Vic Carmen Sonne

A unique band, Carmen combined flamenco music with progressive rock. Adding to their distinctiveness was the fact that during long instrumental passages, members of the band would dance on-stage, adding those sounds to the instrumental mix. Composed of Roberto Amaral (vocals, castanets), David Allen (guitar), his sister Angela Allen (keyboards), John Glascock (bass) – who later worked with Jethro Tull – and Paul Fenton (drums), Carmen's sound was focused on up-beat flamenco guitar with a strong rhythm section and subtle keyboards. Their first album, Dancing on a Cold Wind, was released in 1973 and featured the 23-minute epic "Remembrances (Recuerdos de Espana)." It was followed by Fandangos in Space in 1974. The quintet's final album was The Gypsies, released in 1975, a more restrained effort than previous releases.

One of the best ever jazz singers, her dramatic and nuanced readings of standards put her at the forefront of vocal jazz.
Carmen McRae always had a nice voice (if not on the impossible level of an Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan) but it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretations of lyrics that made her most memorable. She studied piano early on and had her first important job singing with Benny Carter's big band (1944), but it would be another decade before her career had really gained much momentum. McRae married and divorced Kenny Clarke in the '40s, worked with Count Basie (briefly) and Mercer Ellington (1946-1947), and became the intermission singer and pianist at several New York clubs. In 1954 she began to record as a leader' and by then she had absorbed the influences of Billie Holiday and bebop into her own style…