Antonio de la Malena's upcoming CD

You might well be interested in learning that our star, Antonio de la Malena, is about to come out with a CD of flamenco cante (singing).  It's title will be Para ti mi cante, que es mi libertad (My song is for you, my song is my freedom.)  Palomino Productions is producing it jointly with a Spanish company, Jerez Puro, a flamenco performance company that tours all over the world and that also has dance academies all over the world.

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 not flamenco cante.

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

We recorded this back in October, before I left for California, and planned to have it out in February.

Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Turns out Antonio sang a bit too much.  First of all, he recorded another 5 cantes while I was in California.  Next, when he starts singing, he sings, and sings, and sings...and some of the cantes are over 10 minutes long.

Since it's important (says everyone who "knows") that a CD have 10 tracks on it, well, multiply 10 by 10 and you get a lot more minutes than any standard CD is going to hold.

el Bob (palmero), Antonio de la Malena, Manuel Parilla (guitarist), etc.

So we trimmed and trimmed, and cut and cut, and even with only 9 tracks it was STILL too long.  Plus some of what we cut was very dear to Antonio's heart, leaving him feeling like the prospective CD would not be what he wanted.

Solution?  Well, at the present time, we've just about decided to put two CDs into one package.  This has led Antonio to decide that he needs to record some more.  I have told him he MUST NOT go over the now 2-CD limit this time.

Bottom line, since he leaves town tomorrow for France and then Italy, is that we THINK we'll get this finished by the end of spring.  One way or another, I promise it's going to be good.  So hold onto your hats.

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

The final number on the set of two CDs will be the traditional "fin de fiesta" (ending party) bulerias.  For this, Antonio invited not only his older brother, the cantaor Manuel de Malena, and another six or seven 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.

And again, you'll find it at www.AntonioMalenaCD-ENG.com, or if you're in Europe, at www.AntonioMalenaCD.com.

OUR NEXT POST will be about scoping out "el Puerto" (Puerto de Santa Maria).