(Diego Amador, piano/guitars/mandola/voice/palmas; Miguel Vargas, doublebass; Luis Amador, percussion/cajon; Joaquin Grilo, rhythmic dance & palmas)
Truly an amazing piano-centered album! Amador is a genuine Roma young man who first brought flamenco to the keyboard when as a child his father had brought home an old reed organ. Self-taught, he has found a way to communicate the age-old flamenco musical culture via the grand piano – occasionally aided by the zapateado (foot-stamping) and palmas (hand-clapping) of traditional flamenco plus a string bassist and some other ethnic percussion.
The variety of sounds is much wider than heard with ordinary flamenco. Some of the pieces sound like piano miniatures of Halffter, Falla and other Spanish composers, but with more fire and passion. Others are lyrical Spanish-flavored ballads, and in the over 12-minute Vivan los Gitanos! one hears at one point what sounds like a standard modern jazz ensemble of piano, bass & drums, yet at another point Amador is playing on the strings inside the piano a la an avant garde performer. He even approaches Cecil Taylor-type pianistic freakouts at a couple brief points. There are brief typical flamenco vocals on a couple tunes, but mostly this is an instrumental album.
I was reminded of the East Indian performers who have recorded ragas on the violin and Spanish guitar instead of the native instruments associated with their style of music. Amador has single-handedly expanded flamenco’s musical language in a manner similar to what Astor Piazzolla did with the tango. The nine tracks are each based on a Spanish or flamenco dance style, but each one is a cross-cultural cocktail of influences – all imbued and activated with the overriding passion of flamenco. The final selection is even a composition by the path-breaking electric bass master Jaco Pastorius, using a tango rhythm.
TrackList: Solea del Churri, Pa Los Viejitos, Comparito, Quiero Olvidarte, A Mi Tio Diego, Vivan Los Gitanos!, Sequiriya de Pildorilla, El Llanto de la Lluvia, Continuum.
– John Henry
