His Essential Recordings

Fabulous Flamenco/La Gitarra Flamenca	Paco Pena - Misa Flamenca / Diego, La Susi, Guardiana, El Chaparro Paco Peña's original concept for this stunning Flamenco Mass sprang from the desire to unite the Catholic perception of the religious Mass to the Flamenco musical tradition. There is a deliberate fusion between a classical musical style and the highly emotional Flamenco 'Art Fo...	A Flamenco Guitar Recital	Arte Y Pasion It's no surprise that the beauty of flamenco's confident rhythms, woody sounds, and wild syncopation come across in this live performance of classical guitarist Paco Peña, the Losada Brothers, and Flamenco Dance Company. Peña, a longtime virtuoso of flamenco guitar, boldly stru...	Masters of Flamenco Guitar Many subtly varied kinds of music fall under the rubric of flamenco, which is a style of singing, dancing, and even living, as well as playing the guitar. This collection presents a good guitar selection, highlighted by the polished technique of Sabicas, the profundity of Manolo ...
Flamenco on Fire	Flamenco Guitar Music of Ramon Montoya & Nino Ricardo	The Art of Paco Pena	Flamenco Guitar	Volare! - The Very Best Of The Gipsy Kings There's very little doubt that the Gipsy Kings are good at what they do--they've become the brand name in Sevillana, the pop-oriented flamenco style. Since 1989, when the single "Bamboleo" and their Gipsy Kings album broke through and went gold in the United States, they've found...

A bit of a dog's breakfast, but...
I must make it clear at the outset that I don't possess this album, which contains 28 of the 66 tracks Paco has recorded in his five basic (i.e. not anthologised) recordings for Nimbus. I do, however, possess those five albums (in fact, all of Paco's albums since his first in 1968), and since as I write no other review has appeared, I venture to add some information. I should also say that I contributed both booklet notes and a cover photograph to the Nimbus albums, so I refrain from comment on the quality of the music or the recordings. As far as I can make out, this selection comprises the following: 7 tracks from Music of Ramón Montoya & Niño Ricardo, 1987 7 tracks from Azahara, 1988 7 tracks from Encuentro (with Eduardo Falú), 1989 2 tracks from Misa Flamenca, 1991 5 tracks from Arte y Pasión, 1999 making a total time of just over 2 hours 10 minutes. The main problem with this album is its title, which should be "A Representative Selection of Paco Peña". What the essential recordings are will of course depend on your taste. If that taste is for Flamenco Guitar, then you'd be better off with the double album of that name, which comprises Montoya/Ricardo and Azahara. If you prefer flamenco singing and the ambience of a live performance, you may prefer Arte y Pasión*. If you like the flamenco mass, then you can see it as well as listen to it. If you want music of Latin America -- in which Eduardo Falú is certainly one of the greatest names -- then most of this album will be of little interest. If, however, you have no overriding passion but like a lot of variety, then this compilation could well be ideal. *Update 2008: To this we may now add A Compás, which I personally think is the better of the two albums.