Carlos Montoya

 

Cante De Sevilla

Carlos Montoya

Produced by Marty Gold

Recorded in RCA Victor's Studio A, New York City

Recording Engineer: Bob Simpson

RCA Victor LSP-2251

1960

From the back cover: It would be downright impossible to find a better qualified musician to play Flamenco guitar than Carlos Montoya. Born in Madrid, Carols Montoya is, as they say in Spain, "gypsy on all four sides." It is usually agreed that playing Flamenco with a genuine feeling is something only a gypsy can do.

Carlos was a mere eight years old when his mother began to teach him to play the guitar. Then she sent him to the barber. This did not cut his musical career short, since the barber was also a talented guitarist and teacher. But after just one year, the amazing young Carlos had learned everything the barber could teach him. He left for more advanced instruction from various celebrated Flamenco guitarists. By the time he was fourteen, Carlos was playin in the "cafes cantantes" for such famous artist as Jaun el Estampio, La Camisole and Antonio de Bilbao.

When the late and famous Antonia Mercé – known to her public as "La Argentina" – visited Madrid in search of a guitarist, she chose Carlos Montoya as the best of the many expert Flamenco musicians who were anxiously competing for this choice assignment. And so, for the first time, the young man whose genius was to take him in triumph all over the world, left his native Spain. For three years he worked with "La Argentina," touring most of Europe.

All this time, Carlos Montoya was growing steadily as a musical artist. Let him explain in his own words just how this happens: "The only way you improve is by playing. You learn that you can do many new things. It becomes easier to improvise. That is the secret of our music –  improvisation. And one must have the music in his heart before he can play it on the strings.

After performing with such great stars as "La Argentina," "La Argentinita," Vicente Escudero and Carmen Amaya, the dedicated and enterprising Carlos Montoya decided to make an unprecedented move to advance the popularity of Flamenco guitar music. He would risk giving a complete recital devoted to this music. The repertoire of Flamenco guitarist being rather limited, it had been customary for them to subordinate themselves to a singer or dancer. But Monty, being a composer as well as a performer, determined in 1945 to put things in their proper perspective. He achieved great success giving solo recitals, and was able to climax his triumphs with an appearance at New York's famed Town Hall, where an audience which overflowed onto the stage gave him a tremendous ovation. This is as it should one, for Carlos Montoya is a Spanish gypsy, who wanders the earth, and offers people his music, and he says, "Now I Play Flamenco. Flamenco must come from the heart."

Nana del Gitanito 

Madrid 1800 Medley

  Agua Azucarillos y Aguardiente

  Donde Vas con Mantón de Manila

  Chotis

Sacromonte

Granaina

Duende Flamenco

El Vito

Potpourri Regional Medley

  Jota Aragonesa

  Sardana

  Rapsodia Valenciana

  La Lagarterana

Soleá por Medio

Cante de Sevilla (Petenera)