Flamenco Quote of the Day

Who has the key
to the water that falls
from the heavens,
that which opens them,
for I am dying of thirst.
But why do I want water?
I already have it.
I have your mouth, love,
that I kiss in the night.

Quien tiene la llave
del agua que cae del cielo,
la que la abra,
porque yo de sed me muero.
Para que quiero yo el agua,
si el agua yo ya la tengo.
Ya tengo prima tu boca
de noche cuando te beso.

Tanguillos/Popular

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"When God decides that an artist of such quality should be born, capable not only of assimilating the technique necessary for his work but going beyond what in technique is merely mechanical, we realize the enormous difference between that which is the product of teaching and that which wells up of its own personal, creative accord, stimulated by that teaching."

Manuel de Falla/Composer, on the flamenco poet Federico Garcia Lorca

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I'm more interested in the people who inhabit the landscape than in the landscape itself. I can look at a mountain for a quarter of an hour; but then I immediately run and talk to the shepherd or woodcutter who lives on the mountain. Afterward, when I'm writing, I recall these dialogues and up comes the authentic Andalusian expression. I've a huge storehouse of childhood recollections in which I can hear the people speaking. It's poetic memory and I trust it implicitly."

Federico Garcia Lorca/Flamenco Poet

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

I asked a wise man a question,
and he responded instantly.
"I too have fallen in love
and, though I am full
of wisdom... I too cry over
a woman."

A un sabio le pregunte
y me contesto al momento.
"Yo tambien me enamore,
y aunque me sobra el
talento... lloro por una
mujer."

Malagueña/Juan Breva

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Many guitarists find it desirable to obtain a well broken-in guitar, preferably one at least several years old. This is because with age, the guitar, like the violin, gains certain qualities that new guitars cannot possess, such as a complete maturity of the wood, a beautiful, deep mellowness of tone, a settling of the construction into its permanent state, and a definite knowledge that the guitar is, or is not, one of the great ones.

Don Pohren/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"On Good Friday night, when I had wormed my way to a different segment of Sierpes (Street of the serpents), across from a corner bar which had closed in honor of the procession, I watched as an ordinary man pressed in against the wall, shook himself free when one of the great virgins approached. Staring, as if transfixed by the statue, this man threw back his head and poured forth a simple, unadorned song in praise of this mother. It was an extraordinary song, more moving than the first, for it was uttered rather than sung professionally. It was an offering from this man to this intercessor, and it was volunteered in humility and deep feeling. Its authenticity impressed the marchers and they stood at solemn attention as the singer's voice grew stronger and his cry more fervent. Then suddenly he stopped and returned as if in embarrassment, to his former position against the wall. The wooden staves with their iron rings beat against the pavement of Sierpes and the procession continued."

James Michener/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

The gypsy belongs to the entire world, although the world over disowns the gypsy, Agustin said about the Rom diaspora. And Manolio felt unwanted everywhere he went and he was unwanted everywhere he went.

Except by me. I wanted him...that Byzantine
finger-snapping boy.

My Muslim-Christian-Jewish saint of sacreligious yearnings,
Indo Pakistani with at least one line of maybe Otomi
American blood going through his throbbing veins.

My gypsy gazelle sleepy-eyed dreamer whom if I could dream
I would have dreamed up.

I wanted all of him.

Ana Castillo/Author from "Peel My Love Like an Onion"

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

The voice of the singer, especially during the early evolution of flamenco, was a voice 'afila', a rough, typically gypsy voice, or, to use another term, a voice that was 'rajo' or hoarse and which no doubt constant singing, smoking and the consumption of alcohol made even rougher. The sound produced by a flamenco singer is often more like a wail or even a howl, and is hardly calculated to appeal to the refined musical taste or to the individual who, lacking any musical taste, aspires to it.

Gwynne Edwards/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

I asked a wise man
whether to love is
good or bad.
Never having loved
before, the wise man
knew not how to
respond.

Si el querer era
bueno o malo
a un sabio le
pregunte.
El sabio no habia
querido y no
supo responder.

Caña/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

It's not the wind you
hear at your window,
it's the echo of my voice,
that, because I want you
so much, calls out to you in
the middle of the night.

Y no es el ruido del viento
lo que suena en tu ventana,
es el eco de mi voz
que, como te quiero tanto,
a media noche te llama.

Bulerias/Popular

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

How foolish of you,
how foolish
for you to believe
that I love you
as I did before.

Que disparate,
que disparate,
que yo te quiera
igual que antes.

Romeras/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Describing the performance of a gypsy singer near Algeciras in 1955, Laurie Lee noted the way in which his voice resembled 'a naked wail', 'an animal cry, thrown out, as it were, over burning rocks, a call half-lost in air but imperative and terrible'. Anti-aesthetic, no doubt, but full of raw and genuine passion.

Gwynne Edwards/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

I came to Havana
to try some avocado,
and instead found
a man the color of chocolate
in a grass hut.
Beneath a leafy bush
he gave me the delicious banana,
and by the end of the week
he asked for my hand.
"I will not marry you, brother,
'cause I just don't feel like it!"

