More American Flamenco Guitar
© 2006 Dennis Bishop Jones (634479398582)
Dennis Jones is composing this music as he is playing it. And he is never predictable. Just when you think you know exactly where he is going, he goes somewhere else.
He is using the flamenco techniques, and he is improvising as he goes along, in the true spirit of traditional flamenco guitar music, as the spontaneous expression of a man’s passion and energy and soul. But the music that comes out of him is not the traditional flamenco. (And it isn’t another imitation of Django Reinhardt imitating flamenco music, either.) It is something different. He wants to call it “classical.” It has a classical feeling, anyway, and people with a trained ear for classical music or modern jazz should enjoy what he is doing. But really it is his own creation, it is unique, and therefore there is no name for it.
The first five tracks were recorded on July 20, 1969, the day of the Apollo 11 moon landing, in celebration of that event. He says there was a lot of energy created in the universe, with all human beings watching the moon landing on TV, and thinking about it, and talking about it. He felt this energy as musical energy, and thousands of people felt it as love vibrations at Woodstock, less than a month later.
The other numbers are more of the best recordings he made during the years 1967 to 1969. (See also “American Flamenco Guitar, Best of 1966-69.”) Of course there were also great performances that were not recorded and will never be heard again.
July 20, 1969 was a hot day, and Dennis had the windows open. You can hear the cars go whooshing by, especially during Track 5. Actually he had the window open on most summer days, and you can hear traffic noises on other numbers, too.
This music was originally recorded on reel-to-reel tape using a $99 tape recorder. The tape recorder broke around 1970, and the tapes were stored in the crawl space under Dennis’s house for more than 30 years. It is amazing that so much of his music has been preserved so well.
Dennis has lived most of his life in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He has performed professionally in Provincetown at The Moors, the Town House, the Flagship, Napi’s, and other places.
Purchase Options
You have several options for purchasing this music. If you don't care about having a physical disk, you can buy and download the album in digital format at CD Baby (entire album only) or via Apple's iTunes Store (entire album or individual tracks; requires iTunes software to purchase). You can also listen to the music at CD Baby.
If you would like to have this music on CD, you can purchase it here via PayPal for $10.00 plus $4.00 postage and handling.