Flamenco...All You Wanted to Know

Rating:
Summary: An excellent flamenco introduction and history, but .......
Review: While this book cuts to the heart of what flamenco is, and is an excellent history of flamenco, there is this recurring undertone of her "love" for Paco de Lucia, as the best flamenco player ever. There really shouldn't be such obvious bias in a book of this quality, but there is. Her recommendations section lists all of his works, while very obviously omitting so many other great artists. Too bad. It is a real disservice to the reader. In the guitar section she blatantly doesn't list any recordings of Sabicas, Nino Ricardo, Joaquin Rodrigo, and some the other truly great names of flamenco guitar. Some of these names are mentioned only in the text, as they pertain to her view of Paco's work and influences. Otherwise, this is still a very informative and nice historical reference book about flamenco, if you can get past her obvious biases. It would have been a much better book without it. Personally, I would search through Flamenco-world.com to find the truly great artists of flamenco. Finefretted.com has some very rare recordings too.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent flamenco introduction and history, but .......
Review: While this book cuts to the heart of what flamenco is, and is an excellent history of flamenco, there is this recurring undertone of her "love" for Paco de Lucia, as the best flamenco player ever. There really shouldn't be such obvious bias in a book of this quality, but there is. Her recommendations section lists all of his works, while very obviously omitting so many other great artists. Too bad. It is a real disservice to the reader. In the guitar section she blatantly doesn't list any recordings of Sabicas, Nino Ricardo, Joaquin Rodrigo, and some the other truly great names of flamenco guitar. Some of these names are mentioned only in the text, as they pertain to her view of Paco's work and influences. Otherwise, this is still a very informative and nice historical reference book about flamenco, if you can get past her obvious biases. It would have been a much better book without it. Personally, I would search through Flamenco-world.com to find the truly great artists of flamenco. Finefretted.com has some very rare recordings too.