Ketama

Ketama's project: to take flamenco away from the "flamencoliques" ("melancholy flamencologists"). At first, the group drew on light cante (rumbas and tanguillos), revisited by the bass of Paco de Lucia's collaborator Carles Benavent. La Pipa de Kif (1987) marked a first turning point, with the arrival of an electric guitar, paving the way for Songhai (1988), Ketama's most accomplished album, in which he meets Toumani Diabaté's kora. Buoyed by their success, the group went on to record Y es ke me han kambiao los tiempos (1990) for Polygram, where bossa, salsa, blues and jazz increasingly dilute their flamenco heritage. The following albums illustrate Ketama's double destiny: a rather wise Atlantic "flamenco fusion" (Morente's collaboration is a guarantee of classicism) and a more radical adventure born of contact with Black Africa.

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