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Lives and Legends of Flamenco
the people who have been influntial in flamenco, histories,and characters
464 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1988
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October 20, 2020
One of the three essential books by the greatest authority and writer on Flamenco in the English language, revised up to 1988, this is organised into three sections: Song, Dance and Guitar. Within each section, the biographies are presented chronologically.
Lives and Legends first appeared in 1964, and, as the author says, a lot has happened since then. The problem of how to update it has been solved — in my opinion entirely successfully — by leaving the body of the text unchanged (except for corrections) and presenting the update material at the end. The update is also subdivided by region, and this would make it very hard to find anything, were it not for the comprehensive index.
The depth of knowledge displayed in this volume is staggering. As in his other works, the author is not slow to state his own opinions, but does so in a persuasive rather than a bombastic manner; and although this is designed as a reference book, I read it from cover to cover in two days. The collection of rare photographs alone is almost worth the price, for where else can you see what Sabicas looked like as a teenager? Or Ricardo as a young man? Or Manolo de Huelva with Pericón de Cádiz?
If you don’t get Lives and Legends, either you haven’t got two pennies to rub together, or you just ain’t interested in Flamenco.
Lives and Legends first appeared in 1964, and, as the author says, a lot has happened since then. The problem of how to update it has been solved — in my opinion entirely successfully — by leaving the body of the text unchanged (except for corrections) and presenting the update material at the end. The update is also subdivided by region, and this would make it very hard to find anything, were it not for the comprehensive index.
The depth of knowledge displayed in this volume is staggering. As in his other works, the author is not slow to state his own opinions, but does so in a persuasive rather than a bombastic manner; and although this is designed as a reference book, I read it from cover to cover in two days. The collection of rare photographs alone is almost worth the price, for where else can you see what Sabicas looked like as a teenager? Or Ricardo as a young man? Or Manolo de Huelva with Pericón de Cádiz?
If you don’t get Lives and Legends, either you haven’t got two pennies to rub together, or you just ain’t interested in Flamenco.
Displaying 1 of 1 review