Flamenco Sevens from the Franco Era - Various Artists (2011)

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a few old Spanish singles at a boot sale and I thought I'd share them here.

Flamenco is the product of the collision of the musics of the European Roma with those of the Sephardic Jews and the Moors in Spain. These distinct cultural groups found common ground during the years of the Spanish Inquisition when all were persecuted by the Christian ruling classes. The musical cultures mixed after the Moors, Jews and Gitanos were exiled from the cities of Southern Spain and moved into the mountainous regions in the 16th Century.

"...the beasts were at the rack in the stables and the travellers were at the other end in the kitchen, separated from the stable by two stone steps. At that time, this was the normal arrangement in nearly all Spanish inns. The whole building was but one long room of which the greatere part was occupied by the mules and the lesser by the humans. But it was all the merrier for that. As the zagal saw to the pack animals, he kept up a steady stream of repartee with the innkeeper's wife, who replied with all the liveliness of her sex and station until the more serious minded innkeeper came between them and interrupted the exchanges. They soon started up again, however. The inn rang to the sound of the castanets played by the maids, who danced to the raucous singing of a goatherd. Travellers made each other's acquaintance and invited each other to supper. Everyone gathered round the stove, said who they were, where they were going and sometimes told stories. Those were the good old days; now our inns are more comfortable, but the boisterous social life which the travellers of those days led had a charm I cannot describe to you."

Jan Potocki The Manuscript Found at Saragossa

These singles all look like they date from between the early 1960s to the early '70s and they were possibly produced for the growing tourist market, as this was the time when General Franco started to build the large resorts around the golden coasts of the Mediterranean. But I could be wrong.

Tracklist:

01 Sevillanas - Juergo Gitana
02 Malaguenas - Alfonso Labrador y Cuadro de Baile
03 Fandangos de Huelva - Roque Montoya, Beni de Cadiz y Soledad Jordan
04 El Porompompero (Rumba) - Manolo Escobar y sus Guitarras
05 Fandangos de Huelva - Juergo Gitana
06 Sevillanas - Alfonso Labrador y Cuadro de Baile
07 Alegrias de Cadiz - Juergo Gitana
08 Soleares - Cuadro Flamenco
09 Ave Maria no Morro - Manolo Escobar y sus Guitarras
10 El Primer Bautizo (Bolero Flamenco) - Manolo Escobar y sus Guitarras
11 Tarantas - Cuadro Flamenco
12 Te Canto Con Mis Guitarras (Vals Bulerias) - Manolo Escobar y sus Guitarras
13 Sevillanas - Roque Montoya, Beni de Cadiz y Soledad Jordan
14 Soleares - Roque Montoya, Beni de Cadiz y Soledad Jordan
15 Tientos - Roque Montoya, Beni de Cadiz y Soledad Jordan

Get it HERE.