Manolo Sanlúcar - Tauromagia

 

Artist:          Manolo Sanlúcar

Album:        Tauromagia

Year:           1988

Line-up:      Guitar: Manolo Sanlúcar

                   2^nd Guitar: Isidro Muños, Vicente Amigo

                   Vocals: La Macanita, El Indio Gitano, Jose Merce, Diego Carrasco

                   Percussion and Palmas: Manolo Soler, Tino Di Geraldo, Diego Carrasco

                   Dance: Manolo Soler

Label:         Polydor

"I wish the experts in universal music to understand that they may approach flamenco, so they do not consider it something tribal and topical, so they see a branch of music in flamenco that allows very profound musical analysis and has extraordinary poetic and musical quality".

- Manolo Sanlúcar

When it comes to flamenco guitar, the one player of this fine instrument the people – especially outside Spain - are most likely to know is Paco de Lucía. Yet, when speaking of the giants of flamenco guitar I find myself personally more drawn to the playing and compositions of Manolo Sanlúcar. Incidentally Paco and Manolo have various things in common: Both of them were born in the 1940's in Cádiz. Taught by their amateur guitar playing fathers and having also guitar playing brothers, Paco and Manolo went on being of the most important flamenco composers and revolutionary players who are now considered to be the main figures in the evolution of the modern flamenco guitar.

It is quite useless trying to compare Paco and Manolo as players on a technical level as they are both the undisputed masters of the guitar. Nevertheless, I have always admired the playing of Manolo more. It seems to me that Manolo has this very strict discipline behind his playing and technique whereas Paco comes across more as a natural wonder child. In addition to the playing, the one thing that sets Manolo apart from Paco is his talent as a composer. Yet again, it cannot be denied that Paco has not composed a great number of interesting, evolutionary and stunning pieces. However, Manolo has been the one guitar player of flamenco who has always gone one step beyond. From a very beginning of his career Manolo has been an avid researcher of both the flamenco tradition as well as the guitar as an instrument. He was aware that the flamenco guitar - but the acoustic nylon string guitar in general - had infinite possibilities which were yet to be explored. Apart from the exploration of the guitar from a technical standpoint Manolo has been very interested integrating flamenco with symphonic and orchestral music. Thus, we finally come to the album discussed on this post: Tauromagia.

Considered by many flamenco aficionados to be one the best flamenco albums of all time, Tauromagia takes its' listener on a journey through Andalucia and flamenco. The title meaning literally ”magic of bulls”, Tauromagia is also a concept album the central theme being the classical Spanish bullfighting which has not only been important cultural phenomenon in southern Spain but in the whole Spain. The compositions on the album are in themselves little pieces of sheer excellency but the strength of the album lies also deeply on its' versatility and the seamless flow between the tracks. Not only are we treated with a delicious variety of different palos (the styles and forms of flamenco), but Tauromagia is filled with a lot of captivating nuances. Every piece has it is distinct character and feel which makes the album a cohesive whole. From the calm lullaby Nanencia through rondeña (a sonata performed solely by Manolo Sanlúcar on the guitar is considered a peak moment by many), solea por bulería, tangos, bulerías, jaleos and ending on a cheerful note with alegrías Tauromagia is full of magic moments raging from a quite and meditative pieces to more driven and energetic perfomances. We have virtuoso guitar playing, athmosphere, interesting orchestration for a flamenco album, great vocal perfomances by such great cantaores as Jose Merce, El Indio Gitano, La Macanita and Diego Carrasco and a lot more. Altough Tauromagia is an album composed by a guitar player, it should be noted that the guitar playing here always serves the music never being self-indulgent.

Flamenco is a philosophy, a feeling, a way to understand life and death, it is more like the heart than the head, more like an intuition than reasoning, more like art than science, more like passion than reflection, more like a devotion than obligation. Tauromagia is surely one of the best albums to catch the magic of flamenco.

Here we have the last piece on Tauromagia, alegrías named Puerta de Príncipe performed in the film Flamenco by Carlos Saura:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyNBvJ_R6Vg

Written by Παναγιωτιης