not long ago, antonio álvarez vélez from andalucia was a baggage handler at barajas airport in madrid and a flamenco singer between flights. then he changed his name to pitingo, coined the term 'flamenco soul' and here i am at a little ice cream shop in arenys del mar, deep in the heart of catalunya, watching him clap and riff his way through roberta flack's classic killing me softly, featuring the black heritage singers of new orleans, on a teeny tiny tv screen. (yeah, i went on another hike up the coast.) the line-up for his album soulería, released in april of this year, includes flamenco soul interpretations of 'no woman no cry', 'let it be', 'georgia on my mind', and 'smells like teen spirit'. gitano guitars, castanets, the passionate flamenco vibrato, the soulful r&b riff . . .
this may just be too much fusion. even for me. but i'll let you decide for yourself. so here's the clip. i do have a few questions, though. actually, this video begs many questions, (not the least of which is, why does pitingo pack up and leave the set before the show is over??) but i'll only ask a few:
1) what is the sister in the close-up at 2:10 thinking?
2) does she know there's a camera on her?
3) is that fine ass flamenco legend and former naomi cambell jump off, joaquín cortés, at 3:27?
4) why the choir robes? aren't they in a club?
5) why don't i hate this?
8 comments:
Okay, i was expecting to hate this. I don't really like remakes, but this was infectious and fun and the girl who gets to solo toward the end, brings much soul. I'll attempt to answer a couple of the questions.
As to what the sister at 2:10 was thinking, "Da' hell. They think this is going to sell? Let me just sit my a** down and clap since they are paying me." I mean really, I'm surprised they kept that cut in because she looks seriously disturbed.
Choir robes to indicate they aren't some random black ppl joining in the fun, but honest, god loving, and soul singing folks. I don't know.
The addition of the choir reminds me of the remake of Let It Be which stirs me every time I hear it, but that's because Carol Woods comes in and tugs at my heart strings.
My question, Is that the Gypsy Kings providing back up?
i don't hate it either. sounds rather soulful, i must say. the addition of the choir robes is slightly annoying to me though. they're not in church, so take off the robes!
this song is going to be stuck in my head now, i imagine...
I don't hate it. I'm not crazy about it either. I would ask that he please leave "No Woman, No Cry" alone. He's already skating on this ice. :-)
bk babe, i don't think that's the gypsy kings. i think it's the habichuelas brothers, who backed him up on his first effort. but i'm not 100% sure.
sdg, girl, i heard 'no woman no cry', and it's incredibly annoying. however, his remake of julio iglesias's 'gwendolyne' is amazing! you win some you lose some.
Okay, so I've been lurking around your blog parts for about a month. So, I must go against the general consensus of like here. Maybe because it was a remake (I mean, I hated Lauryn Hill's rendition). Okay, sis @ 2:10 appears to be feeling my pain. The choir robes...really? Really, yo? Completely unnecesary... I think maybe if I had not seen that the video the song probably would have been better received. I better not hear about Pitingo covering Stevie Wonder or there will be consequences...
roflmao!! thanks for that laugh! your honesty is, of course, appreciated, ericka. thanks for delurking!!
This is old, but I'll tell you why you dont hate it--the man is foine. I forgive his tresspasses (choir robes et. al) because I can objectify this man oer and over with a press of the play button, LMAO!
@camp queen
now, girl i don't know you, but you seem like a woman of superior reasoning skills!! lol! say what you will about the merits of flamenco soul, but he. look. good!! press play til your fingers fall off, or come roam the south of spain yourself. i haven't done that yet, but i hear THIS is what the men are like. yummy.
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