Almost 26 years after the 1993 concert documented here, and 25 years since its release on CD in 1994, I’ve had the opportunity to make this widely available again.

The work I was exploring at the time – using free improvisation practices and some modern compositional structural techniques within a pre-Paco flamenco aesthetic – drew on very disparate traditions, yet the lynchpins I heard connecting these genres were strong: a certain dissonance in the harmonic voicings; the fluidity of tempo; the immense degree of subtle improvisational interplay between guitarist and singer. I was hearing a lot of connective tissue between the two, not parallel bundles but interesting, flexible hinges, joints, angles, sinews, tendons.

At the time, finding a home for such a mix of elements proved difficult – even adventurous jazz labels perhaps found it too spare – but it found a home at Centaur Records, a classical label with a fearless streak of documenting new music, and I’m indebted to Victor Sachse at Centaur for taking it on and getting behind it. In planning some re-releases of select back catalog and archive material, I wanted to start with where it all began, and Victor graciously released the project to Norumba.

The 2019 edition has been gently remastered, but the content remains intact from the original release. The 1994 CD itself was a pretty transparent capture: except for one glaring .125 of a second of weird note, and the decision to not include audience applause, there were no other edits on the first release from the original concert DAT tape.

New typography has been created for the digital cover art, though the photograph – from a shoot done where photographer Robin Kemp Riekeman experimented with various projections on skin and guitar (fireworks in the chosen pic) – is from the original cover. The original liner notes, including the very generous essay by Jim Reagan, are included on the full pdf liner booklet.

I did two more solo acoustic releases – Sangre Del Rio (1997) and Six Peaces (2003), SDR balancing more toward the flamenco underpinnings, and Six Peaces bringing forth the oud. I haven’t worked in acoustic flamenco-based presentations since those days (although there is a gem of a duo CD recorded in 2002 in Paris with percussionist Ramon Lopez that has yet to see the light of day, but soon).

But the working principle, first documented here – of finding cohesion and connectivity within all the elements you carry, synthesizing your cultural backgrounds and social imprints – remains the constant in my work, I think.

I grew up with so much information around me – flamenco and Middle Eastern and rock, jazz and later, more. Miles, Coltrane, Hendrix, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Peter Brotzmann, Led Zeppelin, Stravinsky, Munir Bachir, James Brown, Melchor De Marchena are each part of my roots, what makes me, so it all comes out in the mix.

This isn’t about slick cultural appropriation for some world music pastiche, but about being honestly authentic via careful craft to that entire personal sum – for better or worse.

I hope you find it for the better, this starting point from 25 years back.