I first saw in Bodas de Gloria.

After the show, my friends and I waited to pay homage to las reinas bailaoras and they most graciously accepted our adorations. There’s no shame in being a fan!

See this excellent review at the Los Angeles Times blog for more detailed coverage.

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February 27, 2009

Los Farruco in Los Angeles!

Filed under: flamenco,General — Dos Lunares @ 8:02 pm

This Tuesday and Wednesday March 3 & 4 Los Farruco will be performing at UCLA Royce Hall. For aficionados of Gitano style Flamenco Puro, this show cannot be missed!

Los Farruco

Price: $38-$60; UCLA students, $17
405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA  90095
Renowned for its dazzling footwork, powerful athleticism and passionate intensity, the legendary flamenco family, Los Farruco, features three generations of dancers- all direct descendents of their late patriarch and flamenco master, El Farruco. Led by his twenty-year-old grandson, Farruco, who is rapidly gaining a reputation for his fiery and virtuosic performances, the Farruco clan also includes El Farruco’s daughters, the highly respected La Farruca and La Faraona, and second grandson, the elegantly reserved Barullo. Accompanied by two guitarists and three singers, Los Farruco promises a mesmerizing evening of traditional gypsy dance and music.
Tickets now $34 at the Goldstar website.
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February 16, 2009

Why I Love Flamenco

Filed under: flamenco — Dos Lunares @ 1:34 am

These two videos capture what I love most about Flamenco: the visceral emotion, the interconnectedness of everyone involved (not just the performers) and the history that is passed on through every letra, every gesture of the hands and pick of the guitar strings. The artists in these clips are not performing Flamenco, they are Flamenco. Flamenco puro is able to move me like nothing else – it’s like, the very essence of my being reverberates and responds to the music. I know this may sound cheesy but it is completely true.

The first is of Lole Montoya and her mother La Negra singing for Spanish television. In the time soon after this recording was made, Lola would join up with her partner Manuel Molina to create some of the most exciting Flamenco of the 70s, a fusion of traditional Flamenco rooted in compas and flamenco puro and mixed with Arabic and rock elements. Lole’s Arabic influences come from her youth spent living in North Africa with her Gitano family. The above video clip is one of the first documented forays into her Arabic influenced Flamenco, and I think it’s absolutely captivating. It is her voice that first pulled me into my journey of Flamenco discoveries and she remains one of my favorite cantaoras.

If there was a Flamenco heaven it would look a little like this clip. A room full of the best Flamenco artists joined together for a good-natured juerga. These people are my inspiration and the reason why I’ve devoted so much time and energy studying this art form. This little bit of celestial Flamenco could not be complete without Camaron de la Isla, one of the most innovative and talented Flamenco cantaores of this lifetime. Camaron is the one artist that can actually transmit duende through recordings (duende is an overused term to describe the extra sensory feelings that can be transmitted through Flamenco). What’s more intriguing about this clip is the amorous tension between Carmelilla Montoya (the dancer) and Camaron. The way she smiles, the way he smiles…ay!

A special treat: This tune, Sangre Gitana y Morena by Lole y Manuel uses some of the same Arabic letras taught to Lole by her mother in the clip above.

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February 2, 2009

La Noemi de las 3000

Filed under: flamenco — Dos Lunares @ 12:16 am


La Noemi de las 3000 con La Mari (por Bulerias)
Thanks to LekeFlamenco!

Young people performing Flamenco is a good reminder that Flamenco is more than technique, it’s something that comes from the heart. It also makes me wish I’d taken up the study of Flamenco at a much younger age! 😉

By the way, what do you all think of her bulerias at the end of the clip? Wow, very unexpected!

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