Ketama

This is with no doubt one of the best CD's I've ever listened to, KETAMA is plenty of originality, swing, art and sabor. Antonio's voice is superb with all the tradition of his culture and even the improvisational skills of a great sonero (just hear the duet with his cousin, the late Antonio Flores in "Vente pa' Madrid"). José Miguel is in excellent shape on the lead Flamenco guitar and Juan "Camborio de Marchena" backing the work on rythm guitar and laúd. The band is an all star line up of Spain's musical scene, the music is beautiful and sophisticated and the live recording is one of the best ever heard. This is not a CD for flamenco purists, it is a music lover's must have!

I purchased this CD because I love flamenco and I read the glowing reviews by other buyers. Unfortunately, this CD doesn't do anything for me. It's basically Spanish pop that, occasionally, vaguely refers to flamenco. A waste of money for me, sadly.

I was introduced to Ketama by a friend who brought this CD when she visited a couple of years ago from Spain. I can tell you that if you like flamenco, you will definitely love this group. They have a great live sound, and guitar playing is at a very high level if you appreciate this instrument. Most of the compositions are very elaborate. The live recording quality is very high, in fact I was amazed at it. When my brother in law, who is a sound engineer, listened to it for the first time, he was amazed as well. Use this CD to enjoy flamenco music, or to study if you're a guitar player. One of the best live recordings ever.

Take one double bass player(Danny Thompson ex Pentangle no less)one Kora player(Toumani Diabate)and a Flamenco group(the wonderful Ketama)and put them all in one room and you will have something very special. It was sad indeed to find no reviews of this fabulous recording so I will TRY and do it some justice .So many attempts at mixing different types of "world " music end up in a hodge podge of sounds and styles that satisfy no one and merely dilute the source, but this is the real deal.The overiding feeling of this disc is PLEASURE...the musicians involved are obviously swimming in the delights of the music they are creating,the discoveries they are making about themselves and their music.

This disparate band somehow produces a seamless and invigorating stream of music that will take you to places even they never dreamed of.
Buy it.....

This is a greatest hits package that covers twenty years, 1984-2004. The first four tracks were recorded in 2004 and from there the disc goes chronologically back in time but finishes ending with another 2004 track. This is good because their "contemporary" sound from 2004 reflects their musical direction now that is sophisticated, smooth with modern rough edges of eletronica; the musical parts are at times reminiscent of Ojos de Brujo Techarí but not quite so forward thinking, that is, not pushig the envelope in the same direction so much. Like Ojos de Brujo they throw in the occasional hip-hop-scratch elements to add flavor to their musical vison. One such song is "Agustito 2004," that emits a modern world urban sound. Ketama has always shaken things up with the addition of other musical genres to their conception of flamenco; they create quite a world music flamenco stew. Jazz plays a significant part of their sound, as does the aforementioned electronic sounds. The result is very interesting. There are the occasional ballads that are very popish; love songs with slighlty upbeat pop rhythms. This is not their strong point but I'm sure their big fans love this part of their repertoire. "Alguna Vez" is one such song and comes complete with extra horns and chorus in pop big production style. These Spanish gypsies do not forget their roots but rather expand the horizons of the genre; they were doing it before it became popular, they were at the forefront as this disc captures the last twenty years. The lead vocalist Antonio Carmona and his brother Jose Miguel pen most of the music that has no borders. The Middle Eastern sound brought to International audiences by such groups as Rumba Argelinais evident on certain tracks, certainly on "Estatua de Sal." There is a live track,"Vente Pa Madrid' that features a duet between Antonio and his cousin Antonio Flores who has a gruff-smoked-too-many-cigs-between-late-night-wine-voice taht makes for a good counterpoint to Antonio's pleasant voice. A curious elemnt of their music is the addition of instruments usually not assocaited with pure flamenco. The use of the mandolin is something that thet explot with favorable results. Antonio streches back to his flamenco roots for a magnificent song entitled "Leyenda Viva" that comes complete with and clapping and undulating raw emotion as he sings in true flamenco style. There si something for everyone on this collection of songs from the pioneers of nuevo flamenco. They are also featured on the several compilations like The Young Flamencos and A Night in Madrid that showcases artists in the nuevo flamenco sub-genre. Recommended for nuevo flamenco aficionados.

I have been kindof stuck on ketama too for a while. I did not like the turn they have take towards pop. I thought Sonhai I and II were brilliant. The lyrics on this record are so empty they make me want to turn it off. Their music though, continues to intoxicate me. I am leaning more towards the sarcasm of Martires or the daring spirit of Pata Negra. Or better yet the cohesiveness of Radio Tarifa. I wish ketama would get a little more serious about it all.

I give this album 4.5 ,not 5 nor 4.Increible salad of Flamengo, Bossa,and Cuban .Is like being in Seville looking to the PAN DE ASUCAR and having a DAIQUIRI .Vale Primo.....

