Duende : A Journey Into the Heart of Flamenco

Rating:
Summary: Yo! This is a personal story, not a manual
Review: I think the problem that some of the thumbs-down reviewers had with this book was that they got sidetracked by the subtitle, "a journey into the heart of Flamenco." They apparently thought that it was going to be a didactic work. (The author is an Oxford graduate, so we must use words like "didactic"). Instead, it's a very personal story, a "tell all" about the author's experiences as a foreigner (i.e., non-Spaniard) trying to lead a flamenco life, and I don't find that it was represented as anything other than that. And insofar as that story goes, it was generally well written

What is clear is that Jason Webster came to Spain in search of flamenco without doing any prior research or study, not even having touched a guitar previously - rather odd for an Oxford grad, but maybe that was part of what he was running away from. That's what got him into all the strange and sometimes funny scenes he relates because seemingly every flamenco aficionado he ran into was a self-proclaimed "expert" who told him something different.

Poor Jason also came to the wrong places: Valencia and Alicante on the southeast coast of Spain, two venues that are well outside flamenco's incubators: southwest Andalucía (Cádiz, Jeréz and Sevilla province in particular), and Madrid, the capital where most of the best artists end up because it provides the best means of earning a living. That's just about analogous to someone coming to the United States in search of jazz and blues but starting out with a flat in Des Moines, Iowa, then moving on to Butte, Montana. He did get to Granada, which has a much smaller but increasingly thriving flamenco scene, but only after a good deal of trial and error - and then he went back to the southeast coast anyway. And that was after living in a poor suburb of Madrid without ever visiting the thriving dance studios where he could have met and learned to play with some really good artists instead of stealing cars and doing lines of coke.

Those missteps probably lead the author to the main title, "Duende." Many an experienced flamenco groans when they hear that word. Federico García Lorca started the craze for "duende" back in the twenties, and Donn Pohren enshrined it for all English-speaking aficionados through his work, "The Art of Flamenco", first published in the early sixties and which for many decades was the only book in English on the subject. "Duende" literally means an elf or gnome, and can include poltergeists as well. It did imply "soul" or "spirit" within some circles in flamenco, but overuse caused such word inflation that its original meaning was greatly devalued, and many flamencos came to avoid it. "Aire" was the principal word used instead of "duende" when I lived in Spain in the early seventies, and now one also hears "pellizco" which may or may not mean the same thing. "Duende" is today more often used by promoters in the tourist trade rather than artists. Of course, the use of that word in the title might well be due to the publisher rather than the author, but that would be consistent: "Duende" once again being used to sell something rather than describe it.

The one serious bone I might have to pick with the author, however, is his intimation that drugs are an integral, even necessary, part of being a flamenco. True, drugs became very pervasive in the post-Franco era, but they have never been anything close to "necessary." For over a hundred years flamenco did quite well fueled solely with nicely fermented grape juice, perhaps a bit of distilled spirit, but that was it. Weed, coke, hash are strictly optional and mostly detrimental. He seems to have swallowed the drugs-are-necessary idea hook, line and sinker, but the fact that the particular Gypsies he hung out with had to steal cars to make ends meet attests to their lack of success as professional flamenco artists. Drugs and thievery are dead ends, not roads to the heart of flamenco or anything else. Yes, Camaron de la Isla, one of flamenco's greats, used lots of drugs and smoked like a house on fire. He also died at the age of 42. (But if you do enough drugs you just might see a few duendes.)

The back jacket cover says that the author still lives in Valencia. If he harbors any hope of writing a sequel, he better start thinking about moving to where there's at least a flamenco road to follow.

Rating:
Summary: Ten Stars!
Review: In truth, five stars are not good enough for this book, I'd give it ten!!!

On his Odyssey in search of the source of the magic of flamenco, beside providing witty and fascinating accounts of a very colourful world, the author was able to capture the intangible and articulate it in a story that was beautifully written. His vivid and hilarious descriptions (such as the relationship of his landlady with her cat, among others ) left me laughing out loud, his ability to put in words his experience of music and flamenco, left me entranced.

Both moving and funny, the author managed to recreate the wonder of his inner and outer journey in a way that would enable many a reader to experience it.

I hope this author will never stop writing!

