Nillo86's Last.fm Journal

Finished with last.fm

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:23:05 +0000

This is a good bye post to last.fm. My user account will still be active, and I will keep using last.fm for a lot of stuff, but not anymore for posting.

Thank's to Foxytunes I will now be able to post about music from my own blog. Now, musicians will not only be referred from last.fm, but also from many other sites.

You can follow me only if you understand Spanish, in Es Diferente.

See you all there!

Am I getting to old, or what?

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:14:44 +0000

I am starting to get depressed about the recent splits I am hearing from.

I announced in previous posts the split of band Molotov. Therefter, the death of El Fary,Manzanita, Rocío Jurado.

Today, I have to announce the split of Mártires Del Compás, definately one of my favourite bands ever.

They claim in this post, and also here that the band has decided to go forward without Chico, the singer and now former leader of the band.

They also claim this is all due to the irresponsibility of Chicho... I kind of believe this. The more artist you are... the more cabrón you become?

RIP Horteradas Billy

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 23:01:59 +0000

The term horteradas has been an argument in several meals in company of my family: how to translate it to English? Well, in actual fact, you simply cannot. Something like mainstream, or common, perhaps.

In Spanish music, "las horteradas" have a place of their own. When summer time approaches, record companies launch quite a few dancing horteradas, so that all happy Spaniards can all sing them in the cars, pubs, at the beach, ipods, while having a shower. Every Spaniard has a Summer milestoned with a canción hortera.

Yesterday, El Fary died of a lung cancer. He was a media phenomena, brought to fame by his smile and the performance of la copla, a Spanish genre. No Spaniard will forget his song from his post-Copla era Torito Bravo (the translation is easy to work out, oder?

And not so long ago - best to see their biographies in last.fm pages -, Manzanita and beautiful Rocío Jurado also left us for better life. Both come from real flamenco roots, the first one from Malaga, the latter one from Chiclana.

Why do I post about these guys? Well, it shocks me how real masters of the most complex music genre, jumped to the horterada genre. It is obvious that they were seeking money, but there is more than that. The way they sing horteradas and flamenco just inspires something that the rest of the singers simply cannot immitate. The "quejío" they stick out their voices, no matter the song, is something exceptional that no other artist can improve.

Also, they are well known for their extreme sensitivity of their philosophy, as well as for a controversial private life (just for the sake of comparison, think of James Brown). Yet, you will find real horror songs of these guys, as well as fantastic ones.

Definately, something inherent in their genes. Masters of all masters, I sincerely admire them all, and have them in my personal musical olympus.

To give you an idea, Alejandro Sanznowadays would be the equivalent to these guys. However, he belongs to a globalized era, which stops him from having the flare of the other artists mentioned in this post.

Ole!

Amparanoia "unplugged"

Wed, 30 May 2007 09:49:47 +0000

I just got a notification that "Radio 3, the Spanish public radio "alternative channel", will broadcast Amparanoia's unplugged session "Canciones Desnudas", which is taking place at Madrid's venue "La Boca del Lobo". The program will take place tomorrow May 31st at 22:00 pm. Let's see what kind of concert did I miss!

Canciones Desnudas is a very interesting concert cycle that the people from La Boca del Lobo are driving forward, to highlight the main voices behind some superb bands: Amparo Sánchez, from Amparanoia, Chicho Ocania from Mártires Del Compás, Sabino Méndez - a musician surrounded of film nostalgy - and Xoel López, from Deluxe.

The cycle Canciones Desnudas is presented by Diego A. Manrique, a legend within Radio 3, and the bridge for the above mentioned broadcast.

Roots and joy

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:13:28 +0000

This post came to my mind in the minute I played Fela Kuti, a great Nigerian saxophonist I admire for his natural, warm, funky tone, but which I feel impossible to interpret from my inside. I get his soul, but not his roots.

The funny thing is that roots are not only related to your area of birth, but also to the different stages of your life. For instance, my memory sings me some childhood tunes like Walt Disney's Jungle Book songs.

I admit that, after children youth, I jumped directly onto Mocedades, a famous Spanish mainstream music group which was more appropriate of those aged 50 than myself. From this, I switched onto AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Scorpions and Alice Cooper. There on, I explored a little pop music with a-ha's Take On Me and Madonna's La Isla Bonita, but not for long, as a nice present from my dad (which was my current tenor saxophone) made me dig the jazz.

Not even today, can I play jazz as I should, but I still love it. While living in Perth (Scotland) I studied intensively classical music, remarkably Alessandro Marcello Oboe concert in D-, and then I discovered flamenco in Edinburgh, exactly as I describe it in this previous post. What I observed with flamenco is that music is not about studying but opening your ears and soul, and passing it over to generations as they do it in flamenco, by performance and joy in good friend or family parties. Surely like Fela Kuti does.

