1954: The First Anthology of Flamenco

This first anthology was a collection of recordings of the basic flamenco forms of flamenco. This intention was more difficult than might appear at first sight due to the popularity of Opera Flamenco, and its most important representative: Pepe Marchena. A previous attempt had been made to preserve the old traditional otherwise known as the pure, unadulterated forms. This attempt was made by Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca in their ‘concurso de cante flamenco’ in 1922. However, this competition had little effect on the growing popularity of Opera Flamenco which obliterated any other interpretation that happened to be in its path.

Consisting of three twenty-five cms. records, this first anthology portrays a wide variety of cantes. The organizer of the records was the guitarrist Perico el del Lunar.

D.E. Pohren, in his book The Art of Flamenco, tells of the circumnstances that led to the making of this anthology:-

“According to Perico himself, when the french record company first approached him about the anthology he couldn’t believe they were serious. This was around 1950, when flamenco was still floundering badly. About the only artists working at that time were precisely Perico and some of the chosen singers on ths anthology, who were just at the beginning of what turned out to be their nearly permanent stint at La Zambra, a Madrid tablao set up with the help of the Spanish government in 1948 with the objective of showing tourists and Spaniards alike that flamenco still existed and was an art (La Zambra closed in 1973, due to the death of its owner and was the only flamenco tablao in the world at that time). It was at La Zambra that some french record executives first heard flamenco, and they became excited and decided that a flamenco anthology should be made. Perico laughed at them and told them that it would not sell. No one, but tno one was interested in flamenco. Without the subsidy of the Spanish governm,ent even La Zambra would surely have folded. The french insisted, and Perico figured what they hell, why not. But he slyly insisten on full payment at the time of the cutting of the records. None of this percentage stuff for an anthology that would sell ten copies with luck.

Perico worked like a demon. He could not find singers who knew some of the cantes he wished to include, so he, a walking encyclopedia of cante, taught them the cantes in question. In addition, due to his bad tendom, he could not play in the flashy style he thought the world would want.

The anthology was finally cut, and much to Perico’s surprise (mixed with a touch of dismay) it was an instant success.

The last time I say Perico, shortly before his death in 1964, he was still kicking himself: “that’ll teach me to be greedy, demanding a lump payment, and not a large one at that. I’d be getting rich off the percentage”. Then he would let fly a bit of colourful profanity, and we would resume the lesson”. (The Art of Flamenco, p.170).

As an immediate consequence to this anthology others were published. Some of these anthologies contain more than ten LPs. The record industry’s interest was awakened and for more than two decades the market was flooded with flamenco recordings.

Interestingly, Pericon’s son released an anthology of 3cds in 2002 which been widely welcomed as a positive contribution to the ‘discoteca’ of flamenco.

Related posts

• Part 1a: The social background to flamenco (0)
• Part 1b: The gypsies and flamenco (0)
• Part 2: A social history of Andalucia through “el cante” (0)
• Part 3: El cante - an introduction (0)
• Part 3a Characteristics of Cante Flamenco (0)