El Canto de las Vihuelas performs a 16th century traditional
Spanish Christmas song called "Dadme albricias, hijos d' Eva" ("Bring
Me Gifts, Children of Eve").
Below is a link to the YouTube page of the
group, El Canto de las Vihuelas, who specialize in period music. They
are Maria
Sala (soprano), Paul Baleta (fiddle, viola and vihuela, an early form
of the guitar), and Alejandro Baleta (vihuela, harp and Renaissance
lute).
The 100th birthday of Carmen Amaya, one of the legends of flamenco dance and song, will be observed in 2013. Barcelona, the native city of the legendary 'Queen of the Gypsies,' is already beginning to celebrate the centennial with the opening this weekend of the 1st annual Carmen Amaya Festival, organized by theTablao del Carmen, one of the venues in the city's open air museum Pueblo Español. The event features guitarist Tomatito, singers Remedios Amayaand Montse Cortes, and flamenco dancer Manuela Carrasco, winner of Spain's National Dance Award in 2007.
Amaya never formally studied dance or voice, but began from the age of 4 as a street performer with her father. From the streets of Barcelona, she went on to perform on the city's stages before moving on to conquer the nation's capital, Madrid. When the Civil War broke out in 1936 she left Spain and began traveling and performing in the great cities of the world, including Lisbon, London, Paris, Rio de Jainero, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Caracas, Bogotá, Havana, Mexico City, and New York, where she debuted at Carnegie Hall. She went on to appear in Hollywood movies and in 1944 performed at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After a decade abroad she returned to Spain as a wealthy international star. She continued to perform and travel the world over, including one more visit to the White House, this time at the invitation of President Harry S. Truman in 1953. Ten years later Amaya died of kidney failure at only 50 years of age. Speaking to the newspaper El Periódico about this weekend's tribute, Tomatito, who is a world renowned musical artist himself, said that he hopes to demonstrate the 'connection' his playing has with the wild fury of Amaya.
"My guitar is connected to her. I am a Gypsy, just like Carmen."
Describing her as the greatest of dancers, Tomatito recalled stories that when people from his native Andalusia learned that unlike them she did not originate from the birthplace of flamenco, but rather from the northern region of Catalonia, the bemused attitude was usually one of, "Well, we all have skeletons in our closets."
Until I moved to Spain and stumbled across some of Nat King Cole's Spanish language recordings, I had not known that he recorded songs other languages. In fact, he recorded three albums in Spanish: “Cole Español” (1958), “A Mis Amigos” (1959) and “More Cole Español” (1962) and at leas one additional song (“Tu Eres Tan Amable”- “You're So Nice”), which was posthumously released in 1983 on an album called album "Unreleased."
Although Spanish was the only other language he recorded entire albums in, he also recorded songs in Portuguese, Italian, French and at least one non-Romance language -- Japanese! And he did all of this without speaking anything but English! Instead he did what Tejana singer Selena did before she learned to speak Spanish – he memorized the songs phonetically.
His daughter Carole Cole said in an on-line chat with fans of her father that, “my father didn't actually speak Spanish. But...he recorded three albums in Spanish which he learned phonetically. He certainly had a deep admiration for Latin culture. And a number of friends from Mexico, Brazil and Cuba. In fact his manager, Caroles Gastel, was Cuban.”
She also agreed with a fan who claimed that Cole was one of the first English speaking singers to record in Spanish by adding, “this was another area in which I believe my father was a pioneer. You might be interested to know that in his travels throughout Latin America he was received with opened arms and an enormous amount of affection. For instance, when he first toured Brazil it seemed the population of Rio de Janeiro turned out en masse throwing roses at his feet to walk on, and he and my mother were asked to stay with the then-president of Brazil in the Brazilian palace. It's also interesting that he attempted to record in a number of other languages which needless to say, further endeared him to other cultures. He recorded Autumn Leaves in Japanese, which you can see in the documentary. I believe he recorded a tune here or there in Italian, French. And I imagine he would have done more in this area if he'd had the time.”
To me the history behind these recordings is a testament to Nat King Cole's ability to break down barriers. He obviously had to fight racism all of his life, and perhaps part of the reason he wanted to record in other languages was to extend that fight on some level. Two years before his first Spanish language recording he went to Cuba to perform at the Tropicana. He had wanted to stay at Havana's best hotel, the Hotel Nacional de Cuba , but was told it was fully booked. Although he discovered that he had been lied to and that in fact the Nacional had a White's only policy, he did not leave the island, but decided to honor his contract.
His engagement at the Tropicana ended up being so successful that he agreed to return the next year. In the mean time he applied himself to adding Spanish songs to his repertoire, with the help of Armando Romeu, a Cuban musician and arranger. After another successful appearance at the Tropicana in 1957, he again traveled to Havana in 1958 to record “Cole Español,” which was the first step towards a string of Spanish language hits – Acercate Más, Ansiedad, Aquellos Ojos Verdes, Perfidia, Quizás, Quizás, Quizás, etc.
The result was that long before the likes of Julio or Enrique Iglesias, Nat King Cole became the first truly "international" singing star. Today he is known in Spanish speaking countries as a singer of English and Spanish songs – and the Hotel Nacional de Cuba has a special “Nat King Cole Corner,” with a bust of the singer and a jukebox full of his songs. (See photo above.)
I've met many Spaniards who are familiar with these Spanish recordings, either because the songs were popular when they were young or because they discovered them through their parents or grandparents. One of my students remembers hearing the songs as a child and does a perfect imitation of Nat King Cole, including his pronounced gringo accent. Even I sometimes have to smile when I hear how strong his North American accent is – and I have a pretty strong one myself.
Despite the non-native accent, the songs are lovely, with lush arrangements and, of course, that beautiful, buttery baritone. As the title one of his songs goes, Fantástico!
Saludos amig@s,
Carloz
P.S. Enjoy the 3 songs from YouTube! / ¡Disfruta las 3 canciones desde YouTube!
One of my favorite Spanish singer-songwriters, Alex Ubago, recently collaborated with Craig David on a Spanish translation of David's 2001 hit song Walking Away. The result is a bilingual version that is being released as a duet on David's Greatest Hits CD in Spanish speaking countries.
In an interview with them that I read in today's ¡Que!, they claimed to have communicated in Spanglish while working on the new version. David said that was because he really only knows a little Spanish. However, Ubago added, "That is until he sees a pretty [Spanish-speaking] girl, when he lets loose with perfect Castellano."
Both singer-songwriters are 27 year old Grammy winners with well established careers. Craig David, with more than 13 million CDs sold worldwide, is one of the most successful recording artists to come from Great Britain so far this century.
Alex Ubago, who accompanies himself on the guitar, is from Vitoria, Spain and has sold more than three million CDs. He has won numerous awards in Spain, Latin American and the USA. He will soon release his sixth disc, which was recorded in Argentina. I have not heard if the duet with David will be included on Ubago's CD.
David also recorded new bilingual versions of "Walking Away" with artists such as Lynnsha from France, Nek from Italy, Monrose from Germany, and Bonnie Pink from Japan for his CD's release in their respective countries.