In a given period of time, my soul asks me to revisit all these styles, with a strong magnet like attraction to flamenco fusion or music that makes me dance. The first one because it is a music that I took in with greatest passion, and which coincides very much with my roots: fun, passion about my country, and passion to exploring all good vibrations from out there. The latter one because I love joy and partying with my friends, a fact that involves cheering music.

Listen to your roots and let them drive you. Listen how others drive on this path. Enjoy exploring into music from others but never forget where you come from and what your joys are. Like pacorafiki says: be good, be bad, just BE.

Smashing the PA is bad guys, very baaaaaaaaaaaad.

Thu, 8 Feb 2007 20:15:14 +0000

Last Monday, I had the pleasure to join the concert of the Toasters and Go Jimmy Go. I had already watched them once in the Zakk, also in Düsseldorf.

In this occasion the event was at Stone in Ratinger Hof. This venue is meant to be a milestone for Punk in the 80's. The place is cool for this kind of gigs. Good location, small, can host about 150 people facing directly onto the stage, the sound was simply perfect and the sound engineer deserves big congrats.

Go Jimmy Go did really cool, they were all dressed with The Toasters T-shirts being very (even too much as their music is also great) conscious of their supporting. The band rocks and I have to congrat the tenor sax player, singer and guitarist. Sorry to "discriminate" as the others were also great, but that is what my ears - those of a saxophonist - captured most remarkably. Their music, particularly their chorus, was very Jamaica oriented, always great for ska.

One of the most impressive members of The Toasters is their bass player (even most impressive is that I was unable to find out in the web the names of the members of the band), who makes the band grove in great solid and really enjoyable rhythms, while introducing some real good "toasting" in their songs. But what amused me most was the guitarist, main singer and leader attitude towards a crowd who did not stop bouncing to each other, leading to knock microphones down and so on "smashing the PA is bad, guys, it is baaaaaad" like a mum would say to her kid. It showed great roady experience. They never lost their sense of humor. In fact, last year a colleague of mine said to him "you are old", I though he would not like it, and he replied "you are my friend!"

From the "bouncers", mostly teenagers willing to enjoy at 200%, the solidarity among them was remarkable in picking up the people that fell into the floor, one after another (always the same three where the floor lovers). Their joy was great, mine too but from a higher, safe place.

Saxophonist has improved dramatically since last year, and really breathes from New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble saxophonist Freddy Reiter's style.

I summarize saying that these guys play a Ska which clearly visited New York and loves the Rock and Roll. Therefore it grooves, it rocks, and it grants great fun to spend well your adrenaline. Go Jimmy Jazz are surely supporters worth listening to, definately ideal in this gig.

Boom! Universal cocktail Molotov

Tue, 6 Feb 2007 20:47:54 +0000

Awful news, no doubt about it. This article (in Spanish) is a serious shock for all fans of one of the greatest mexican rock bands ever.

According to the article from Univision, dating from 25th of January Molotov splits up claiming unpayable debts with their record company Universal.

The article does not provide details of the debt amount, while the band claims that it is the only way forward, and that "piracy is the only way to make earnings". The situation is controversial due to the band's contractual situation with Universal, in which future LP releases are included.

Universal and music business men, do you think to be free of blame of this happening? You are there not only to make earnings, but to MANAGE music and musicians, make the most of them for us to enjoy. This the value we pay for! Molotov claims "the only way to move forward would have been to promote live concerts, but the management has not been very supportive on this matter".

Sure the digitalization of music has harmed the music industry as it was, call it piracy or else. Does the industry still think that making plastic CD copies is the main source of income? It will work for the big promotions, and never for the "long tailed" music.

Meanwhile, the official site of Molotov publishes " As of now here in molotov.com.mx we cannot confirm or negate the rumors that have been circulating in the past days of a possible break-up of the band. Such rumors have been circulating in several media outlets, but nothing is 100% sure. More information soon...", and Universal keeps quiet - wow, what a surprise!-.

Record companies, please do your job: MANAGE, be creative, and give us customers what we want.

Molotov, I am in pain to hear about this; as Maceo Parker would say: we love you.

"Jóvenes flamencos": how it happenned, what it brought to us

Sun, 4 Feb 2007 14:01:04 +0000

Back at the time when I wrote this post inspired by Ketama, barewires asked me to develop on the subject. I have made an attempt to structure my memories from 10 years ago, when I fell in love with flamenco. And this is what this post will be about, and I will not pretend to give accurate details such as dates and so on. For real flamenco history, I recommend that you visit sites such as this one http://www.esflamenco.com/enindex.html or many others that you will find easily by typing the word flamenco in any search engine.

