Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Sabicas



Augustan Castellan Sabicas, a creative genius of Flamenco guitar in the traditional style. When Paco de Lucia was a young player he met Sabicas and played for him. Sabicas told Paco that he must "create his own sound", and not just copy the Flamenco of his teacher. Paco was very impressed by his visit and took seriously the advice. He played the same two pieces over and over again trying to come up with somethign his own. Eventually he created a new way to play Flamenco guitar, copied by every Flamenco guitarist today.

Sabicas was a creative genius. He invented many extraordinary falsetas and was well liked by all.

Here are some samples from Grisha. They don't contain Sabicas' gritty style.

http://www.grishagoryachev.com/sound/albums/mp3_128/CD2/04solea.mp3

Aires de Puerto Real (I am about 80% done learning this one.)

http://www.grishagoryachev.com/sound/albums/mp3_128/CD2/03bulerias.mp3

Bulerias

Sabicas got his nickname because he liked lima beans as a child, which are called "Habicas". Due to that wacky Spanish lisp, if you say "los habicas" you get something that sounds like Sabicas (thabicath).

Sabicas was a child prodigy who studied under the famous Nino de Ricardo. Like Paco, Sabicas branched out and formed his own style, later coming to America and becoming a concert guitarist.

You can tell by listening to this real track of Sabicas the difference between the modern sound and the more traditional. But you can also hear Sabicas' classical addition to flamenco (something that was deemed as "untraditional" back then as Paco was when he first bent the rules), and keep in mind that the composition/falsetas were in many cases entirely original to Flamenco.

Below is an Alegrias clip- "Solero Gaditano"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve/B000005HA9001004/0/ref=mu_sam_wma_001_004/103-7865323-4539803

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is great music, Aaron.

I just wish I could remember what the name of the movie was.

I like the singing in this culture -- songs that are belted out and god damn passionate.

You should come up with a recommended CD collection.

Aaron said...

The Paco de Lucia Anthologies 1 and 2 are phenomenal.

My favorite Sabicas records I have on vinyl and they have not been made into purchasable CDs. I am looking for a record player so I can record them onto CDs.
Some amazing guitarists today:

Gerardo Nunez
Tomatito
Vicente Amigo
Manolo Sanlucar

Flamencoworld.com has all the info.