It’ll be a night of hand clapping and feet tapping when celebrated virtuoso of the flamenco guitar Juan Martín performs with his dance ensemble at Lake Country’s Creekside Theatre Tuesday.
Voted twice as one of the top three guitarists in the world by Guitar Player magazine, Martín is from the birthplace of the flamenco, Andalucía, Spain, but is now based out of London.
“In Martín’s hands, flamenco is not so much a musical style as an entire culture compressed into a quivering box of air,” wrote a reviewer with The Guardian newspaper in the U.K.
Martín has played the great concert halls of the world in Russia, Europe, Canada, America, Turkey, Hong Kong, Beijing, and has collaborated with the likes of Paco de Lucia, the late Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
He also had the honour to be asked to play for Pablo Picasso’s 90th birthday celebrations on which he based his album Picasso Portraits.
Martín performs with a highly distinctive and creative compositional style of flamenco with some outrageously spunky chords that are real surprises in this genre.
His interest in the Moorish roots of flamenco have led him to rediscover Andalusí and Sephardic music from the 12th and 13th centuries no longer performed in Spain.
He has recorded 20 albums, mostly as a composer, the most recent of which was Serenade with the Royal Philharmonic.
His recent appearance at the Barbican in London was filmed in preparation for a TV program about his life and a live concert DVD.
Martín has literally written the book on Spanish guitar styles. His El Arte Flamenco de la Guitarra, now in its 10th print, is a worldwide best seller and has opened the complex art of the flamenco guitar to the whole world. It is assiduously studied from Moscow to Beijing to San Francisco and back to Spain, and has assured Martín’s name for posterity.
While the heart of flamenco lies in the songs (cantes), the music is accompanied by the heel clicks of show-stopping dances (bailes).
The Creekside performance will serve up such a dynamic union, joining Martín on stage with his dance ensemble, whose shimmering footwork will completely enrapture the audience.
Martín performs at Creekside Theatre in Lake Country, Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be reserved by calling the theatre at 250-766-9309.
