Customer Reviews

Feria Gitane

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Heart wrenching!soul slaying! this is the flamenco cd of the century...and probably into the next..Don't know what flamenco was like in the early 1900's, surely not this, but this is the one CD for me...love, happiness, soul, passion, guitar strumming like nobody's business!! voices that come from from beyond -I know I've heard them before, but not quite like this..I know these voices, I know them...

Ricardo Baliardo, also known as Manitas de Plata, started to paly in early 60s and laid the foundation for Gipsy Kings, formed by the sons of José Reyes (his vocalist) and members
of the Baliardo family.
I need only three letters to describe Manitas guitar. WOW. This qualifies to become one's instant personal favorite.
This CD will introduce you to a hidden legend of gypsy guitar god, Manitas de Plata. First, one should NOT compare or expect the class of Paco de Lucia et al., why? the reason is the music itself, where Paco guitar is extremely fine Manitas on other hand is raw. Its more similar to gypsy guitar from Andalucía and the spanish gypsies from southern france.

This product arrived on time and in good condition. It was given to someone else as a gift.

Wish to add a correction to the comment made by the Irish reviewer: I was a teenager going to school in Montpellier [Southern (Midi) France] in 1952 and Manitas de Plata was already famous as a flamenco puro guitarist who lived in this Midi de la France. In fact, he and I shared a same classical teacher: Madame Garrido (Manitas went to her only to get ideas from the classical guitar repertoire for his falsetas). Later, the great master Pablo Picasso, still living in exile near Nice, often invited Manitas de Plata to his mansion to play flamenco for him. I later attended Columbia University in New York where I studied flamenco with Juan de la Mata and Carlos Ramos in Washington, DC, both were founders of the famous La Zambra restaurant in New York where there was an intimate alcove where de la Mata (who has made transcriptions of Sabicas' music) played. Once I was proud of being selected to play solo flamenco, representing Spain, on stage at George Washington U. in an International Night dedicated to the Diplomatic Corps in DC, and later played Spanish music background for a group of poets reading the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca at La Casa de las Bellas Artes in San Francisco.
Bong (Bongo en espanol)