How to dance flamenco, flamenco travel in Spain, flamenco dance students and their experiences, interviews with flamenco artists, translations of flamenco letras (songs) from Spanish to English
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Letras
You've now learned what a cuplé por bulerías is, you've seen the transformation of popular song to cuplé, and today I want to show you one more example. It's Adela la Chaqueta's interpretation of Voy a Perder La Cabeza Por Tu Amor. (I know you'll enjoy her opening and closing dance moves, and if dancing is your thing, stick around because the next two posts will have plenty of that.)
For this second installment of the flamenco cuplé series, I want to show you the transformation of a song from its original form into a cuplé por bulerías. So here is a song famously interpreted by Rocío Jurado. First watch her sing it directly to Lola Flores (watch it all the way through to see what happens between the two of them at the end) then see how Fernanda de Utrera adapts it as a cuplé por bulerías.
Se Nos Rompió El Amor
Maria Alejandra Alvarez-Beigbeder Casas / Manuel Alvarez-Beigbeder Perez
Se nos rompió el amor
de tanto usarlo.
De tanto loco abrazo
sin medida.
In the first installment of the flamenco cuplé series I'll explain what a cuplé is and show you a video example. But let's begin by looking at this one that Ani sang one day during bulerías class on the Flamenco Tour to Jerez. It was so pretty, so I asked her to tell me the words:
¿Quién se ha llevao mi amor?
¿Quién me ha dejao sin nada?
¿Quién se ha llevao todo el sol
que entraba por mi ventana?
Here's a caña letra for you followed by a video of Jesús Carmona (who is coming to Portland in the spring for a show and workshops) dancing.
Caña
Popular
Yo soy como un libro abierto
todo el mundo puede leerme
tú siempre me estás leyendo
pero no has llegado a comprenderme
Malagueñas
Popular
Hincaíto de rodillas
a mi Dios me encomendé
qué remedio buscaría
para olvidar yo tu querer
y me dijo que no lo había
One more Canastera for you to watch, María Terremoto. I can't stop listening to it, especially this coletilla she frames everything with (From Paco de Lucia's Almonte ... I love this chorus so much that I've included two other video versions following hers for you to check out.)
En la marisma con la candela…
Cantan por Huelva y a la Pastora los almonteños
y el corazón se me estremeció en el alma
cogí la manta la eche en el suelo
As a follow up to the last post, today I'll show you a video of Fernando Terremoto's Canastera. Here is one of the letras:
Se van cumpliendo mis sueños
Me recompensa la vida
Mi sangre me dió el talento
y el tiempo sabiduría
Today, a canastera and a video of Camarón...
Canastera
Antonio Sánchez
Arbolea
tú eres el aire
que a mí me lleva
Today's letra(s) comes from Cuatro Soneto de Amor by Rafael de León. This is the second part, which you can see Mayte Martín sing live (Ten Cuidao) in the video below.
Me avisaron a tiempo: ten cuidado,
mira que miente más que parpadea,
que no le va a tu modo su ralea,
que es de lo peorcito del mercado.
I've got a whole song for you today along with a video of Niña Pastori and Falete singing it.
It’s Válgame Dios by Chaboli and Niña Pastori.
Y es la verdad
Querer así es un pecao…
Here's a caña followed by a video of Carmen Mora accompanied by Carmen Linares. (A couple of years ago we studied this dance with Mercedes Ruíz on the Flamenco Tour to Jerez. I can't wait to go back and learn more from her in a couple of weeks on the next tour!)
Caña
Popular
Aquél que tiene tres viñas
y el tiempo le quita dos,
que se conforme con una
y le dé gracias a Dios
Below watch (and be blown away by) Emilio Ochando's award-winning piece Tinevo, which took first place in the XXVº Certamen de Coreografía de Danza Española y Flamenco, where he and three other dancers do their thing with castanets and bata de cola. They dance to this original fandangos by Los Makarines:
Fandangos
Los Makarines
Cantan las hojas,
bailan las peras en el peral,
bailan las rosas,
rosas del viento no del rosal,
y nubes y nubes flotaban,
dormían al ras del aire,
todo el espacio giran con ella,
la fuerza del AIRE.
You're going to LOVE the video below of the Makarines performing sevillanas live. The third copla they sing is an excerpt from this sevillanas and it has to do with the Rocío pilgrimage. Here it is:
Sevillanas (De: Porque El Relente Le Daba)
José Miguel Évora/Isidro Muñoz*
Porque el relente le daba
Le puse mi chaquetilla
Le puse mi chaquetilla
Porque tiritaba y yo la veía,
Ay!
Below you'll find a video of El Sordera singing today's letra and yesterday's coletilla. Enjoy!
Soleá por Bulerías
Popular
Dios va a mandarte a ti un castigo muy grande
Y eso es porque tú te lo mereces
¿Ay por qué me vienes culpando?
Y yo culpa no tengo
Que de ti habla la gente
Here's a coletilla along with a video you'll love of Pastora Galván.
Ay que te quiero
pero de lachi no te lo peno
Tangos flamencos are sensual and playful. Earthy and fun. Grounded and feminine. Tangos is a four-count rhythm and can be one of the most comfortable flamenco rhythms to groove to. Check out this video of La Lupi teaching and rehearsing tangos with the Ballet Nacional de España, and you'll see what I mean. There are a variety of tangos letras of different lengths and subject matter. Here's one for you today followed by video of a very young Estrella Morente signing it.
Tangos
Popular
Cautivaron a una mora
y a España se la trajeron
y en la pila del bautismo
Candelaria le pusieron.
Today in honor of the solar eclipse (which we saw at 99% visibility here in Portland) I give you what is actually a pop song. It's by Lya whose amazing voice you can hear in the video below with Los Makarines.
I'm on a tangos kick as I prepare for the upcoming understanding tangos workshops, so here's one more for you today:
Tangos
Popular
Me voy a meter en un convento
que tenga rejas de bronce,
pa' que tú pases fatigas
y de mi cuerpo no goces.
Chorus from Tangos Retrecheros
María Toledo
No sé que tiene el flamenco
que cuando lo canto
me alegra por dentro
