WOMAD

José Mercé

From Spain

The most successful singer in Spain's rich heritage of Flamenco music, José Mercé has a fantastic voice and his debut UK appearance at WOMAD Rivermead 2001 will be a highlight of a festival.Biography 2001Never believe that the blues is just the music of the American South. The blues is universal, the sound of the down-trodden across the globe, usually highly charged with feelings of regret, pain, despair and longing. It just goes by a different name. In Greece, it's rembetika. In Algeria, it's rai. And in Spain, it's flamenco. Always the most passionate of classical styles, in the 1970s flamenco underwent something of a revolution when young musicians like Camaron and Paco de Lucia reached beyond the music's boundaries to add otherwise alien sounds like electric bass and saxophone to the flamenco canon. This was the equivalent of Muddy Waters plugging into the socket for the first time, a rebirth for the music which ignited a whole new generation of flamenco musicians. José Mercé is one such disciple - kind of Buddy Guy to Paco de Lucia's Howling Wolf - who's believed by many to be the rightful heir apparent to the flamenco throne. And if that wasn't enough, Mercé is also in possession of a honey-toned voice that would make you believe Sam Cooke had returned to this life with an Andalucian accent. Biography by Nige Tassell, July 2001