A little dissappointing on first listen but it has grown on me. The Ketama I was looking for in this new release was Ketama the innovators of days gone by. I first heard these guys when they were featured on a CD entitled" The Young Flamencos"(Los Jovenes Flamencos) and was impressed with the direction they were taking tradional flamenco. Like the "Gipsy Kings" their sound is roots bound but is incorporating other elements to reach a vast audience, alas , pop acceptence. I wish they would just play, return to the true art form of flamenco and forget the diversions. Don't get me wrong this is beautiful music, exqusite at times, romantic, jazzy, rap-ish, samba-ish but always very polished. At times you'd think you were listening to Astrud Gilberto's flamenco album. Maybe it's just the fact that it was recorded in Rio. Sometimes a diamond in the rough is best. They seem to have lost the hard cutting edge they were on the threshhold of exploiting and have settled for mass appeal. When the vocals hinge on the crossover I wish they would go over to the other side and get guttural and forget the chorus more fiting for an r&b song. These songs remind me an experiment gone awry, still retaining the original beauty of it's shape but starting to change into something hardly recognizeable. Almost like processed corn being recalled. Now after 5 or 6 listens I like it more but still have the same problems with the music, more flamenco less everything else. When the vocalist wants to you can hear that voice go true "cancion ondo" but the passion is drowned out by the excursions into other territories. I like it, don't love it and I suppose it will grow on me even more. It really is quite beautiful at times just not enough of the time. If my review sounds confused it's because that is the way the CD is, confusing, puzzling because it is so beautiful yet so blase at the same time. Innovative and reaching for new grounds for flamenco but what's wrong with tierra firme? All in all a good listen but a CD in search of a true identity.

Ketama is certainly one of the best pop flamenco bands out there, providing lively and spirited rhythms & song (definitely more so than the french group Gypsy Kings - much more varied and experimental) This is an enjoyable listen to keep your heart soaring and body moving! ...BUT... to continue Mr. Napoli's suggestions for the PURE flamenco, the absolute No.1 best example is CAMARON de la ISLA! No competition, the idol and major influence of all the younger (& older) flamenco singers... and as found in his repetoire, he also covered the pop (rumba) market as well, but NOTHING beats the raw gut-wrenching intensity of his cante junto!

First of all, this isn't Latin music. No offense to the other reviewers. Ketama is one of a growing number of flamenco-pop groups emerging in Spain. This is there most recent and most pop-influenced cd yet. They went so far as to release a discoteca version of "Agustito" for one of the infinite summer hits cd's. Check out "Mienteme," "El Lago" (a Triana remake-the Pink Floyd of Spain), and "Soledad" which has a villancico sound to it. The rest are all rumba-pop but as always, all have great rhythms, Antonio Carmona's perfect voice, and nothing to do with the Latin music wave sweeping America and thousands of cheesy European discotecas resembling Menthos commercials (guilty as charged). If you want to hear their more pure flamenco cd's, check out Ketama, Canciones Hondas, and Es Ke Me Han Kambiado Los Tiempos. After that, they lost lead singer Jose Soto who was the traditional flamenco anchor of the band. If you want more of the best new music from Spain, again, nothing like you hear coming out of Puerto Rico, Mexico City, LA, San Antonio, or NYC, then look for La Nina Pastori or Pata Negra. If anyone wants to talk about this amazing group (or if anyone knows a flamenco guitar instructor in Napoli) feel free to write.

I have had this cd for many years and only recently seen it on Amazon. If you love flamenco style music this is the cd for you. With beautifully expressive lyrics and enchanting musical scores you will not be disappointed . It avoids the cheesey type of flamenco pop but doesn't descend into the repetitive nature of some very traditional flamenco. If you love Spanish music you will not be disappointed by this cd.

Ketama combines traditional flamenco guitar music with more modern pop and jazz rhythms. Beautiful Spanish lyrics and instrumentals. Check it out!

The songs are marvelous. Sensual and full of lovely, cross cultural music. This is a great collection to listen and drift away to another world.

If you think that the Gypsy Kings are flamenco, then this is not the album for you. Ketama are much more sophisticated in their melodies and rhythms. They are part of the "nuevo flamenco" and at the foreground of a musical style all of their own, flamenco jazz.

"Nuevo flamenco" is a not so new movement. Groups like Ketama and Pata Negra have been around for quite a while. New acts like Jarabe de Palo and Navajita Plateá are rapidly moving up the charts and into the international market. They will have to fight for a rightful spot among the "nuevo flamenco" elite.

The Carmona brothers have grown tremendously in this last decade, showing great maturity and versatility. Konfusión is their best album to date. It is full of rich melodies ranging in diverse musical styles. Each song is unique and complex. If you are a musical connosseur, this album is for you.

If you like "aflamencada" music (i.e., flamenco-inspired music, sometimes called "flamenco fusion"), these are the guys for you. I can wholeheartedly recommend this as well as any other album by Ketama for this style of music, for they are superb musicians, and their very flamenco backgrounds provide that earthy "umph" which separates their music from the limpid and mediocre stuff out there masquerading as "new flamenco" (viz., Otmar Liebert et als. ad nauseum). Mind you, this is not "new flamenco" (with the exception of one or two cuts found on each of their albums), which is still flamenco but done in a progressive, modern style.