A la Habana me he venio,
a probar el aguacate,
y me encontre en el bohio
un moreno de chocolate.
Bajo la fronda de un mate
me dio la rica banana,
y al cabo de una semana
el moreno pidio mi mano.
"Con vos no me caso, hermano,
porque no me da la gana."

Guajiras/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Many new, serious artists are entering the field, most of whom are immediately swept up and tainted by commercialism. The tablaos, the cafes cantantes of the twentieth century, are holding a prolonged tug-of-war with opposition groups of purists. Private juergas, the only artery to the heart of flamenco, are attended by only a small minority.

Don Pohren/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Even if they put
artillery cannons
in front of your door,
I would enter it,
though it cost me my life.

Aunque pongan en tu puerta
cañones de artilleria,
tengo que pasar por ella,
aunque me cueste la vida.

Alegrias/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Deep song (cante jondo) is truly deep, deeper than all the wells and oceans of the world. It comes from the first sob and the first kiss.

Federico Garcia Lorca/Poet

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

In these songs of love that we hear, so passionate and sensual, we perceive without realizing it, the plaint of these oppressed races who do not remember precisely the reason for their cry, but do remember their sadness and their lamentations. What race memory? What secular affront? What secret sorrows are deafened under the allegory of these erotic yet religious songs? What drama of an entire people is expressed in this song of wounded love? What drama of a whole people who managed to save only a guitar from a disaster, where they lost their psalms, their altars and their gods?

Rafael Cansinos Assens/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

It makes no difference to me
if you pass by my door
without speaking.
Your salutations will neither
feed me nor quench my thirst.

Que me importa a mi que pases
por mi puerta y no me hables,
si yo no como ni bebo
con los buenos dias de 'naide'.

Alegrias/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

One moonlit night
I sang a song to you,
and the stars in the
heavens began to
weep from joy.

En una noche de luna
una cancion te cantaba,
y las estrellas del cielo
de felicidad lloraban.

Bulerias/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

The sun told the moon,
"go home little tramp,
what is a single woman doing
out at six in the morning?"

El sol le dijo a la luna,
"apartate bandolera,
que a las seis de la mañana
que hace una mujer soltera?"

Rumba Flamenca

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I need to dance - it's my life therapy. I'd rather God graced me with a gentle death while dancing; that would be perfect."

"Necesito bailar como terapia para vivir. Preferiría que el Señor me tuviera deparado una muerte tranquila bailando, sería ideal."

Matilde Coral/Bailaora

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"For us, learning to sing is like learning to talk. We have it in our blood, and your blood boils in you."

Dolores Agujetas/Cantaora

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

I don't know
what kind of spell
your bottom has over me.
When I look at you
it is as if you have
given me opium.

Mas no se que
gracia tienen
tus traseras,
Que te miro y me parece
que das adormideras.

Colombianas/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Its lyrics speak of forbidden desires and its spontaneity makes audiences weep; when fiesta was banned under Franco, flamenco dancers were considered sexually loose...and even now many gypsy girls are not allowed to perform in public.

Vicki Hayward/Writer

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

My love you come so late
and leave so early.
I don't want, heart of mine,
such surgical visits.

Amor mio, vienes tarde
y te vas temprano,
yo no quiero visitas, entrañas mias,
de cirujano.

Seguiriyas/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

According to Pericon, Ava gardner was a great fan of flamenco:
"She often stays after La Zambra closes and asks me to sing some more for her. Many times when I finish I can't help but see that she is weeping with emotion."

Will Kirkland/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

If you want to know
where this song comes from,
just say "Triana."
That should be enough.

Si quereis saber
de donde es este cante,
con decir Triana...
creo que es bastante.


Tangos de Triana/Popular

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

When one considers that flamenco, like the blues, must remain a primitive, intimate art if it wishes to retain its whole foundation of being, there is little doubt which of these forms is preferred by the sensitive and well-versed aficionado. Readers who, after having experienced both forms, find themselves disagreeing with this point are very likely those that hyper-civilization has left with an appreciation for only the polished. In that case, I respectfully suggest they turn to the more refined classical fields.

Don Pohren/Author

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

Make signals to me with your eyes,
for on some occasions
the eyes speak what
the tongue cannot utter.

Hazme con los ojos señas,
que en algunas ocasiones
los ojos sirven de lengua.

Rumba/Popular

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I have listened to many knowledgeable people talk about flamenco, people who knew a lot and people who I listened to with a lot of interest in the barrio where I was born. They said a woman always dances with her hands, with her gestures, with the elegant movements of her body. But that is not the type of dancing some flamencologists want you to do, which consists of making much, much noise with your feet; dancing just for the sake of it as if you were a machine."

Manuela Vargas/Bailaora

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com

Flamenco Quote of the Day

I have a door in my soul
that needs no key,
and I always leave it open.
No one can close it on me. 

Tengo una puerta en mi alma
que no necesita llave,
y yo la tengo siempre abierta
y no me la cierra nadie.

Bulerias/Traditional

www.MatadoraFlamenca.com