Andrés Segovia vs Paco de Lúcía Generation.

Manolo Cano, Andrés Segovia, Sabicas and Rafael Gómez Montero

This post translate som e texts from the document "ANDRES SEGOVIA: SUS RELACIONES CON EL ARTE FLAMENCO." That you can find here (Spanish)

Especially if you are not very good with proportions,it is difficult to distinguish a classical guitar from a flamenco guitar can be complicate. I know, nowadays the World is full of people that have obsession for flamenco guitar and its manufacturing ... but behind the so identical appearances there is a history of arrogance and haughtiness from classical guitarists to flamenco guitarists.

Andrés Segovia started his revolution for classical guitarists bringing the guitar in front of the orchestra. Andres Segovia knew quite well the flamenco and he helps to spread the flamenco. But his vision crashed against the Pacos’s generation. About Patiño (it seems that the met each other), Segovia had this vision:

“He [Patiño] could make guitar cry but he was so smung ...”

Segovia (also a so smung and egotist person) preferred Paco Lucena and his affable character. We can see the ideas of Segovia about flamenco guitar in this declarations about the flamenco guitarist Manolo de Huelva :

“ Manolo de Huelva played simply, a very flamenco performormance, as it should be don, being folk music. He never did a cheap pyrotechnic exhibition; his playing was simple, emotional and expressive. He was a great follower of Paco de Lucena. Yes, Manolo de Huelva was de best during my youth.”

We can also know this sense of tragic music so worth by old flamenco amateurs:

“I was with in a group of people in a meetin having fun, playing flamenco, dancing, drinking wine and pretty women… accessible women (sic)… what is called ‘juerga’ in Spain. The Niño de Jeréz (Singer) entered in the room, and, as I said before, he was the best singer of siguiriyas. We ask him for singing but he imposed his conditions: ‘Young sirs, if you are here only to have fun, I will not sing, I only sing for make people suffer’. He looked at the other singers and said: ‘from now, here, only siguiriyas will be sung’. s
Short time after La Niña de los Peines (a mythic singer) came and the started a kind of competition inspiring each other [...]. We were lucky of latent to their repertoire, so deep, so intense, and so moving. ¡An unforgettable experience”

But this flamenco world that Segovia knew changed with internationalization. After Spanish Civil War with the emigration other countries welcome flamenco, especially culture vulture and arty-farty circles in with open arms: The colorful dance and guitar mixed with the exotic music of the singer were worth. But in this internationalization something were loosed. People has to earn money and they have to adapt this very specific music for

For example siguiriyas, with its essence of ancient flamenco, had not been danced until Vicente Escudero, from Valladolid, a well-educated flamenco dancer, an avant-grade dancer of the establishment fried of great Dadaists create specifically it for stages. And we could talk about hundreds of these small concessions in the internationalization (Paco included), that shaped the current flamenco.

And the internationalization of flamenco music has in other genius, Paco de Lucía, his major bastion: He change the hard ancient sounds to that sophisticated and tangled flamenco that has always a sweet bouquet, he adpted flamenco to other musics, his union with Camaron was a revolution. But perhaps ... in the process flamenco were loosing part of his original tragic and ancient character. And It is not my opinion, it was the opinion of Paco, of José Menesé and other great singuers. They blame the better life of the flamencos of this change.

But the opinion of the old great classical master was demolishing. I 1969 he said about new wave of flamenco guitarists:

" If a say that it is a disaster , to say the least."

Asked about the new wave: Manolo San Lucar, Serranito and paco the Lucía, Segovia said.

"I have never seen a similar selection of guitarists. They are wonderful, but the problem is that they do not play flamenco ¿What can you expect from them if they do not play flamenco?¿What do they understand as flamenco? It is interpreted by a small group of people from Andalusia. And outside from those audiences, nobody has idea about what is flamenco. "

“Current (flamenco) guitarist does not pay attention to ancient ideals, when this noble art was worth by the deepness, emotion produced from quite simple means. Current guitarists are theatrical and they want show his technique, and astonish spectators with fireworks”

We save you from other specially hard and controversial comments (some of them clearly agressive and insidous) about Paco de Lucía. Segovia had lots of bad days :). Flamenco circles react angry against Segovia and  other later classical guitarists as Yepes did not help.

Respecting Paco de Lucía, with his humble character, the flamenco genius of Algeciras said in a documentary about him and his 'Concierto de Aranjuez' performance that classical guitarist have obsession for clean sounds and he preferred a dirty note but fit properly in rhythm becaus flamenco is essentialy rythym. All this silly verbal fight seemed make pacos unconfortable.

Curiously the comments of Manuel Agujetas about Camarón de Isla are parallel to Segovia about Paco. In his documentary said “Camarón na más que chillaba" (he only shout) . Perhaps we are losing that special character of flamenco that Tia Anita la Piriñaca resume on “When I Sing Well, I taste blood in my mounth”… but life is different and Paco then and current professional flamencos now are conscious.