Flamenco Artists

Looking through flamenco recordings in a record store or at various internet sites can be daunting - particularly if you are not familiar with the artists. This handout is intended as a priliminary guide to some of the better flamenco singers from the las 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.

1. Singers

a. The earliest recorded period

These recording range from the teens through the 30s. A good way to get a feel for these is to visit the CAF website ( http://caf.cica.es/flamenco ). Many recordings from this period have been remastered onto CDs.

Juan Breva
Antonio Chacón
Manuel Torre
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 Marchena
Pepe Pinto
Pericón de Cádiz (early recordings)
El Cojo de Huelva
Manolo Caracol
Carmen Amaya
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
Enrique Morente (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
Ketama
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. The latest hits

The following are mainly fusion-inspired artists who are current top sellers. Often their recordings contain some traditional flamenco (although of a quite modern variety), but also a good deal of flamenco-pop. Many tracks have non-standard intrumentalization.

Arcángel
Niña Pastori
Montse Cortés
Estrella Morente
El Cigala
Mártires del Compás
Rádio Tarifa
Miguel Poveda
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
Sabicas
Mario Escudero
Melchor de Marchena
Perico el del Lunar
Diego del Gastor
Manuel Morao
Juan Maya "Marote"
Paco del Gastor
Juan Habichuela
Pepe Habichuela
Ramón de Algeciras
Paco de Lucía
Manolo Sanlúcar
Serranito
Paco Cepero
Pedro Bacán
Joaquín Amador
Enrique Melchor
Tomatito
Rafael Riqueni
Gerardo Núñez
Vicente Amigo
Moraíto
Juan Manuel Cañizares