I saw him perform for the first time in 2011 in Jerez at the peña. He was having a good night, and I was told were were lucky. I saw him perform the next time I was there. Again, they said it was a good night.
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Letras
Fandangos de Huelva
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Yo no digo que mi barca
sea la mejor del puerto
pero si digo que tiene
los mejores movimientos
que ninguna barca tiene
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¡Felicidades!
Thank you 2013.
Welcome 2014.
Getting in can sometimes be the hardest part...
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I told you that today I'd tell you about going to see Estrella Morente in Córdoba. So today I'll share a video of Estrella Morente and a song she sang at the show.
I want to tell you about the end of the show...
when she sang Volver as an encore.
A bit further down in the post you can see a video of her performing it and looking very beautiful.
She does it as a bulerías. I discovered that it was originally a tango, not the flamenco kind, the Argentinian kind, by Carlos Gardel and that the words were written by Alfredo Le Pera.
We'll get to the song in a moment,
But first, about the show in Córdoba.
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We spent just two days in Córdoba on the last trip.
Two days to see the city and one night to see Estrella Morente perform. I'll tell you about that on Friday.
It was my second visit to Córdoba
The first visit was in 1998, the first time I went to Spain.
I went there after my sister left.
I went there by myself.
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I danced sevillanas backwards tonight with castanets. Why, you ask?
Because it seemed like it would be fun
And it was.
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For the English translation, click here.
Go to 1 minute in the video below to hear this letra.
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That I'm posting a letra por bulerías.
(Hang on the translation is coming, but if you can't wait, just scroll down.)
I heard this one in Jerez
Niño de la Fragua sang it down the street from us at Peña la Bulería.
We were so tired that night.
From all of the dancing and walking around and doing of things.
We were tired and unmotivated. We were thinking we might just stay in.
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Faly sang this tonight por tientos.
Soleá
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Ven acá y siéntate aquí
tú en una piedra y yo en otra
nos contaremos las penas
que son largas y no son pocas.
Come here, and have a seat
you on one rock, me on another
we'll tell each other our sorrows
that are long and many.
Faly was my very first flamenco teacher.
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One more tangos that David was using with us last week...
Tangos
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Viva Málaga la bella,
tierra de tanta alegría,
que si a prueba me pusiera,
por ella daría la vida
Long live Malaga the beautiful,
land of so much happiness,
that if she put me to the test,
for her I would give my life
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Those are some madroños from the Mercat Central here in Valencia.
I remember going there in 1998, the first time I came to Spain. It was February, and there were no madroños.
Anyway, the fruit lady told us to eat them as-is. No washing. No doing anything to them.
We followed her instructions.
Yum.
Tangos
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La que quiera madroños vaya a la sierra
olé Morena vaya a la sierra
porque se están secando sus madroñeras
olé morena sus madroñeras
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Last night we were doing palmas with Pedro.
It's something we do when we come to Jerez.
Naturally people had many questions
and requests.
Someone asked to do some palmas por alegrías
... since we'd been dancing alegrías with Mercedes.
Pedro talked about las alegrías de Córdoba. He mentioned the letra about the platero.
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This morning in class we were talking about tonight's show at the Villamarta, the Homenaje a la Chaty.
Somebody asked Mercedes what she would be dancing in the show. They were hoping it would be alegrías since that's what we're learning from her in the workshop.
"Let's see if Laura can guess what I'm going to dance..."
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I have a bulerías letra to share with you today.
We got to Jerez on a Friday. But I forgot that it was Friday. We went from Paris to Madrid. From Madrid to Sevilla. And from Sevilla to Jerez.
And we were here.
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It's a full moon today. And so...
Luna Llena
Camarón
¿Quién me contaría a mí de qué está hecha la luna?
Si de rosas, de jazmines o de sábanas de cuna.
La luna llena.
Tú eres errante,
tú eres flamenca, ay, y canastera.
Y en lo alto del monte le dice piropos
un olivo a una estrella.
Y por ser la más guapa y celosa,
la luna se ha pintao los ojillos color de aceituna.
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It was 2008. And I was in Jerez.
Ten years had passed since that first trip to Spain.
Finally, I had made it back.
So there I was, at the festival, getting ready to study with my best friend for the very first time.
It was Ricardo who told me I needed to study with him.
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Last week the Friday letra turned into much more than just a letra. This week, I'll keep it simple.
Here's another estribillo por fandangos.
Un estribillo por fandangos
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Sentado en el valle
debajo de un limonero
Escucho sonar el río
Mi sombra da en el romero
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The first time I went to Sevilla I met this guy, José Luís. No, it wasn't like that. You could say he was a friend of a friend.
If you want to skip the story
Just scroll down to the bottom of the post for today's letra and a really cool video.
So José Luís is one of those people who is constantly telling jokes.
Well, constantly saying funny things is more like it because they're not jokes, not exactly. Some people call them jokes, but they're not what I have ever understood to be jokes. I guess because I'm American. And not just that, but I'm from Oregon.
José Luís is always saying funny things and making himself, and other people if they get it, laugh.
You could call him witty, but it's more than that. It's witty in a Sevillano way. Ingenioso. Agudo. That's what the dictionary is calling it.
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