The revolution of what in the nineties got the name of "Jóvenes Flamencos" is nothing but a natural evolution of traditional flamenco music exposed to other western music styles, which peak took place in the 90`s.

I discovered flamenco with the film "Flamenco" by film maker Carlos Saura. I strongly recommend it to understand how it all happened and, what follows in the post really can be seen there, together with dancing, essential for full understanding of this genre.

It can be said that the impulse of flamenco to new sounds took place in the voice and guitar playing of Camarón de la Isla and Paco de Lucía, executed by a very wise, business and artist oriented father of Paco.

They released many albums to be quoted here, but I recommend to get hold of Potro de Rabia y Miel, from 1990 to get an insight of the achievement of the musical work of these two artists.

They played regularly together until late 1970's, and occasionally returned to play together, as the above mentioned album proves. Paco de Lucía streched his knowledge to jazz setting up Paco de Lucía Sextet, originally made up of Jorge Pardo on flute and soprano sax, Carles Benavent on threadless bass, Rubem Dantas on percussion - by the way, this is THE GUY that, together with Paco, made a place of the Cajón Flamenco in the music, an instrument they discovered in Perú during their tours -, Pepe de Lucía on "cante" (singing), Ramón de Algeciras second guitar - these two, brothers of Paco -, and Jaquín Grilo on dance/percussion.

In the meantime, Camarón got together with Tomatito, yet another talent from Almería which nowadays works with jazzmen such as Michel Camilo.

Also at this time, Pata Negra, a band lead by the brothers Raimundo Amador and Rafael Amador, started exploring flamenco and rock&roll. While less intellectual, their music really rocked. It is really worthwhile to check out the documentary "El Ángel" to understand the role of the Amador family in flamenco, and also explore the gipsy culture. It simply fantastic, and unveals a view of their habits which not even most Spaniards are aware of.

For those who do not know, flamenco music belongs to the Spanish gipsies, which have a (very strong) culture of their own.

Meanwhile, other artists such as Manolo Sanlucar, Carmen Linares, Enrique De Melchor, Jose Mercé with guitarist Moraito and a long lists of etceteras were doing some excellent work. Most visible was that of Lole Y Manuel, a duet and matrimony which Lole's beautiful voice took as far as to record an album with the Spanish National Orchestra. A song from this recording can be heard in Tarantino's soundtrack of Kill Bill.

In 1992, Camarón passed away. The nostalgy and love for what he represented put upside down the flamenco world, and the "Jóvenes Flamencos" emerged with great passion. At this stage, it is crucial to mention Ketama, which incorporated salsa rhythms and pop styles to flamenco.

Bailaores (dancers) evolved at the same time. Check out the dancing of Antonio Canales, Sara Baras or Eva la Yerbabuena (use youtube for this). All of them supported by bands which included the popular singers like Potito, Duquende, guitarists such as Gerardo Nunez...

I would like to also mentioned the only band that joint the revolution not with pop, rock or jazz, but with Middle Eastern and North African styles;Radio Tarifa.

I could list an endless list of other great artists from the 90's, but let me now mention what has consolidated in the 2000.

In this decade, the euphoria that surrounded Jovenes Flamencos has calmed down, and in fact bands such as Ketama have finally split. Fernando Trueba's film http://www.calle54film.com/ Calle 54 has relaunched some artists by putting together them with other latin jazz musicians. Check out Grammy's winner Bebo & Cigala, a duet interpreting traditional (non flamenco) songs with cuban piano playing by Bebo Valdés, and flamenco singing by Diego El Cigala. Also check out the artwork from jazz pianist Chano Domínguez, supported by sidemen such as dancer and singer Tomasito or percussionist El Piraña.

So what was all this Jóvenes Flamencos about? Well, it has finally overcome the embarrassment that many Spaniards had about this music style - it was thought of as old fashion -, and created great new musical mixes, exporting them to the whole world, and has also captured attention of great jazz musicians such as Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, to mention only a few.

It is also great to check out, via last.fm, the impact of this musical revolution in the popular Spanish bands such as Chambao, Bebe, or Ojos de Brujo, as well as to see that most of our top local bands in Spain, clearly insinuate the soul from the "Jóvenes Flamencos".

Let me also drop you a three videos from youtube, all from Carlos Saura's film Flamenco.

First, what flamenco was all about before, bulerías de Jerez "por fiesta"

What Farruco tought to Farruquito his son, hence how flamenco survives to generations

And what the Jóvenes Flamencos resulted in

last.fm audience only enjoys journals about music?

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:37:13 +0000

Having tried a couple of times to extend my journal to subjects which are not strictly about music tastes, I have come to the conclusion that people in this community are not interested in discussing about the music market or alike, which has materialised in no comments in my posts :-(. Interesting to find out, though I expected that music makers would be motivated to ellaborat on these subjects. Let's wait and see, I may try later! In the meantime, let's go back to what we all enjoy: pure music.

