STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
In another report in our series 50 Great Voices, NPR's Felix Contreras tells us how he did it.
FELIX CONTRERAS: Flamenco singing is one of life's deeper musical mysteries.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CAMARON DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: We hear traces of Africa, by way of the Moors. You can also hear bits of Punjabi singing. There are Persian, Arabic and even Jewish cultures in the DNA of flamenco.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: Some say it's almost impossible to understand the subtle nuances of the vocal tradition, because flamenco singing is so complex. Even Paco de Lucia, Spain's most celebrated flamenco guitarist, says it's a hard nut to crack.
PACO DE LUCIA: (Spanish spoken)
CONTRERAS: He says it is the purest expression of flamenco, and because of that, it is difficult to understand. Outside of Spain, flamenco singing is the least valued, he says, because it is so complex and difficult to grasp.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: As he began his career, flamenco was still a connoisseur's music, hardly part of the Spanish popular mainstream. So as he started to revolutionize the music in the early 1970s, you'd think that it was a somewhat quiet rebellion, noticed only by die-hard aficionados and musicians. Think again.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CONTRERAS: We listened to a cut called "Son Tus Ojos Dos Estrellas," from an early album by the duo.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: Now, is that some kind of establishing his presence? Is that a technique to do that?
BROOK ZERN: Yes, the tradition is to begin a song and tune up your voice with a syllable, usually I-E, which he did.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: And then eventually, he gets - and then he gets into the lyric.
ZERN: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: I think what people hear are the trills - the unusual trills and the almost non-Western intervals between the notes.
ZERN: Flamenco music uses microtonal intervals all the time, and nobody cut them closer and did them more precisely, technically, than this young artist.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
ZERN: What's happening: He's saying, by the way, they tell me you're deceiving me, and I just hate to think about that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: That'll raise your blood pressure.
ZERN: Yeah, that's it. It's jealousy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
ZERN: Here he goes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: What was it that he did there?
ZERN: It's improvisational, in a jazz sense, that it's in the moment. It's something that he won't do again, and there it is. Live with it.
CONTRERAS: Let's listen to it again.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: It's his last phrase at the end, right?
ZERN: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
ZERN: The Spaniards have a word, rematar, to end something. And that's when you sum it all up, wrap it up. And there's no better way to end this particular light style song, but very gypsy - the bulerias - than what he just did there.
CONTRERAS: Felix Contreras, NPR News.
INSKEEP: Unidentified Woman #1: (Singing in foreign language)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BETTER DAYS")
DIANNE REEVES: Unidentified Man: (Vocalizing)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.