Juan Cruz – Flamenco Guitarist

Flamenco Guitarist from Spain

Hire A Flamenco Guitarist In London

Spanish guitarist and composer Juan Cruz was born in Madrid, where he learnt guitar with master Alejandro Manzano in keeping with one of the most traditional flamenco guitar schools.

Audio

Tanguillo

Malaguenas

London

His beginnings as a guitarist are dedicated to the accompaniment of flamenco and folk singers and his first partnerships with chamber and folk ensembles and duos. However, he is soon requested to give his first recitals as a soloist.

His first international solo performance took place in the USA in 1994. Since then, he has taken his open-hearted playing and emotive compositions to countries such as Panama, Malaysia, Namibia, Ireland or Hungary before becoming a resident in the UK.

Spanish Guitarist

Throughout his career, he has always conceived music to understand between traditions, cultures, and individuals. He has cultivated his versatility through his frequent collaborations with artists of a variety of genres: classical, jazz, ethnic, folk, rock and electronic on stages, festivals and events in several continents.

He is committed to education too. Apart from his regular guitar lessons, he has conducted seminars and masterclasses internationally and has published many works on Spanish music, mainly on flamenco music, and the flamenco guitar is devoted to.

Apart from performing as a solo musician, he conducts workshops, seminars and music lessons upon request.

Repertoire List

Soleá
Seguiriyas
Bulerías
Rumba flamenca
Fandangos
Alegrías
Malagueñas
Granaínas
Tientos – tangos
Serranas
Marianas
Farruca
Zapateado
Tanguillos
Bulerías por soleá
Nana
Caracoles
Peteneras
Guajira
Taranta
Taranto
Zorongo
La caña
Rondeña

MFL256

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The Flamenco is made up of three crucial parts, guitar playing (guitarra), song (cante), and dance (baile). Flamenco dancing evolved from “toque de palmas” which is the combination of singing and the clapping of hands that the dancing was set to. It Is known to be a very emotional style of dance, given the varied purposes flamenco dancing has; whether the intentions are for it to be entertaining, romantic, or comforting, traditional flamenco dancers rarely received any sort of formal training. However, it was seemed to be more of something that was either passed on or passed down from friends, relatives, and neighbors, depicting the very personal and intimate features of the traditional dance. Whilst most dancers follow ancient tradition in the way in which the flamenco is perform, the use of guitars and other musical instruments have been introduced and has become more popular in modern flamenco. Through physical body movements and facial expressions flamenco dancers express their deepest emotions. They may be seen clapping their hands or kick their feet, snap small percussion handheld instruments such as castanets.

It is difficult to imagine a contemporary flamenco show without the hauntingly percussive accompaniment of the flamenco guitar. The flamenco guitar has come to play an increasingly important role over the years, to the extent that the flamenco solo guitar is an independent genre today with even greater international renown. In comparison to classical guitars, there are many ways to distinguish the difference as the purpose of a flamenco guitar is to be able to produce sharper, loud sonic bursts with a bright punchy sound. As an instrument that plays a crucial role in Spanish traditional music, it needs to be able to hold its own when part of the entirety of the performance and when competing with the energetic dancers as it is designed to cut through the noise of flamenco dancing.

Spain is rich with diverse folk music traditions, the most known genres being Flamenco and Celtic. Despite of this, there are ways in which Arabic ties cross through certain regions of Spain with strong influences on traditional music. The Flamenco is a form of dance and song that originates from and is most commonly associated with Southwestern Spain of Andalusian Roma. However, the roots of flamenco seem to lie in the Roma migration from Rajasthan Northwestern India to Spain between the 9th and 14th centuries. It was through this geographical move and cultural collision where they brought an abundance of musical instruments; tambourines, bells, wooden castanets along with an extensive repertoire of compositions and dances. In Spain, they encountered the rich cultures of the Sephardic Jews and the Moors. Their centuries-long of cultural intermingling produced and created the universally loved and known art form of Flamenco.

Cante, which is Spanish for song, is the essence of what makes Flamenco music. There are three categories that make up cante; cante jondo (profound, or deep), cante intermedio or cante flamenco (intermediate) and cante chico (light). The cante jondo whose structure is usually based upon a complex and ectensive 12-beat rhythm, is thought to be the oldest form. It is characterized by deep and profound emotion that deals with themes of death, pain, anguish, despair, or even religious doubt. The cante intermedio is a hybrid version of song that consists elements of Spanish music styles like the fandango. Lastly, the cante chico, is generally a lot simplistic in rhythm than the other two forms, it still demands considerable technical skill but with much less emotional investment, dealing as it usually does with humour, romance, the countryside, and gaiety. Each song and cante style, is distinguished by a characteristic rhythm and chords structure; yet several types of cante may share the same or similar rhythmic tones but individualise them through accentuation, subtleties and emotional content.

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