One of my first ever cyber friends, and friend here in last.fm is [VadaniaFlame. She has introduced me to some new music which is worth mentioning:

Nino de Pura

She sent me the Pozo y Caudal album from him. [barewires, watch out for it because it is a good representation of what jovenes flamencos plays. As guitarist, this album is very instrumental and melodic, but really swings. You will find there not only flamenco but also bass, drums, and... well I cannot remember right now what else!

Gerardo Nunez

Absolutely great, I knew him from before. This guy is specialized in playing for flamenco dance, in the most popular companies such as Sara Baras or Eva la Yerbabuena. The album I am now after is Cruce de Caminos, an explosion of Gerardo's collaboration with Perico Sambeat, Spanish Beboper saxophonist, which discovered flamenco - I guess - with the guitarist only a few years ago. I have seen them live, absolutely great, and a completely different approach from the melodic lines of Jorge Pardo, of much gipsier tone.

Miguel Czachowski

Another surprise brought to me by Vadania. This Polish guy mixes flamenco with Indian music. Too soon for me to build a consistent opinion, but trully promises to amuse.

The Michael Brecker Band

What can be said about this great guy? Poor thing is suffering from severe health problems, I hope he makes it to defeat his disease soon. This album is from the years with his brother Randy Brecker. Freaky and, heaptic, myself I prefer Michael in the time from Don't Try This At Home album onwards. It is all about tastes though, and you may love better the earlier one.

Other recent loved artists, which I ocasionally lose from my radar as I do not play them so often are:

Lucky Peterson

I saw him life in Galapagar, Madrid. Absolutely masters of blues, full control of organ and guitar... and show business. Tremendous fun. I have also seen others like B.B. King - who by the way is now ill! -, but no one has been better fun than Lucky, at least in their show business matter (I also loved his musicallity)

Chambao

Great flamenco chill for an easy going evening. My god! now that I think about it Charo the singer just got over a mamma cancer, thank god. I was very pleased with their album Pokito a Poko, with great melodic soprano saxophone lines.

Now it is time to get ready for the Carnival season in Düsseldorf, a big party time. Songs of this season are hated by music lovers, but I love a little fun, and learn my german with them. Also, if you do not sing them, you will simply miss half of the partying! My recommendation, in case you see yourself in a similar situation to mine, is to learn songs from Stephan Remmler. If you want particular suggestions, let me know.

I hope to post something before then, if after, it will be a long time until I recover :o)

We are all music salesmen, yet we do not know

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:27:47 +0000

[This post is not about Mike Stern. If he is referred here is because I make a small recommendation at the end of every post that does not talk about music itself]

Additionally to my interest in making and listening to music, I always wonder what is all that buzz about the music industry. We have all heard about their continuous decrease in record companies sales, retailers shutting down their business, and piracy.

Record companies and their allies claim that all this is making big harm to them as well as artists, instead of exploring the great new opportunites that internet sites such as last.fm bring to the company.

What is our role here in last.fm? Of course we have rejoice ourselves by exploring new music, and establishing new friendly relationships, and crossing borders from our home towns and countries. No tool like this has previously existed that could take so many barriers down. So, what does last.fm do with all this?

You may have realised the recent inclusion (at least I only noticed it recently) of www.7digital.com as direct link to online store. 7digital business model relies on the brake of the former music distribution paradigm. They offer creating an online retail shop to any music group, traditional retail store, record labels, etc. Kind of putting up the whole sales infrastructure sunning. It is therefore ubiquitous to think that we, last.fm users, are now the salesmen. Fellow last.fm colleagues can browse in our profiles, click on a band which either ranks high in our charts, or we have actively recommended in posts or shoutboxes, and simply access the band online store.

Will this replace the older music industry model? Rather, will it affect only that music which up to today has not had the wished visibility?

I get a feeling that solutions of the last.fm type is for consumers that have an active interest in consuming music, while the traditional model will essentially prevail for passive consumers. I have the feeling that both are necessary.

No matter if you are a musician or listener, how do you think this will affect you? How will this also impact remaining services or products coming from music makers, being it concerts, T-shirts, etc.?

My recommendation today are the albums Play, You can read about the album details here (pitty that Amazon does not let you get more insight to the album, and last.fm does not let introduce content nor provides more information about the albums themselves), an album from 2001, and Mike Stern Voices, from 1999 (click here to find out more about the album). First one is rather funky, the second one very melodic. Mike Stern is great for those who love jazz, yet they want a different flare to the bobop era, with more recent pop and electric touches. Enjoy!