Flamenco: an art form with a future

Posted on 08/04/2014 by johnray

The winners of the Fourth Annual Andalusian Contest of Young Flamenco Artists joined together for a concert last night here in Granada. The competition has three separate areas: dance, singing and guitar. I don’t know the age limit for this competition but the winners aged from 19 to 24. The winning singer was Antonio García Bermúdez and what a voice he has! He lives in the neighbourhood of Almeria where Tomatito and Niño Josele grew up so this is one more medal they can proudly sport. I particularily enjoyed the dancer’s show, he had a guitarist, percussionist, two palmeras and a singer. Most young performers are probably nervous but in this case you would never know it. There is something about flamenco dancers that makes you think they are king of the world when they step on stage. The aura of self-confidence or even arrogance that is so much a part of the dance, spectacular! Make a note of his name; Rafael Ramírez Vílchez from Estepona. The guitarist is from Granada and I know his father as he runs a bar where the guitar-makers go sometimes but I had never heard the son play. Nineteen years old and Álvaro Pérez can play circles around the guitarists I know. It is also worth noting that he plays a guitar made in Granada (way to go!) by Rafael Moreno and it sounded great. If he can find the time we hope he will be playing for a promotional video for the book about the Granada guitar-makers.

The guitarist didn’t play his pieces in this order but here is the written programme of last night’s concert:

Farruca Rafael Ramírez Vílchez baile
Fantasía y Granaíana Álvaro Pérez guitarra
Tarantos Antonio García Bermúdez cante

intermission

Tientos-Tangos Antonio Garcia Bermúdez cante
Rondeña y Guajira Álvaro Pérez guitarra
Cantiñas Rafael Ramírez Vílchez baile

Joaquín Clerch

Posted on 06/04/2014 by johnray

Once again my thanks to Gloria Medina for bringing such excellent guitarists to this series of concerts at the Granada Conference Centre. Last night’s concert was a very intimate affair, with about 80 or 90 people and a space very well suited to the guitar. Joaquín Clerch claims a strong connection with Granada and he made it feel more like a private audition for family and friends. The programme was varied and excellent with some of the composers I love to hear on the guitar: Bach and Piazolla. Joaquín paid his respects to Paco de Lucia with Fuente y caudal and played a beautiful version of Alfonsina y el mar.
On the other hand he introduced Ginastera’s sonata as one of the greatest pieces ever written for guitar but I have to say that it didn’t move me. The encores were very nice, Guajira para mi madre and “La comparsina de Lecuona” as he called it.

The Torres rosette

Posted on 30/03/2014 by johnray

As you saw in the last post I can inlay the mosaic pieces along with the veneer lines into the channel in the top in one step. However, the rosette on the Torres guitar I copy has a lot more lines, mother-of-pearl and some herringbone which needs to be placed so the “arrows” meet on the centre line of the top. Years ago when I was having trouble with a wide rosette Rafael Moreno told me about the technique of glueing the rosette into a different piece of wood and then cutting it out and inlaying into the top. From there to using plexiglass was a short step. The problems I was having at the time were due to the swelling of the rosette with the glue and the more lines there are the bigger the problem. So I take the herringbone out of the set of veneer strips that you see above and replace it with plastic spacers which don’t stick to the wood and glue the whole rosette into the plexiglass just as if it were the top. Glueing in the herringbone is then a simple task once the glue is dry and I can put it exactly where I want it. Once again I think that Torres (and other builders) must have done something similar because otherwise how can you get the two herringbone points to meet exactly at one of the mother-of-pearl rectangles?

Rosette-making

Posted on 22/03/2014 by johnray

This is not a tutorial but rather a few photos for those of you who like to see how things are made. Above you can see a number of .5 mm veneers of 3 different species of wood glued up. For the rosette I am using now I have to make three different sandwiches. Strips, which will be thinned to about 0.5 mm, are cut off of each one. I then give each strip the very slight wedge shape that you can see by looking ot the thicknesser in the photo below. Usually this tool is used to thin purfling strips by pulling them through using a different blade. The next step is to glue the strips together in a round mold which ensures that each section (tile) will butt up against the next and conform to the inner and outer circumference. I took another photo after I took the clamps off and cleaned up the end grain so that you can see everything more clearly. Making rosettes is a lot of work but it is quite a simple way of doing it. Now each slice is cut off and you can place them end to end to make a full circle with the diameter of the centre of your rosette. The first time you do this there is some trial and error or geometric calculations to do. Working this way you can inlay the strips and the tiles all at once. You want a reasonably tight fit so you have to put the veneer strips in first and then force the tile in between so that the strips are pressed against the walls of the channel. The last photo is the finished project taken from a flamenco guitar which is now at Casa Luthier in Barcelona. I have made a few other rosettes but have been using this one for many years. I don’t play around with new rosettes the way some makers do because I get enough variety with my historic reproductions.