Manitas de Plata is a Gypsy French Guitarists. A really virtuoso guitarists. But, as you can see we are not include this guitarist tag "Great Guitarists (tocaores)" of this blog. He will be a good example for the true tag of this post: Understanding Flamenco. And this section is mainly for talking about the conceptual frame of flamenco.
Why is not in "Great Guitarists (tocaores)"? I have seen some articles as http://nylonguitarist.com/manitas_de_plata.html that Manitas de Plata is ruled out from flamenco great guitarists because he is not Spanish. is completely false. Great guitarist has to be great performers, masters or both. For example, I consider "Payo Humberto", a Ductch flamenco guitarist with high activity on the Internet, a great guitarist, especially because he is a great pioneer using on-line dissemination. With his videos in You Tube you can learn about pure flamenco, a great and funny master that has found his way to teach and promote flamenco There are also very goods guitarist form Germany, Israel, Japan or other countries more closer to be great guitarists of flamenco than Manitas de Plata. Nationality is not the problem with Manitas de Plata.
The critics against Manitas de Plata have always come from his poor care with ‘compás’. It is true that he sounds nice, but his respect for the traditional flamenco concept of ‘compás’ is questionable in Manitas de Plata's hands. It does not matter if it would not be a critical aspect for flamenco.
Contrary to the common thinking in some international enviroments, flamenco spinal cord is not the guitar. Flamenco roots are singing and dancing. They are de base, the cuore and the bulk of flamenco music concept. Historically, they are the basis on wich 'jondo' concept is supported. Later the guitar started accompanying the world that singing and dancing had created. Therefore a basic task for flamenco guitarists is the accompaniment. And the accompaniment without a strict knwoledge of complex rhythmic structures of flamenco, from which major 'jondo' styles comes is really difficult if not impossible.
This knowledge of ‘compás’ is what propels the guitarist to the main category: a good tocaor. "The singer is first". All the great flamenco guitarists have known and respected that issue. A guitarist that put his art ahead the singer could be a great artist and guitarists but never a great 'tocaor'. And if the flamenco guitarist does no aspire to be a great 'tocaor' something fails to be a pure flamenco guitarists.
This is the reason because Manitas the plata, a fabulous masterful between flamenco and Django Reinhardt, is a great guitarist but not a 'tocaor'. Anyway we can enjoy his music and learn from him.
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