Flamenco CD with cantaor/singer Antonio de la Malena

This is as good a time as any to announce to the world that we will soon finish production on a CD of flamenco cante (singing) by Antonio de la Malena, a singer known the world over.  He has toured throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.  He has sung in Egypt.  He has been to almost every place where flamenco is loved.

This will be his first, purely flamenco CD.  He has two other CDs to his name, but they are more flamenco fusion.  We are really excited, and feel privileged that he has chosen us as the producer.  We are partnering in this venture with the Spanish company, Jerez Puro, who will handle the CD's distribution in Europe.

Antonio de la Malena.  (photo:  Martin Guerrero & Casa Patas)

The title of the CD is Para ti mi cante, que es mi libertad.  In English, that translates as My singing is for you, my singing is my freedom.

I have to admit, it reads better in Spanish than in English.  I'll have to work on that one.

The CD contains 10 numbers, ranging from the lively and upbeat bulerias through the heaviest of all songs, the seguiriyas.  Antonio sings several numbers without guitar accompaniment, but most do have guitar, played by world-famous guitarists such as Manuel Parilla and Domingo Rubichi.

We should also mention that there is a taranto in which Antonio sings a short part mimicking his "uncle Jose," and then invites his brother Manuel de Malena (also a well known flamenco singer) to continue on and finish with a more traditional rendition. 

Bulerias fin de fiesta.  Right, standing=Antonio de la Malena

For the final number, the traditional "fin de fiesta" (ending party) bulerias, Antonio invites not only his brother but another four to six people to join in.  They each take turns singing, with Antonio singing first and also ending the session.  There is no guitar accompaniment.  It's performed as if they were, indeed, all at a party together and simply enjoying themselves.

OUR NEXT POST will be about our documentary, a Zest for Life.

The feet and hands as musical (percussion) instruments

As any flamenco dancer, tap dancer, dancer doing Afro-Peruvian zapateo, and dancer of many other forms of dance can tell you, the feet can and often are used as musical instruments.  It amazes me the kinds of sounds you can get out of using your feet.  Every time I think I´ve come to the end of the possibilities in flamenco, I see a performance in which new possibilities are offered.

Not just for walking around.  Also for making music.

 And many dancers add other parts of the body to the sounds made by the feet:  clapping hands, slapping your knee with your hand, and so forth.

It´s possible, and for some people (including myself), very pleasurable to spend long periods of time imagining different patterns of sounds you can make with your feet.  There´s a visual aspect as well:  if you hit the floor with the tip of your toe, it makes a specific kind of sound.  If you do it three times in a row, with your toe at a different angle with respect to the foot that´s on the ground, the sound changes AND the look changes.

In a later post, I'll include some feet rhythm sounds but for now, I want to introduce to you what can be done with hands beating on a table.  Sure, you've done it before, but this is done by a MASTER.



I remember when one of my kids was around 8 years old and told me he was interested in playing the drums.  He wanted me to purchase a full drum set for him.  I countered that he should play drums for several months before I bought him any.  I was perfectly happy to give him lessons (which I did) and buy him a practice head but didn´t understand why I should purchase a complete drum set before we saw how serious he was.

Inside my head, I was secretly thinking--if this kid loves drums so much, why isn´t he drumming on the table, and banging spoons together, and tapping the window with his fingers?  Because drumming is rhythm, and you don´t need a drum set to make rhythm.

Rhythm is an essential part of life.  We all know that our heart has its own rhythm.  That rhythm is something we hear so constantly that we rarely notice it.  Our breathing has a rhythm, which changes according to the level at which we´re exerting ourselves.  The change between day and night has a rhythm.  The movement from one season to another is a kind of rhythm.

Since rhythm is an essential part of life, deliberately using the feet and hands to make different rhythms is a natural response to the world.  It easily becomes a part of music.  It is, in fact, where music MEETS dance.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the CD we´re about to produce of flamenco cante (singing) by Antonio de la Malena.

Screening of Domino: Caught in the Crisis

About 10 days ago, on Jan. 26, we had a public screening of Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  For those unfamiliar with the work, it´s a dramatic narrative film, still a work-in-progress, that I am shooting in Spain.  It´s about a middle-aged family man in Spain who´s been caught up in the economic crisis.  It´s being produced by my dba, Palomino Productions.

The screening took place in the Arlington Café in Kensington, and was part of the monthly screenings being presented by MAW (Media Art Works) in its EBMMSC (East Bay Media Makers´ Screening Club).  The next screening will be on the third Thursday of this month (February), so you might want to mark your calendars.

Bianca Beyrouti (project director for MAW) and Eve A. Ma (filmmaker) introduce the film.

The screening was a real pleasure for me.  It was relaxed and low key, with an interested audience that gave me plenty of feedback.  And they LIKE my work.

I have thought deeply about all the comments and now that I´m back in Spain, I´ll be make a few changes as a result.  It´s always a big help to see how people react to your work, for the simple reason that we make film/video in order to communicate, and so it´s important to see how well, or poorly, your work is communicating.

Part of the audience.

 So my thanks to MAW for giving me the opportunity to screen, and thanks as well to the audience--and the Arlington Café.

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about our really great CD of Afro-Peruvian rhythms...now available for purchase!  LINK   Or if you just want us to send you a free download of one of the songs on the album, go here LINK.

Acoustic and electronic musical instruments, and synthesizers

Everyone has their own tastes in music and in musical instruments.  For me, the tone and fine quality of sound that comes out of a well-played acoustic instrument simply cannot be compared with the flat sounds that an electronic instrument or computer produces, no matter how much reverb you add.

