Search - Diego Amador :: Piano Jondo

IC B.
Reviewed on 12/30/2023...

Seville-based pianist Diego Amador Diego Gonzalez is a musician in the folkloric music traditions of southern Spain known as flamenco. The title of his work here is Piano Jondo -- "jondo" is a word that conveys the qualities in the deepest and most serious form of flamenco music, such as cante jondo / "deep song", meaning intensely emotional vocal music.

Amador here uses the piano to bring percussive, rhymthmic and modally harmonic techniques as edgy and dramatic as this music demands. It is guitaristic at times: he is able to suggest traditional flamenco guitar techniques such as rasgueado (rhythmic strumming) and golpe (strikes to the guitar bridge), and uses the sound of of palmas (complex rhythmic clapping) and sharp changes of modal chords that happen at the downbeats. With several tracks ("Vivan los Gitanos," and Jaco Pastorius' "Continuum") you can hear upright bass, which suggests jazz influences, but overall, the feel and spirit of this music is flamenco, as if the piano has always been part of this uniquely Andalusian tradition. Very fresh and enjoyable.

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