Flamenco Guitar Soloist
Listen to a tremolo fragment from Tarantas composed and played by Motos
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Motos produced only two major recordings which were "Introducing Jose Motos - Suite flamenca No 1" on Top Rank 34/040 in 1958 and "Viva Flamenco!" World Record Club T326 in 1960. The first recording was reissued under the title "Guitarra Flamenca" on Beltier 12.706 and also for the USA market as "Flaming Guitar" on the Jaro label. The following introduction is taken from the first album:
"New artists of stature are not discovered every day, and the publication of this record is therefore no ordinary event. those who have heard Jose Motos Rodrigo in the flesh, with the Carmen Amaya company or at the 1958 Brussels Exposition, will not need to be told that he is a virtuoso of the first rank, a flamenco guitarist in the great tradition. He came out of Spain unknown, except for a few local connoisseurs and colleagues. Unanimously and independently the critics hailed him. For Le Figaro of Paris he was "the hero of the evening"; for the Dancing Times, "surely unequalled anywhere"; for the News Chronicle, "his solo guitar work is the best flamenco playing yet heard in London".
It may seem odd that an artist in the class of the great tocadores of an older generation -- a Ramon Montoya, Nino Sabicas or Nino Ricardo -- has never yet recorded. However it is a fact. This is Jose Motos' first record, and he had to come to London to make it. It will clearly not be his last.
What Motos plays is a long way from the traditional folk-music, though his suite -- all compositions of his own -- contains versions of well-known flamenco genres; the ancient seguidillas and soleares (the 'loneliness songs' which are the Andalucian equivalent to the American Negro Blues); fandangos from huelva, and rondenas, which belong to a group of local derivations from the fandango, developed in Ronda, Malaga, Murcia and elsewhere; the taranta, originally a miners' song from Almeria; bulerias, a very popular and lighter genre; and a familiar stamping dance, the zapateado. Flamenco music, the earliest forms of which were first written down in the late eighteenth century, has evolved away from folk-song ever since it emerged as an art of professional cafe entertainers in Seville and Cadiz a century ago. Like all arts maintained by communities of professional craftsmen, it has developed through the competition of virtuosos. Song-styles have become more elaborate and oriental-sounding, and the guitarist has tended to emancipate himself from his original function, which was strictly subordinate to the singer and dancer. The flamenco guitar solo, which masters like Ramon Montoya pioneered, marks an important step in this evolution.Whatever the purist aficionado may think, few impartial listeners will deny that in the hands of a player of Jose Motos' gifts, the solo guitar suite justifies its existence. What he plays is technically dazzling, and bears witness to ten years of classical guitar study and many daily hours of practice. It is often of great emotional power, and bears witness to his gypsy origins, though Motos belongs to a middle class family settled in Salamanca and was a law student before the call of the guitar became too strong.
Without gypsy feeling the most brilliant technician cannot handle the soleares or seguidillias. Jose Motos' seguidillias (which he considers to be the most successful tracks on this record) are a triumph. He is a man of great talent who, at the age of 28, has a long and brilliant career before him." Francis Newton -- 1958 NOTE: Francis Newton is the nom de plume of Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm
Pieces on this recording were: Soleares, Morabita (Danza Mora), Zapateado, Danza, Rondena, Bulerias, Seguidillas, Huelva, Taranta, Rapsodia (Danza Mora)
Motos lacked the commercial flair which brought such success to Carlos Montoya and Sabicas; he was unsuccessful in his efforts to establish his own flamenco troupe. He was unwilling to make the flashy compromises necessary for mass-audience appeal and his true gifts were in composition and solo performance. After about 1962 he apparently produced no further recordings. He died in 1978. Although some CD-Rs exist of his two albums, these are of poor quality as they were taken from vinyl records and contain numerous "skips". I have the original LPs in near-pristine condition. RL 2001