Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1362084 in Music
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Gentle Giant
Montoya, Sabicas, El Nino Miguel: If I had to single out one of them - and that would be a very cruel choice to make - I would pick El Nino's recordings. A very subjective choice indeed.
Yes they're on a par; Montoya gave birth to the beauty of flamenca guitar with infinite grace, Sabicas brought the tremendous force of joy into it, El Nino gave his soul.

The genius of El Nino could be compared to that of another great - yet unavailable (what are specialized labels waiting for? )- musician of this century, Jamil Bachir, elder brother of the famous Iraki Oud player & composer Munir Bachir.

Jamil was one of the few that could change the world:
not a Kurd himself, yet enjoying traditional kurdish music, he interpreted it with such creative power that he changed the way Kurds played their music forever. He delighted in improbable encounters with foreign musicians - I have heard a very strange recording of him playing with a russian pianist playing on an out of tune piano -, he toyed with the musical forms that enchanted him - like blues.
Yet he was certainly the most brilliant master of classical Oud from Baghdad ever. He breathed music. His classical recordings are divine.
In comparison his younger brother Munir is a brilliant academic.
Great but academic, lacking generosity.

El Nino Miguel shares the same human qualities as Jamil: beautiful generosity, a moving sense of poetry and fantasy, a unique knowledge of tradition. Freedom.

This last quality earns him no consideration among "purists".
Indeed one has to have an open mind to appreciate El Nino Miguel, to hear the subtleties of his creative art. Listen to the Vals Flamenca, a "commercial" tune, with an array of strings that are certainly not in the flamenca tradition! Yet.. the genius is there, which transcends the moment..

Forgotten genius of the flamenco guitar
A curious footnote to the modern flamenco guitar is provided by Niño Miguel: in his teens a prodigy who looked like rivalling Paco de Lucía, he subsequently went steeply downhill, reportedly due to "psychological problems" (usually a euphemism for over-indulgence in various substances). This compilation (in the excellent "Grandes Guitarras del Flamenco" series) reveals -- a few commercial tracks notwithstanding -- a soloist of astonishing invention, drive and vitality, who makes Lucía's mere imitators seem laughable by comparison.

Comprising 17 tracks with well over an hour of music (including several duets, and a brilliant Bulería played in Rondeña tuning), this album will be a revelation to anyone who loves flamenco guitar.

"Today Niño Miguel is forgotten, although in his own neighbourhood he still plays whatever good things occur to him". What a pity.