Rating:
Summary: Beware!
Review: Jason Webster does not know or understand flamenco. This book purports to be a memoir, but it more nearly resembles a fictional account that plays fast and loose with with the facts. The author's knowledge of the history of flamenco and facts about contemporary flamenco is very incomplete and more often than not inaccurate, yet he presents himself as an authority on flamenco. All the professional flamencos I know who have read this book have died laughing at the numerous mistakes and misunderstandings found on each page. This book fails on all counts--it is not a reliable source for information about flamenco and it is so poorly written that I wonder if the author wrote it for a freshman creative writing class. Avoid this book at all costs!

Rating:
Summary: Not The Real Item
Review: Jason Webster's a decent writer, but don't expect to learn much about flamenco here. Duende is a melodramatic account of an illicit love affair, drug abuse, car theft and life on the road with a 5th-rate band. There are far too many memoirs of this type already; do we really need another?

The good -- though extremely brief -- discography is one of the few segments of the book that's worth reading. In all, a huge diasppointment, especially given the publisher's claims of authenticity. Do yourself a favor: buy (or borrow) some flamenco CDs. They'll give you far more insight into the music than Webster's book ever will.

Rating:
Summary: Great Young Writer, Helleva of First Book
Review: Jason Webster's first book about Spain and flamenco is a gorgeous first effort. It's a story about Webster's travels as flamenco student and touring guitar-player, his doomed loves and the impulsive choices, and living life on the margins of gypsy society. This well-written book is fresh, honest, and emotionally unkept. There are no neat endings or resolutions. But it hardly matters. What a book, what a ride!

Rating:
Summary: flamenquismo
Review: Many non-Spaniards have discovered a strange need to learn flamenco guitar, or dance, and have been drawn into the culture of Andalusia, especially the gipsy culture. Jason Webster is one more, and he does not make any special claims about his talent. His first-person narrator is a naif, a handsome but insecure young Englishman who journeys into that culture much further than most outsiders do. He realizes in the end that flamenco is only a step in the journey. "Duende" is a much absued word, but Webster uses it fairly. This book goes about as fast as the cars that his gipsy friends steal to supplement their earnings. It also has a short but excellent discography. Ole ole!

Rating:
Summary: Spanish passion!
Review: My daughter bought me this book as she knows how much I love anything to do with Spain and Latin America, and, oh boy! did it deliver. It tells the story of the writer's experiences in the Flamenco underworld, with everything from a love story with a flamenco dancer to car chases and a real Gypsy wedding. I couldn't put it down, in fact I read it in just two days. Wow! The most exciting thing I've read in months.

Rating:
Summary: The Heart of Flamenco
Review: The book is may be a good start for the author, but so far not a bestseller. It describes in a wonderful fluid way the mentality of people doing Flamenco, not the art on it's own. The question about Duende becomes a more philosophic one and left the reader a bit unsatisfied with the resulting interpretations. At last is it a good story about the difficulties which any outsider has to experience when settling down in Andalusia to become a true Flamenco. The book is great as a first reading for guitarists interested to enhance their skills in playing and experimenting with the right people in Spain. I hope Jason Webster writes his next book with more "Duende"!

Rating:
Summary: BAD
Review: This book is a joke the only people that would like this are those who dream of one day running away to spain with a gypsy and living a romantic life. It is pathetic how he speaks of flamenco in the way that he has been playing it from childhood, at one point he says "Ole,they dont know the meaning of ole" sorry but neither do you mr Webster. I do not recomend this book as he is just trying to sell on the basis that Flamenco=exotic , Exotic=Selling , Selling=Money...

Rating:
Summary: No Expectations
Review: This book is very interesting, but don't expect to find the real duende or understand flamenco any more than you might already, after all, it's not something that could be described in books anyway. Jason gives an excellent perspective of an outsider in relation to flamenco and how guiris like us relate to it, and that's the beauty of his story.

There aren't that many white boys and girls looking for the real stuff, that which is not sold at tablaos for foreigners. His encounters with people, his search for flamenco action, and his ultimate lessons about the culture of the gypsies and their invariable connection with flamenco make this book worthwhile.

This book is a very light read; it's entertaining, frustrating, sad and funny. But above all, it's one man's adventure, it's his diary, and being a devout fanatic of flamenco myself, I feel fortunate that someone as crazy about flamenco as I has shared his experience.