Last week the Spanish group, Ojos de Brujo, from Barcelona featuring a lively and contemporary combination of traditional flamenco, rap, and hip-hop visited the Big Apple for a concert. Those of us who were hoping they might venture a little more south to the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area were left to enjoy there latest well reviewed release "Bari" that showcases their talents. The CD is everything critics have said and more, proving that Spanish music from the Mediteranean adapts perfectly to today's innovations. Marina Abad, their singer, gets a lot of attention in this profile from fRoots by Christine Carter:
Marina's female lead definitely shifts both sound and image. Where did she get her flamenco? "Each of us has a story to tell. I'm not Andaluz, yet flamenco, from deep song to rumba, was in my home through my mother. Since I was little I have had this preoccupation with it, singing, learning, listening, going to gigs. In Valencia we created this group of singers and dancers to enjoy ourselves and learn the compás, the rhythms of the palos, the forms. Then I was in this theatre group Aguita Troupe, 11 women involved in playing with the stereotypes women have to face, like always got to look good, be beautiful. Through dance, theatre and music we worked to reveal real emotions, doing lots of street performances, a lot of it using flamenco. Then I was in Formentera singing around different bars with a guitarist, and Juanlú and some of the others heard me and they took me to this car and played me this cassette and I just flipped out. It was something I did not think anyone was doing, so I came to Barcelona. Ojos de Brujo - it's like a present life has given me - that's what it has been like. Life brought us all together."
La Factoria del Ritmo, a site devoted to Spanish and Latin "New" music describes the many elements that come into play in their music placing the group as a "renovation" of the "Nuevo Flamenco" movement of the 70's and 80's:
Con este disco Ojos de Brujo se presentan como un auténtico relevo de la renovación que supuso para el flamenco el llamado "Nuevo Flamenco", una corriente que nació a caballo entre los últimos 70 y los primeros 80, con la irrupción de grupos como Pata Negra y Ketama. Una corriente que dio buenas canciones (y discos) y que conectó la tradición de ese arte musical con estilos como el rock, el blues y el pop por un lado (los ya citados antes o Kiko Veneno, Ray Heredia, etc.) y el jazz por otro (Jorge Pardo, Chano Dominguez, Carlos Benavent, etc.). Ahora parece que "Barí" es una actualización de aquella renovación donde los nuevos estilos con los que mezclar el flamenco son el techno, el jungle o el Hip Hop.
Radio Chango, another excellent music site in Spanish, has a lengthy interview with the band where the diverse influences on their music is vividly described. Marty Lipp in RootsWorld takes a crack at ennumerating their attractions:
Ojos de Brujo (which means "Eyes of the Wizard") uses the drama of flamenco, but carries it along on a steady rhythmic foundation, making the group's music a closer relative to rumba Catalan, the danceable hybrid of flamenco and Afro-Cuban rhythms made famous by the Gypsy Kings. Usually the focus of Ojos' songs are the vocals by Marina "Las Canillas" Abad, which move smoothly from gritty flamenco wail to authoritative rapping; then there are flourishes such as explosive guitar strums or ziggurats of DJ Panko's "scratchismo.""Marina takes her lyrics from the things she sees in the street," said the group's percussionist Xavi. "That's why our songs still have the feel of the city and the flavor of the way people live here."
Having recently purchased the album because of the hype and noise, I can attest to its authenticity and pleasures. One hopes this is a direction Spanish music will now venture towards. Que vengan a Baltimore.
Comments