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 Washington DC area Flamenco Guitarist |
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Editor's note: For the past couple of months I've been meaning to put together bios of DC area flamencos. In particular, I asked my friend Ramin (pronounced rah-MEEN) to help me put together a little bio about him. He made it easy for me: he did all the work and wrote it out and supplied some very nice pictures too! Thanks Ramin! Enjoy! [photo: Me and Tati]
I was lucky to have a few musician friends when I was in high school. That encouraged me to learn an instrument. I started learning classical guitar which I liked a lot. But it just didn't cut it for me. So I practiced on and off and didn't take it seriously. When I was in college, I joined a rock band which was a lot of fun, but didn't do anything for me musically. [photo: My friend/teacher Amir, at la Candela]
[photo: Edwin and Tati at la Candela]
[photo: Edwin was rehearsing for his show at Amor de Díos]
[photo: Edwin on stage on his opening night at Casa Patas]
My involvement in the DC Flamenco scene [photo: My friend Sergio, a dancer]
Both Richard and Michael have been very kind to me and they taught me things whenever they saw my starving face. I learned how to play for dancers by watching those guys and sometimes playing with them. I also learned from the teachers that I play for in dance classes. [photo: José Arenas (guitarist), Sergio, Amelia, Edwin, Marta at Casa Patas)]
I hope to be as active as possible in the Flamenco community in the DC/Baltimore area, since as you may have guessed, I can't get enough of it. Contact information I would love to hear from you, to get together and play (if you are a guitarist/singer) or if you are a dancer and you need a guitarist to practice/perform with. (Of course, try Michael and Richard first, since they are much better than I am.) You can email me at or call me at (703) 969-5005.
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I was born and raised in Iran, but I really did my "growing up" here in the US. I started playing the guitar when I was in my late teens. No one in my family plays an instrument which is a shame, but they are musical; both my dad and my sister sing.
I always knew about Flamenco, but I never looked at it as a specialized art form. I always thought of it as "Spanish music" and believe it or not, for a long time, I thought that the Gipsy Kings' music was Flamenco and that's all there was to it.
About two and half years ago, when I lived in southern California, I was in a guitar store in Irvine and I was playing the Rumba on a guitar in the acoustic guitar room. Some guy walked in and noticed me. He looked Chinese or Vietnamese. After a few second browsing, he came to me and said, "Oh, you are playing the Rumba!" I thought to myself, "... What the hell does he know?" and I said "Yes." He then said, "You play Flamenco?" Thinking that Rumba is Flamenco, I replied, "Yes." He looked pleased and said, "So, you play Alegrías? Soleá? ... Bulerías?" and my answer was "Huh?!?"
I felt so ignorant, only because I was, up until then that he started explaining and playing the guitar. He turned out to be Vietnamese, his name is Michael and he was a music student at California State University, Fullerton then. We became friends and almost every Friday and Saturday nights we went to see a Flamenco show in a place called "Alegro", in downtown Long Beach.
I started getting to know people and started taking lessons. I knew from day one that Flamenco is for me. I have been playing every day since then. I stopped listening to everything else and gave away most of my non-flamenco CDs which were just eating dust. I feel that I have found what I was always looking for.
When I came here, I called Michael Pérez to take lessons from him. He referred me to Richard Marlow. Richard taught me the compás and some falsetas. He is truly the best teacher I have ever had.
I have played for the following teachers in their classes and some of their performances: