Flamenco dancer Sarah Hart and guitarist Miguelito at Las Tapas. August 31, 2010 (photo by Stan Peters)

It's 11-something pm on Wednesday as I type these words. My day off. Saw a movie (The American starring George Clooney). Spent a few hours reading an interesting book: "Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters." Got home around 10:30pm. I hadn't touched the guitar all day, but trust me I will make up for it after I finish this blog entry, for sure!

That picture above was from my Tuesday night gig at Las Tapas with dancer Sarah Hart. My thanks to photographer Stan Peters!

So I went to support my fellow flamencos this evening in another venue. And as it turned out, one of the dancers onstage was one that I had worked with the night before. Naturally I was already very familiar her tientos choreography but what made it especially interesting was that guitarist Behzad Habibzai's accompaniment had a couple of musically interesting twists that I hadn't heard before. I was very intrigued!

Understandably many professional dancers work out choreographies ahead of time and pretty much stick to them. And of course, they'll have bits of filler-choreography ready to pull out at a moment's notice, when the singer unexpectedly extends his letras, when the guitarist plays a longer falseta than expected, or if the dancer forgets her choreography and needs a few seconds to recall it. It happens. That's just how it is. But the important thing to realize is that the more experienced dancers can dance the same choreography with a different guitarist playing the same compás with different musical interpretation.

As for myself, the vast majority of my baile accompaniment patterns are based on the traditional ideas that everyone plays with a bit of my own interpretation mixed in. Other things that I play for dancers have come up organically in the moment when my concentration lapsed and I made a "mistake" that actually turns out sounding pretty cool which later becomes part of my repertoire. And sometimes I "steal" ideas from my fellow guitarists I see live or hear on recordings. And of course, I might actually painstakingly work out some musical phrases at home and later sneak them in during one of my shows to test them out. The dancers (and singers) do it to me so why I can't I do it to them too? :-)

There aren't that many guitarists that perform on regular basis here in DC. But what's cool is that each one has his/her own recognizable style. It happens eventually as you master the basics, try out ideas that speak to you and eventually you develop a personal "sound." But when you do this for a living (or as a serious hobby) it's very easy to fall into the rut of playing the same things all the time. I'm not saying it's a bad thing necessarily. If you play the same stuff all the time and it sounds good, expresses what you want to say musically and inspires the dancers and singers, by all means do it!

But ultimately you want to grow as an artist. I certainly do! Unfortunately I can't afford to go to Spain to study as much as I'd like. But I can still listen to and study recordings, watch videos, jam with my fellow guitarists and even schedule a lesson with one of them!

But as I realized this evening, going out to support my fellow flamencos turned out to be a lesson in itself. I left with a couple of musical ideas to play with, a fresh take on something very familiar, an extra boost of inspiration.

I'm speaking from the guitarist's perspective of course. But I'm sure the same principle applies to dancers too! So while I continue to incessantly tweet, blog, and announce in Facebook and my website all my shows and the shows of colleagues, go out there and check out the shows. Not just to support your fellow flamencos...but to actually learn something new.

Anywayz, I'm going to keep this blog short. I can't wait to play my guitar!

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That's me, Miguelito, in June 1995 at the Washington Folk Festival (photo by Stan Peters).

It's 11:55am on Monday as I type these words. I'm not going to lie. Summer has been fun so far, but not much to report flamenco-wise. I mean over the past few months I could've easily cranked numerous blog entries about the the same people, places and events you've read about before. Come to think of it, that's pretty much what I do most of the time anyway.:-) But regardless I've been sticking to my primary mission: to keep the local community of what's going on (even if there isn't much going on).

Lately, my longtime photographer friend Stan Peters has been uploading some old flamenco pics to Facebook. "Old" is relative term of course. But I mean old as in from the 90's. That pic of me you see above was taken in 1995 at the Washington Folk Festival. I was 28 at the time and having the time of my life. I was pretty much the only young 20-something guitarist in the DC area at the time.

The other "young flamenco guitarists" at the time like Richard Marlow, Ramin Rad and Behzad Habibzai didn't arrive on the DC flamenco scene until a few years later. In the meantime I was getting calls left and right and doing everything from the low-paying and non-paying street festival gigs to the full-fledged theatre performances. (Full-disclosure: I had a full-time office job too so I could afford to take on low paying and free gigs at the time.)

While I was thrilled with the idea of getting paid for doing what I love, money wasn't my main motivation. It was, and still is, a lot of fun playing guitar for dancers (and singers too when we are lucky to have them). And it's an added bonus to perform for a live audience. The idea of sharing this most beautiful art form with others motivates me again and again each time I'm about go onstage.

[photo on the right by Stan Peters, taken at the DC Feria de Sevilla in 1997]

Fast forward to current day and things are pretty much the same. I'm a little older and presumably a little wiser too. :-) I still get that thrill each time I go onstage (I'm not exaggerating...I really do!) and money, despite the hard economic times, is still not a motivational factor.

But 2011 is approaching and June 1st of that year will mark 20 years that I've been involved in the DC flamenco scene! So while 20 is just an arbitrary number, it's a good time as any to reflect on where I've been and where I'm going and to think about how the DC flamenco scene has evolved.

Yeah I admit that seeing pictures of myself from the 90's has got me in a nostalgic mood. But enough about me. What do I have in store for you, my loyal readers? Well for starters I'm scheduling interviews with some of the older generation of DC flamencos some of whom were active in the scene long before I arrived in 1991! It'll be very interesting to get their take on how things have evolved, how things have changed and how things have remained the same over the past 20 years.

And while I'm at it, I'll start interviewing some of the current younger generation of flamencos and not just the performers and teachers, but also the local students and aficionados. Not all of us are destined or striving to become full-time artists but in a way being an amateur is in a way a more noble approach: when the amateur does flamenco, it's purely for the love of the art and etymologically, amateur does mean lover anyway.

Anywayz, let's get back to the regular blogging format and let me talk about the pics you see here from my gigs the past week or so...

Continue reading "Almost 20 years in the DC flamenco scene!" »

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Flamenco dancers Emily Mazzotti and Sara Candela performing Sevillanas at L2 Lounge in Georgetown. July 1, 2010

It's almost 11pm on Monday as I type these words...my second blog entry in one day! This past Thursday International Club of DC hosted "An Evening in Madrid: Flamenco and Paso Doble Dance Performance" at L2 Lounge in Georgetown.

For the flamenco portion of the evening the featured artists were Emily Mazzotti and Sara Candela, both of whom danced beautifully!

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Furia Flamenca members Karina, Estela Velez (director), Evlyn, Sylvia, Amy and Lauren opening the show with Sevillanas. June 30, 2010

It's 9-something pm on Monday, the day after Independence Day, as I type these words. I'm behind on blogging as you know, yada yada yada...but hey, cut me some slack: I've been busy performing! And I'm just one of those types that can't just blog like it's a job. I have to be in the mood. Ugh...yeah I know. Us artists can be so temperamental. :-)

So this past Wednesday, DC-based dance company Furia Flamenca gave a free performance at The Forum at Harman Center for the Arts in Chinatown. With camera in hand, I did what I do best: document the DC flamenco scene wherever and whenever. Being the struggling artist that I am, when admission is free, you can bet I will cover it! :-)

Continue reading "Furia Flamenca at The Forum at Harman Center for the Arts - June 30, 2010" »

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