Jazz Is: 21 – Granaína

No this is not jazz, but if I were a jazz musician, I would make it jazz. I came across it in my search for this week’s Jazz Is post, and it is simply too extraordinary not to share. It is sung by the late Enrique Morente, a great and controversial figure in the world of flamenco, who died just over a week ago at the age of 67. First, this introductory note from esflamenco.com.

Flamenco Forms
Granaína and media granaína
by Susana Navalón
Translated by Yasha Maccanico

(From Granada, a distortion of granadina, meaning from Granada). It is a fandango from Granada, stripped of any rhythm. It belongs to the category of the cantes del Levante (songs from the south-east of Spain, the Levant; originating in the mines and expressing deep suffering, their urban variations tend to refer to love, life and death) and like the malagueña, it is based on the structure of the fandango. The granaína usually has an introductory ayeo (melodic wailing using the word “ay”), which is not found in the media granaína. It is sung in a free style and is accompanied by a guitar in B due to its acute tonality. Its music is elegant and rests on adornment.

Now, here is Estrella Morrentes, Enrique’s daughter, singing a deeply emotional cante beside his coffin, at his wake at the Teatro Isabel la Católica in Granada.

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