Nuevo Flamenco is synonymous with contemporary flamenco

Flamenco

Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....

 and is a modern derivative of traditional flamenco (see the cafés cantantes

Café-chantant

Café chantant is a type of musical establishment associated with the belle époque in France. Although there is much overlap of definition with cabaret, music hall, vaudeville, etc. the café chantant was originally an outdoor café where small groups of performers performed popular music for the...

 period, and Ramón Montoya

Ramón Montoya

Ramón Montoya , Flamenco guitarist and composer.Born into a family of Gitano cattle traders, Ramón Montoya used earnings from working in the trade to buy his first guitar...

 (1880–1949)).

It is widely accepted that Nuevo Flamenco started in 1975 with the Lole y Manuel

Lole y Manuel

Lole y Manuel is a Spanish musical duo which composed and performed innovative flamenco music. Their groundbreaking album Nuevo Dia fused traditional Spanish flamenco with Arabic rhythms and styles...

 first album Nuevo Día. Although the most important early pioneers of modern flamenco are widely accepted to be the guitarist Paco de Lucía

Paco de Lucía

Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...

, and singer Camarón de la Isla

Camarón de la Isla

Camarón de la Isla , was the stage name of a spanish flamenco singer José Monje Cruz who is sometimes also credited as Camarón de la Isla....

, other musical genres have also played a key role in influencing nuevo flamenco. The central focal points of this genre are compás (rhythm), baile (dance), and cante (song). Although the guitar is arguably the most common instrument in flamenco, it is said that the person playing the instrument is flamenco, not the instrument itself.

Notable flamenco artists

Some of today's leading flamenco guitarists are Paco de Lucia

Paco de Lucía

Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...

, Tomatito

Tomatito

José Fernández Torres, known as Tomatito , is a Spanish Romani flamenco guitarist. He grew up in a musical family, including two uncles: Niño Miguel, a flamenco guitarist, and Antonio, a professional guitarist....

, Vicente Amigo

Vicente Amigo

Vicente Amigo Girol is a Spanish flamenco composer and virtuoso guitarist, born in Guadalcanal, near Seville. He has played as backing guitarist on recordings by flamenco singers El Pele, Camarón de la Isla, Vicente Soto, Luis de Córdoba and the rociero band Salmarina, and he has acted as a...

, Gerardo Nuñez

Gerardo Núñez

Gerardo Núñez Díaz is a Spanish guitarist and composer. His roots lie in flamenco, but he has also ventured into fusion with other genres, especially jazz.- Career :...

, Juan Martín

Juan Martín

Juan Cristóbal Martín is a Spanish flamenco guitarist and an author of flamenco guitar method books.-Career:Martín started learning the guitar at the age of six. In his early twenties he moved to Madrid to study under Niño Ricardo and Paco de Lucía. He played in clubs in Málaga, Seville and...

, Niño Josele

Niño Josele

Niño Josele is a Spanish guitarist, and exponent of the New Flamenco style.His first two albums show a vibrant, pure, modern flamenco style....

. Some of today's leading flamenco singers are Diego El Cigala

Diego El Cigala

Diego Ramón Jiménez Salazar, known as El Cigala , is a famous Spanish Romani Flamenco singer...

, Duquende

Duquende

Juan Rafael Cortés Santiago, known as Duquende , is a Spanish flamenco cantaor . Born in Sabadell, Spain, Duquende is considered a successor to influential Flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla...

, Enrique Morente

Enrique Morente

Enrique Morente Cotelo, known as Enrique Morente, was a flamenco singer and a controversial figure within the world of contemporary flamenco...

, and his daughter Estrella Morente

Estrella Morente

Estrella Morente is a Spanish flamenco singer. She was born on August 14, 1980 in Las Gabias, Granada Province in southern Spain...

.

There is also, particularly in the United States, a movement of music which is derived in part from flamenco, as well as world, jazz, and Latin music influences, among others. While these influences have as much an impact on this music as flamenco, it is a common misconception among the public to refer to it as "flamenco." Armik

Armik

Armik is an Iranian-Armenian flamenco guitarist and composer.Armik was born in Iran of Armenian descent. When he was just seven years old, he pawned his watch for a classical guitar, which he hid and practiced in his basement. At 12, he was a professional recording artist...

, Jesse Cook

Jesse Cook

Jesse Cook is a Toronto-based guitarist, born in Paris to Canadian parents. Like other guitarists of his style of music, he incorporates funky jazz, latin & world music into his playing. Cook is also well known for the energy of his live shows. He has contributed to the Afro Celt Sound System album...

, Ottmar Liebert

Ottmar Liebert

Ottmar Liebert is a German-born composer and guitarist, born to a Chinese-German father and a Hungarian mother. As a child, he spent most of his time traveling Europe and Asia with his family...

, Luis Villegas

Luis Villegas

Luis Villegas is a Mexican American guitarist best known for his debut CD Cafe Olé which mixed New Age music, flamenco, and jazz and garnered a spot on the Grammy ballot for Best New Age album of the Year in 1999. He is known for popularizing an unusual technique of playing very fast intricate...

, Wayne Wesley Johnson , Nino Mekouar, Miguel "Mito" de Soto, Novamenco, Jorge Strunz

Strunz & Farah

Strunz & Farah is a guitar duo with an eclectic sound that have been described as a cross between world fusion and flamenco.-History:Jorge Strunz, born in Costa Rica, and Ardeshir Farah, hailing from Iran, met in the United States in 1979. Jorge Strunz was one of the founders of the Latin jazz...

, Ardeshir Farah

Strunz & Farah

Strunz & Farah is a guitar duo with an eclectic sound that have been described as a cross between world fusion and flamenco.-History:Jorge Strunz, born in Costa Rica, and Ardeshir Farah, hailing from Iran, met in the United States in 1979. Jorge Strunz was one of the founders of the Latin jazz...

, Shahin & Sephre, Govi, Luna Blanca, Nocy and Willie & Lobo have all gained fame for playing music based loosely on nuevo flamenco (rumba flamenca).

External links

• The origins of new flamenco
• New flamenco in the 1980s
• http://www.wannadu.com] Wayne Wesley Johnson's official website