We traveled to Spain on a Lighton Grant for three weeks

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Contact: Beau Bledsoe

Telephone Number: 816-471-5107

Incorporating Kansas City Jazz and Experimental Instruments into Traditional Flamenco Culture

Flamenco Mio was awarded a grant from the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program to afford Kansas City musicians Beau Bledsoe and Mark Southerland funding for travel for five performances in Spain. The grant covered the cost of hiring and performing with 5 musicians and one dancer from Sevilla. Flamenco Mio consisted of Bledsoe on guitar and oud and Southerland on saxophone and horn sculptures. Sevilla’s resident flamenco dancer Melinda Hedgecorth, three Spanish percussionists and two Spanish singers were employed to perform for the project.

• Sept 2nd - La Puebla de Cazalla, Sevilla , Bar Zepellin

• Sept 7th - Sevilla, - El Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporanéo

• Sept 9th - Sevilla, - La Caja Negra - (jazz club)

• Sept 10th - Morón de la Frontera , Sevilla - Festival Flamenco en la Frontera

• Sept 14th - Sevilla, Museo del Baile Flamenco

We traveled to Spain on the Lighton Grant for three weeks. Landing in Madrid and taking a train to Sevilla, we grounded ourselves in La Puebla de Cazalla, a town south of Sevilla known for it’s flamenco cante (flamenco singing). We rented a small house at the edge of town from a friend’s grandfather, dropped our luggage, and walked to the square. The first bar we stopped at was already in a state of social performance- Servando (a local singer) and a local guitarist were playing at the bar. Servando beat his handless right arm into his left palm belting out a soleá while the guitarist accompanied him and customers clapped out palmas. Juanlu Cárdenas, one of the singers scheduled to perform with us also sang while two women danced Sevillanas in the small space between the wall and the bar, the floor peppered with sunflower seed shells. We pulled out our instruments and started to play. A local friend and photographer who documents the living history and culture of flamenco, Fidel Meneses, brought out his camera. La Puebla de Cazalla breathes flamenco. Cantes spill from half open doors as you walk through the streets. Men beat out traditional rhythms on tabletops. People discuss and critic what Flamenco is all hours of the day and break into song to prove their point.

click on images to enlarge

photos: Fidel Meneses

By chance we had arrived during Feria, an annual festival where the women try to outdo each other in traditional Flamenco dresses- layered polka dot patterns, rose headpieces and tall elaborate hair combs. The preferred transportation is horseback and everyone celebrates into the morning, eating, drinking, dancing and singing. Children play and fall asleep in strollers, polka dot ruffles engulfing them. Flamenco takes up equal audio and dance space as the Latin pop songs blasting from the covered tents.

photo: Peregrine Honig

photo: Beau Bledsoe

photo: Peregrine Honig

We were honored to be given rehearsal space in the Fuenlonguilla, a cultural equivalent to Kansas City’s Mutual Musicians’ Foundation or New Orleans’s Preservation Hall. The Fuenlonguilla is a stately historical hacienda that maintains an archive of flamenco carteles (posters) and other memorabilia. This refurbished olive mill also hosts the prestigious Cante Jondo Festival every July. Our first performance was at the Bar Zeppelin, a privately owned space in La Puebla. We performed with Juanlu Cárdenas as a percussionist and vocalist and the performance was well attended and well received

photo: Peregrine Honig

photo: Fidel Meneses

The second show was at the La Caja Negra in Sevilla, a jazz club. The show included “Pilongi” on percussion. The crowd was primarily dance students and it was interesting to have that initial academic feedback. Traditional and familiar pieces were favored in the urban venues and the contemporary and more experimental aspects of the performances were celebrated in the smaller cities.

photo: Peregrine Honig

Our third show was at the Seville Museum of Contemporary Arts. The outdoor stage was beautiful and the interior museum was interesting, a baroque nunnery with Moorish cloisters.

photo: Peregrine Honig

photo: Beau Bledsoe

Our anchor concert was the closing night of the Flamenco en la Frontera Festival in Morón de la Frontera. Performing the finale to this week long festival was an honor and to be chosen to represent new directions not only fulfilled our hope of exposure to a committed audience, but also gave us an opportunity to perform in a focused and traditional space. We performed with percussionist, Saul Garcia and singer Juan Murube, an amazing talent we hope to bring to Kansas City.

photo: Beau Bledsoe

photo: Fidel Meneses

Our fifth performance was at the prestigious Museum of Flamenco Dance in Sevilla. The space is dedicated to flamenco dance as an art and practice. Floors above the stage showcase the costumes of Spain’s most famous dancers, clips from films, and posters from different eras.

photo: Fidel Meneses

We consider Flamenco Mio to be the first step in fabricating a network of national and international collaborations. Our hope is to bring talent into Kansas City and build relationships between artists and musicians with the hope of new generative work and inspiration to follow.

Additional photos from Fidel Meneses

Additional photos from Beau, Mark, and Peregrine Honig

Tour made possible by The Lighton International Artists Exchange Program http://www.kansascityartistscoalition.org/grants/liaep/liaep.html

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For more information, video, audio, images, etc., please contact Beau Bledsoe

816-471-5107. EMAIL: beau@beaubledsoe.com