Casta, I Am Gypsy
Alula Records, P.O. Box 62043, Durham, NC 27715
By Brian Grosjean

    The soul of flamenco music is the singer - the cante. The raw emotion of a great cante can peel the skin off a hardened listener and bring tears to the coldest heart. On this album, at least four great singers collaborate to leave the listener gasping for air after each song. Each member of the group is renowned in his own right: three gypsy brothers who grew up in poverty in Spain - Lorenzo (Cano), Paco and Juan Antonio Salazar, the Cormona brothers from the flamenco/African group Ketama, and the flamenco genius Gerardo Nuñez. This is nuevo flamenco: a mix of classical flamenco, jazz and rock. The music in this album - mostly rumbas - is provocative and sexy. The chorus of hot cantorés provides the engine to pull the rest of the train - flamenco guitars, be-bop bass of Antonio Ramos, and Tito Duarte's sax and latin percussion in the caboose. The whole train chugs at rumba rhythm down the Andalusian tracks, igniting wild abandon in the listeners along the way.
    This music is made for dancing, so don't listen alone. Find a partner, click your heels, and dig into some of the best of modern flamenco music out today.

Copyright©WWUH: May/June Program Guide, 1999