The members of Ketama represent, for me, the difference between really good "aflamencada" music and a lesser quality product which is, in many instances, a mere imitation: Each of these musicians were first completely immersed in flamenco, with a complete knowledge of its forms, rhythms, stylings, and techiniques BEFORE they went on to study and experiment with other forms. Flamenco is very rich and very demanding, and it is almost impossible to capture its vital flavor without years of training and experience. This is why the many non-flamenco quitarists who have been attracted to and inspired by flamenco nevertheless produce a sound that is hollow and lacking in that "certain something" that informs flamenco: You can't do it a hit and a lick - it's an all or nothing proposition. It's also why the really worthwhile exponents of flamenco-inspired music almost exclusively started out in flamenco rather than vice versa. (The Gypsy Kings actually did come out of a certain limited type of flamenco training and exposure - but they're a whole discussion in themselves. Suffice it to say that I would not so easily dismiss them and their music entirely - just to appreciate it for what it is.)

The members of Ketama are all gypsy and all related (as most Spanish gypsies are - which is why they always call one another "primo" (cousin)). The Carmona's are the sons of two brothers, Juan Carmona and Pepe Carmona, who use the nickname "Habichuela." Juan and Pepe grew up in Sacromonte, the gypsy barrio of Granada which, ironically, usually produced very bad flamenco artists. The Habichuela's (and the Maya's, Juan Maya "el Morote" and his brothers) were great exceptions, and being very talented and popular as accompaniests, moved to the much more prosperous venue of Madrid. Their sons, the Ketama boys, grew up in Madrid, and naturally had very different experiences than their parents. At home they were exposed to incredibly good flamenco since the day they were born, but in the greater community of Madrid they acquired new and different tastes. Ketama is the result.

By the way, on their first album, it is represented that the name "Ketama" comes from a Moroccan town known for its hashish. Not so: Madrid's flamenco studios have for years been full of Japanese students, fanatical for flamenco, but who remained unquestionably Japanese. They formed an interesting and, to some extent, humerous sub-culture in the Madrid flamenco scene. This is where the "K" that the group habitually uses comes from - the Japanese language. The name "Ketama" is Japanese slang for the male member (derived from "Ketana," the traditional long sword of the Samurai warrior). I'm sure the Habichuela boys thought it a great inside joke.

As always, Ketama has put together a solid album in "Konfusion." It seems that with their last album, "De Aki a Ketama," they reached the pinacle of their revolutionary Flamenco-Jazz fusion and have now turned in a slightly different direction. While this album doesn't demonstrate the same rhythmic sophistication as "De Aki a Ketama," in which they really did an amazing job of exploring unorthodox rhythmic patterns and meters, it does have a smooth Pop+Jazz+Flamenco sound that promises to please new listeners. Also, the lyrical content of "Konfusion," for those who understand Spanish, is far more thoughtful, interesting, and, even, intellectual than anything found in Ketama's earlier "party" albums. In short, this band is brilliant. "De Aki a Ketama" is an absolutely indispensible album and "Konfusion," while more introspective, will not disappoint any of us who have come to expect the highest caliber of music from this band.

Ketama at their very best. Now they are simply commited to Music, as a link between civilizations and they do it as serious musiciens, not so worried as selling out but specially foccused on enjoyng their creativeness and doing the music they like. Something resulting from an intersection of flamenco, north africa, south america (rumba, bossa) and yet, jazz fusion from the States.Let them fly as princes of a new planet era in popular music. Together with "La barberia del Sur" and Pepe Luis Carmona (you'd better listen to this guy) they are the creators and guardians of a certain type of sound developed in the musical scene of Madrid, but with their deep roots in the Andalucian ground. They are gipsies opened to the world in search of new emotions through new sounds, and for that they made a crossover experiment between styles. The CD KONFUSION is perhaps their very best release, for it exhibits the ultimate capacity of taking their model of fusion as far as it could go.Or is there something else yet to do? One remark as to be made, this one for the usual listeners of spanish-flamenquish junk. Don't mess these guys with under class products like Gipsy Kings and other stuff like this, please. Have the good taste to taste what is good. But, anyway, if you can't distinguish between pearls and marbles...

1 star only because it is the lowest rating available. I bought this CD based on the previous review and I am extremely disappointed. It is not even close to flamenco or even upbeat. I'm not sure what kind of music this band plays and I can't quite categorize it but it is not contain the upbeat, latin rythyms I'm acccusomed to. If you want upbeat flamenco rythms, you're better off with Novamenco, Rumba Tres, Gypsy Kings, Jesse Cook or anyone else for that matter. I couldn't even trade this in for something else at a local store. No interesting sounds or talented vocals come out of this CD..in a nutshell...BORING! I wish I could return it to Amazon for an exchange.