I'm willing to be tolerant, and understand that some music made with electronic instruments in cool stuff.  I can even accept that creating a "beat" with a computer is fun and is, in fact, part of a creative process.

But I´m really sorry, I STILL don´t much like the sound.

Flamenco guitarist Malena Hijo with his guitar.

Learning how to play an instrument, whether electronic or acoustic, requires you to enter into a relationship with that instrument that is fundamentally different from what happens when you make music on a computer.  In addition to the time and continued practice needed, it requires a form of love...and that time, practice and love are part of what gives them their depth.  (The practice, for example, actually changes your physical make-up.)

Southern Indian bharatanatyam singer (Sasidaran), flutist and violinist.

 One of the things that attracts me to what is usually called "world music"  is that the instruments are made out of living materials, and the playing of them produces a sound that has life and color.  The same is true for what is often referred to as "classical music" (a term usually pointing to formal music of European or sometimes North American origin).

Juan Omar Medrano Cotito with four Afro-Peruvian percussion instruments.

If the purpose of music is to move us by making sounds that speak to us as living beings, it makes sense to imagine that musical instruments made out of living materials will have more success than modulating electrical impulses. 

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about the great screening we had of Domino on Jan. 26.

Screenings just past, and screenings coming up

We had a screening last Friday in la Peña Cultural Center, in Berkeley, CA (across the bay from San Francisco).  We´re having ANOTHER screening this coming Thursday in the Arlington Café in Kensington, CA (also across the bay from San Francisco).  If you didn´t make the first one, you can always come to the second one.

MC Hershell West and filmmaker Eve A. Ma at last Friday´s event.

Last Friday´s screening was for our documentary, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz.  In addition to the documentary, we had a lively and fun performance by de Rompe y Raja, the group featured in the documentary.  We also gave one brave soul a mini-lesson in Afro-Peruvian zapateo footwork.  He had to get up on the stage and take this lesson in front of the whole audience.  And he did a great job.

To read more about this past event and see more photos, check out our blog Afro-peruvian.blogspot.com.  Here´s the LINK.

Our screening this upcoming Thursday will be of a portion (or if the audience demands it, all) of our current most important work-in-progress, Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  This is a dramatic narrative rather than a documentary.  It´ll run about 40 minutes when completed...and is NEARLY complete now.  We expect to be able to release it this summer.

From Domino:  the lottery ticket seller and our hero, Luis (Antonio de la Malena).

The screening is being presented by MAW (Media Art Works) as part of their monthly series, EBMMSC (East Bay Media Makers´ Screening Club).

If you want to be part of the making of a film by influencing how it´s going to look in the final edit, come to the event and give the filmmaker some feedback.   (The filmmaker is yours truly, otherwise known as Eve A. Ma).  The event, which is free and open to the public, starts at 6:30pm.  The venue, Arlington Café, is located at 269 Arlington Ave. in "downtown" Kensington, next door to Mechanics Bank.

See you there!

OUR NEXT BLOG will be about musical instruments.

Exciting events: Release parties! and Screenings!

Things are heating up.  On Friday, Jan. 20 at 8pm, we'll have a release party for A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Rhythms, a Source of Latin Jazz in la Peña Cultural  Center (3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA, USA) and on the following Thursday, Jan. 26, a Bay Area non-profit called MAW (Media Art Works) is hosting a screening of Domino:  Caught in the Crisis at 6:30pm in the Arlington Cafe (269 Arlington Ave., Kensington, CA., USA).

The release party, which will include not only the screening of the hour-long documentary but also a live performance by de Rompe y Raja (the performing group featured in the documentary) and a mini-lesson in Afro-Peruvian zapateo footwork, has a nice story in the Calendar section of the San Francisco Bay View LINK.  Cost is $15 at the door, $12 in advance, and special discount for students and seniors.  (Press enters free.)  If you want to purchase tickets in advance, here´s the LINK.

In addition, the current issue of El Cerrito Patch, in its Local Voices section, has a blog with an interview with Eve A. Ma, Producer-Director of A Zest for Life.  Here´s the LINK.  The author, Pam Fingado, chose two of my flamenco dance photos to illustrate me.

Eve A. Ma (yours truly)

We also have a story coming out on Tuesday, Jan. 17 in the El Cerrito Patch which talks about the release party, about how we made the documentary, and most importantly, about Afro-Peruvian music and dance which is the reason for the documentary and all that's connected to it.  Here's LINK to the El Cerrito Patch.  I believe the article will be on the front page under NEWS-Arts.

We EXPECT to have an article appear in the Berkeley Patch as well;  will keep you posted.  AND our event will eventually be listed in the Events section of the Berkeley Patch but there's been some technical problems there having to do with the link to the "location," La Peña Cultural Center.

And we expect to have other stories in other publications.

Now, Domino:  the screening, on Thursday, Jan. 26 starting at 6:30pm in the Arlington Cafe (269 Arlington Ave., Kensington -- by the pharmacy, bank, grocery store and other "downtown" Kensington businesses) is free and open to the public.  It´s being presented by the non-profit organization MAW (Media Art Works) as part of its monthly screening program, called EBMMSC (East Bay Media Makers´ Screening Club).  We may not project the entire Domino since it´s a bit longer than MAW´s guidelines suggest, but will certainly show at least 20 minutes of it.

We´d love to have you come by and take a look.  Domino is still a work-in-progress even though we´ve completed principal photography and have roughed in the editing.  I always love to watch for audience reaction, and get whatever feedback you chose to give me.  So come on by!

OUR NEXT BLOG will be a report after the event about the A Zest for Life screening, and a second invitation to the Domino screening.