Seville style orange alert

It's my favourite time of the year again: the orange fruits are all ripe! Love it!

Orange alert in Seville. Photo by Facebook page Paseos por Sevilla

Flamenquito by Pitingo

Antonio Manuel Álvarez Vélez, born in 1980 and known as Pitingo, is a cantaor onubense (flamenco singer from Huelva) and a Latin soul singer. He has worked with many legendary artists and is most popular for being accompanied by Juan Carmona, a French flamenco guitarist. Additionally to bringing flamenco and Andalusian folk music to people, Pitingo has covered many well-known songs by groups and artists such as the Beatles, Badfinger, Roberta Flack, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Stevie Wonder, Bobby McFerrin, Lola Beltrán, the Wailers and Bob Marley. All à la flamenco, of course; and this makes it clearly a flamenquito. You can listen to what it sounds like watching the following YouTube videos.

So, below are some examples of Pitingo's way:

Roberta Flack's 1973 number one hit Killing Me Softly With His Song written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel in the 1960s:

Donna Summer's 1983 hit single She Works Hard For The Money:

Stevie Wonder's 1984 song I Just Called To Say I Love You:

Gloria Gaynor's 1978 hit song I Will Survive written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris:

Bob Marley and the Wailers' 1974 reggae song No Woman, No Cry:

Badfinger's 1970 song Without You:

A couple of more things: here's his cover of Yesterday and here of Let It Be, songs by the Beatles released respectively in 1965 and 1970. In Pitingo's repertoire there is also Bobby McFerrin's 1988 song Don't Worry Be Happy. Alas, there's no good video for this one. But here you have Pitingo's version of Cucurrucucú Paloma, a 1954 Mexican folk song written by Tomás Méndez.

Flamenquito, what's that?

I recently found out there are two different words used for the music performed by cantaores (flamenco singers) and tocaores (flamenco guitarists): flamenco and flamenquito, too. I was intrigued at first, but then I talked to some friends and did a little thinking. It seems I have worked out an understanding of the term "flamenquito". It was obviously clear to me from the very beginning that, as "-ito" is a typical diminutive affix in Spanish, it should be something considered to be of minor importance, of far lesser value or priority to the audience than Andalusian folk song, flamenco. I must say it's taken as not an ambitious genre, but loved nevertheless. You could define it in terms of folk pop, folk rock, folk metal, folk punk, folk rap, folk reggae, folk fusion, or whatever folk-inclined music you can think of, but it has to answer to some characteristics. It has to have at least one of the following features: el cante (singing), el toque (guitar playing), los jaleos (shouts of encouragement), los pitos (finger snapping), las palmas (rhythmic hand clapping) or playing a wooden box drum, the cajón. 

It'll do: cajón technique by Guillermo García. Image taken from todocajon.com

Now, the singing must be done or refrained by hoarse-sounding flamenco voice, with metallic echoes. Then again, you can perform All My Loving without any changes of any kind if you take care of bringing in handclaps after every phrase to make it a flamenquito. Just that simple! Or not. Anyhow, this would be best explained by an example. Let's take Frankie Valli's 1967 single Can't take my eyes off you covered by the hearty Seville-born singer Alba Molina, daughter of Lole and Manuel, an Andalusian musical duo that has performed flamenquito music since 1972 (listen to Tu mirá from the Kill Bill 2 soundtrack to get an idea of their work). Here they are, the mentioned and some other examples of Alba Molina's style: 

From these to my very favourite flamenquito song ever: Bohemian Nights by Navajita Plateá from Jerez de la Frontera; though I wouldn't say that its authors in their attempts to create music were an out-and-out brilliance, but in songwriting as everywhere else, sometimes just one work is more than enough. Take a look for yourselves: click here for a beautiful piece brought to the stage with Ozzy Osbourne look (who knows why on earth) or watch the videos below: 

Let's continue our tour with music by Maíta Vende Cá, a group from San Fernando (Cádiz) led by the singer Antonio Caña:

And a popular female voice from the same place, San Fernando (Cádiz), Niña Pastori: 

Next, we shouldn't cold-shoulder the boy bands. There is Los Rebujitos, a duo of young guys formed and active in Tarifa, at the very south of Cádiz. You should know I'm absolutely mad about the last of the following videos, I watch it once a month. No overstating here, I'm afraid. Can't get quite enough of the heated singing of the comparsa guys! Here we go: 

Not to mention, Estrella Morente from Granada. Of course, we could no way call all her work a flamenquito, for the pureness it expresses. She has worked with noted tocaores (flamenco guitarists) Juan Habichuela and Pepe Habichuela performing Cante Jondo as well, singing por Bulerías, Tangos, Siguiriyas and Soleares. But she has made some less pretentious music, too:

To go further, why not face our eyes to the direction of Málaga, since there's an all awesome electronic flamenco band Chambao:

What else? You could also listen to Fiesta por Tangos and Fiesta por Bulerías by Samara Vargas, a young singer from Tomares (Sevilla), or watch these videos: 

I would even present to you Los Aslándticos, a fusion group from Córdoba, for I think there's some flamenquito vibe to their style, and I haven't probably gone too far with it, as they have themselves said on a TV programme A Solas that they don't care how they are defined. Here they are for you: 

Feeling fuelled by the Fuel Fandango

Last night I happened to watch a YouTube video of Alejandro Acosta remixing a song by Los Aslandticos:

I literally almost peed my pants of laughter. Anyway, this is how I discovered Fuel Fandango and I'm astonished to say the least. What in the world makes me say that? There seems to be nothing special about them at all, nothing remarkable, right? But there is, and I prove you wrong. Fuel Fandango is a Spanish duo formed by a Cordovan singer Nita and a DJ/producer from Lanzarote, Alejandro Acosta. They two met in 2008 in Córdoba and have so far been creatively active there. Yet surprisingly, the music they make is nothing like what you might expect to hear. First, check out this subtitled video clip on their feelings about “their town”:

Now, you must see them to appreciate the influence their work has on me:

For me it's very rare to experience that kind of phenomenon, namely, to see a brown-eyed dark-haired fan-waving unmistakably Spanish couple and, at the same time, to listen to their music produced in Andalusia that has no flamenco touch to it. Fuel Fandango is one of these few bands that despite their not working in isolation from overly intense and invasive cultural influences they have managed to be unique. I can only imagine what it takes to be so refreshingly, excitingly, successfully different. They say it's not easy. They no doubt enjoy doing what it is they do and love doing, although they get that they are „probably different“ saying: but actually it's difficult to be here, probably different. Hear them out: