It has gotten cold here. Winter has arrived with a bang. Sweaters and coats have been unpacked for the first time in a long time. It has been snowing in Northern Spain, but here on the South Coast, it is still just like California.
Last weekend, we were invited to a fiesta outside Jerez with 12, count'em, 12 singers! Unlike our gypsy fiestas, this one was all payos (non-gypsies). There is a difference between the way gypsies and payos do flamenco, but what is the very same is the level of enthusiasm that both groups have. They made a rabbit stew and we started in the afternoon. While we were singing and playing, a cook kept creating new items, so food breaks happened every little while.
In this fiesta, there were some well-known professional singers like Pepe Alconchel, who has a peña in Jerez named after him. Others were just good aficionados, but still great. There is an English guitarist here named Simon who plays really well and can accompany well. That meant that we shared the guitar duties and neither of us got burnt out. At one point, they had me playing Verdiales for half an hour and 4 or 5 singers were taking turns - as fast as one finished a verse, another jumped in.
Here we are in the afternoon with Pepe Alconchel singing and el Ruiseñor sitting next to me. Here is a video of a singer called el Ruiseñor de Lebrija (mockingbird of Lebrija - a town near Jerez) singing a fandango of Gordito de Triana, a very simple, unadorned style - one of the first ones that I ever learned. He sings a lot of different styles, in fact his last verse is done in a different style. Fandango is his strong suite and he was a total delight.
We had a fabulous time with all of them and continued well on into the evening. Here we are around the campfire. Tomorrow we drive up to Puertollano where I will be singing along with Carmen Linares (a very famous professional singer).
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