- Carlos Montoya
Carlos Montoya (
13 December 1903 –3 March 1993 ), a prominentFlamenco guitarist, was a founder of the modern-day popularFlamenco style of music.Early life and career
Carlos Montoya was born in
Madrid ,Spain , unto a gypsy family, on December 13, 1903. As the nephew of renowned flamenco guitaristRamón Montoya he seemed to have been born to playFlamenco , but it was his uncle who would be his biggest obstacle, as he refused to teach Carlos the tricks of the trade. He began studying the guitar with his mother and a neighboring barber,Pepe el Barbero , a.k.a. Pepe the Barber. By the time he was 14 years old he was accompanying dancers and singers in the cafes ofMadrid, Spain .In the 1920s and 1930s he performed extensively in
Europe ,North America , andAsia with the likes ofLa Teresina . The outbreak ofWorld War II brought him to theUnited States where he began his most successful days as a musician, and frequently toured with the dancerLa Argentina . Settling inNew York City duringWorld War II (circa 1941), he began touring on his own, bringing his fiery style to concert halls, universities, andorchestra s.Montoya toured year round but always returned to his homeland, Spain, to spend the Christmas holidays with his family.
Playing style
Montoya's playing style was idiosyncratic. He once said, according to Brook Zern,
"I do not play the way I do to please the public, though it certainly does, on five continents so far, and no other flamenco guitarist will ever fill the Houston Astrodome as I have. No, I play the way I do because to me, that is exactly the way the flamenco guitar should sound. It seems strange to me that the unknowing public should agree, while the real flamenco aficionados clearly do not...but that's the case."
His style was not particularly appreciated by serious flamenco students, who considered it less brilliant than many others, including that of Montoya's uncle Ramón. Carlos's own favorite flamenco guitarist, it was reported by Zern, was the obscureCurrito de la Geroma .That he was unpopular among aficionados owes largely to the fact that Montoya learned in a non-traditional way and that abandoned the compás which has evolved within flamenco over hundreds of years. Many of his works do not even keep perfect tempo, increasing and decreasing in speed almost whimsically. He was admired for the speed of his picados and undoubtably found popularity on the international stage as a result of this obviously impressive pace, but to an aficionado speed is nothing withoutcompás , the trick being to play rapid, beautiful falsettas without straying outside the framework of the rhythm.It is his unique work that detached
Flamenco as only dance accompaniment and gave it a life and genre of its own. The modern definition ofFlamenco was defined by the works of Carlos Montoya.He was known to play with a
capo on the 3rd fret and on really loose strings. It is suspected he tuned down and then compensated with thecapo to increase his ability to applypicado .Death
Montoya died a
Flamenco legend in the tinyLong Island,New York town ofWainscott, New York (pop. 600+), March 3rd, 1993 of heart failure. He was 89.Legacy
His unique style and successful career, despite all odds, have left a great legacy for modern day
Flamenco . It is because of his pioneering work in popularFlamenco music that have allowed other great modern groups such as theGipsy Kings to take hold in all parts of the world. A few of his video recordings can still be found onYouTube .External links
* [http://digital-library.csun.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/IGRAdiscography&CISOBOX1=Montoya%2C+Carlos+Garc%C3%ADa Some photos of LP covers] (Oviatt Library Digital Collections)
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