Artists

Looking through flamenco recordings at various internet sites can be daunting - particularly if you are not familiar with the artists. This handout is intended as a preliminary guide to some of the better flamenco singers from the last 80 years or so. I've divided these into time frames. The older recordings provide a glimpse of how flamenco sounded in the early 20th century. The later ones show how it has evolved into the 21st century.

Please note that this list is not meant to be exhaustive - many great artists will surely be left off, due either to space or oversight. Also, this list needs to be update to include more recent artists

1. Singers a. The earliest recorded period

These recording range from the teens through the 30s. Many recordings from this period have been remastered onto CDs.

Juan Breva Antonio Chacón La Niña de los Peines (Pastora Pavón) Tomás Pavón Aurelio Sellé Juan Mojama b. The Opera Flamenca period

This was the decadent period of flamenco from the 1920s through the 1950s. Nevertheless, several cantaores recorded good flamenco during this time, participating in the opera flamenca trend to a greater or lesser degree (and in some cases not at all).

José Cepero Pepe Pinto Pericón de Cádiz (early recordings) El Cojo de Huelva Canalejas de Puerto Real Mauel Vallejo Niño de Almedén

c. The revival of Cante Gitano

With the advent of Marenísmo, beginning roughly in the 1960s, and continuing into the 1970s, cante gitano became more popular, leading to some hard-driving recordings.

Antonio Mairena Terremoto de Jerez Juan Talega La Fernanda de Utrera La Bernarda de Utrera La Perla de Cádiz La Repompa de Málaga Pericón de Cádiz (later recordings) El Borrico de Jerez El Sordera Rafael Romero La Paquerra de Jerez José Menese Manuel Agujetas El Chocolate Pepe de la Matrona d. The Paco/Camarón revolution

Paco de Lucía and Camarón de la Isla began recording their "colaboraciones especiales" in the early to mid 1970s. In these recordings were the seeds of the the eventual flamenco nuevo movement, but at this point, the flamenco remained quite traditional, albeit with a cleaner, more modern sound.

El Camarón de la Isla (colaboraciones especiales) La Susana Fosforito Pansequito El Lebrijano (early recordings) El Turronero José de la Tomasa Curro Malena Chano Lobato e. Early Flamenco Nuevo

The 1980s-1990s brought a host of new sounds, including outright fusion groups. Recordings in this genre range from fairly traditional, with some non-traditional instrumentation and arrangement, to fusion with salsa and blues groups.

Camarón (later recordings) La Susi Diego Carrasco Manzanita Pata Negra Pepe de Lucía José Soto El Pele El Potito Duquende Enrique Morente (later recordings) José Merce Remedios Amaya f. Modern Traditional Flamenco

Even in the atmosphere of flamenco nuevo , several artists continued to record very traditional flamenco, albeit, with a fairly clean modern sound.

El Indio Gitano Ramón el Portugués Rancapino Carmen Linares Los Zambos Juan Moneo La Maquinita El Capullo de Jerez Vicente Soto Antonio Agujetas g. More recent fusion artists

The following are mainly fusion-inspired artists who were top sellers, as of about 5 years ago. Often their recordings contain some traditional flamenco (although of a quite modern variety), but also a good deal of flamenco-pop and/or fusion experiments. Many tracks have non-standard intrumentalization.

Arcángel Niña Pastori Montse Cortés El Cigala Mártires del Compás Rádio Tarifa Maite Marín

2. Guitarists

Following are some of the major guitarists available on recordings - many have recorded solo records; others are known primarily for accompaniment. Many of the older ones have been reissued on CD. In roughly chronological order:

Ramón Montoya Luis Maravilla Manolo de Huelva Niño Ricardo Félix de Utrera Mario Escudero Melchor de Marchena Perico el del Lunar Diego del Gastor Manuel Morao Juan Maya “Marote” Paco del Gastor Ramón de Algeciras Paco de Lucía Manolo Sanlúcar Serranito Paco Cepero Pedro Bacán Joaquín Amador Enrique Melchor Gerardo Núñez Moraíto Juan Manuel Cañizares