Los Aurora is a flamenco jazz or jazz flamenco band that is part of the Nuevo Flamenco movement coming out of Barcelona.
Le Poisson Rouge
Sunday, March 29, 2020 ~ Los Aurora play for the World Music Institute and the Flamenco Festival NYC at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village, NYC at 8pm. The show was cancelled to keep New Yorkers safe during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Tickets from $35 at worldmusicinstitute.org
The band’s current project is updating popular songs by Manuel de Falla, one of the leading Spanish composers of the early 20th century. De Falla blended poetry, philosophy and passion into his music. That makes him the perfect ground for flamenco.
Los Aurora
Los Aurora is a Spanish flamenco quintet led by vocalist Pere Martínez and accompanied by dancer José Manuel Álvarez. Max Villavecchia plays piano. Javier Garrabella plays bass. Joan Carles Marí plays drums.
The band blends flamenco, jazz and rock idioms. It’s very listenable and doesn’t get tiring. There is always another interesting twist or turn. Flamenco is one of the roots of jazz so the two flow naturally together. There are many flamenco jazz bands, but Los Aurora uses flamenco, jazz and rock in complementary and amusing ways.
Founded in 2017, out of the Taller de Músics, the young band opened Barcelona’s prestigious Ciutat Flamenco festival just one year later.
Flamenco from Barcelona is controversial because Catalonia is not the Andalusían flamenco heartland. However during the Spanish miracle of the 1970s, there was a migration of workers from Andalusía to Catalonia.
Another Catalan who is leading the nuevo flamenco movement is Rosalía. She has largely taken the reggaeton flamenco space. People complain that she is not Andalusían either, but these young artists are leading a flamenco renaissance, even a Spanish renaissance.
Catalonia has a very modern culture. In a way it makes sense that Catalans would be among the leaders of the flamenco renaissance.
Whatever it is, it’s flamenco. ¡Olé!
Instagram @los_aurora