Flamenco

Almost overnight, the success of Ottmar Liebert's groundbreaking 1990 debut Nouveau Flamenco catapulted Higher Octave Music into one of the industry's top indie labels and introduced the instrumental world to a fresh, exotic sound unlike any other…

Spanish pianist Chano Dominguez has made a jazz career in exploring its connections with the flamenco of his native Cadiz. On previous offerings, Dominguez has carved out a place where the various dance rhythms and sung cadences of flamenco find equal voice with jazz lyricism, exploration, and harmonic adventure. Flamenco Sketches began as a commission from the Barcelona Jazz Festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. The album is a re-visioned reading of the compositions on the iconic Davis album – in different order – as well as two other Davis compositions, "Nardis" (which he never recorded) and "Serpent's Tooth," from the trumpeter's Prestige years.

The new album of Catalan drummer Marc Miralta, entitled 'Flamenco Reunion' (Contrabaix / Karonte) is simply very good, one of those albums worth hearing several times because all the music contained therein excellence rubs and it is always outstanding. Yes, jazz, flamenco and flamenco jazz, enjoys an enviable health. Fifteen years ago Miralta edited 'New York Flamenco Reunion', a great drummer disk where acknowledged his debt to flamenco music that (re) discovered while in the United States. Are those paradoxes of life: Miralta had to go outside to see the value of flamenco for your own music.

Originally a flamenco player, Paco de Lucia helped to expand that music, folding in its complex harmonics and fluid sense of phrase and understatement. He expanded jazz by weaving in flamenco's more complex rhythms, organic melodies, and timbral slips. This 17-cut collection details de Lucia's development from the beginning of his second decade as a leader in 1965 to his more experimental and expansive period through the late '90s when he had come full circle and returned to flamenco properly. De Lucia's music was always rooted in flamenco even at its most adventurous; that thread was always audible, and this set proves that in a fascinating way. The music here can be jarring in its brilliance at times, but it is always clearly delineated and its purpose is direct, full of nuance, beauty, and fiery precision, as well as plenty of soul.

Since 1977, when he won the Ramón Montoya Prize for Concert Guitar in Cordoba, at the age of only fifteen, he has had a serious, consequent performing activity. An exquisite musician, composing and concert performance are important facets of his work, at live performances and in his record catalogue, although he has not ceased to accompany cante, as he is convinced that "it is very important for the solo guitarist to know the cante, because that is what provides firmness when playing alone". Riqueni has performed extensively as a concert guitarist and has played with people such as Enrique Morente, Anouar Brahem, Al Di Meola, Matías Fray and the Vargas Blues Band. He is also a noted flamenco composer, similar to the style of Albéniz and Turina. His 1987 album simply entitled "Flamenco", was recorded live without any special effects or recording studio tricks.

Mario Escudero (October 11, 1928 – November 19, 2004), was one of a handful of Spanish flamenco guitar virtuosos who, following on the footsteps of Ramon Montoya, helped spread flamenco beyond their Spanish homeland when they migrated to the United States in the early 1950s. Along with others such as Sabicas, Carlos Montoya and Juan Serrano, Escudero helped forge the viability of solo flamenco guitar as a concert instrument, with lauded performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and other venues. Invited to perform at the White House for President John F. Kennedy, Escudero was counted among the best in his era; Ramón Montoya called him "the best flamenco guitarist of this new generation."