Cositas Buenas

1	Patio Custodio (Bulería) 4:46
2	Cositas Buenas (Tangos) 4:27
3	Antonia (Bulería Por Soleá) 6:30
4	El Dengue (Rumba) 4:04
5	Volar (Bulería) 5:32
6	El Tesorillo (Tientos) 4:41
7	Que Venga el Alba (Bulería) / Tomatito 4:13
8	Casa Bernardo (Rumba) / Alejandro Sanz 4:14

Barnes & Noble

You wouldn't expect a flamenco guitarist, especially one as jazz-influenced as Paco de Lucía, to bother with samples and studio trickery. But there he is, the most revered guitarist of his generation, playing along to the ghostly voice of departed flamenco god Camarón de la Isla. The result is not nearly as creepy, as, say, Natalie Cole's duet with her dead father, for a couple of reasons. One, de Lucia's playing is as fluid and multicolored as ever; two, the point of Cositas Buenas, his first studio album in five years, is this interplay of voice and guitar. Six of the eight tracks feature vocalists, two of them de Lucía himself, and the Camarón number, "Que Venga el Alba," is instructive. Unlike a dance track, where a sampled singer would provide the color to the rhythm track, it's the whiskey-shredded voice that guides the song, with de Lucía and Camarón's longtime partner, José Fernández Torres ("Tomatito"), accenting with guitar. The dissolution of his touring ensemble is a hint of de Lucía's new direction: The colors here are almost all his, from the guitar and voice to bouzouki, mandolin, and lute. It makes for an intimate performance, but by no means a moody one - the rumba "El Dengue" bounces along, full of light, and on "Antonia," the guitarist's young daughter contributes some innocent vocalizing. The guest singers are predominately women, giving a suppleness to the proceedings, often in airy choruses -- a typical nuevo flamenco touch. De Lucía's technique is dazzling in its breadth, quoting song styles from tropical to Mediterranean to jazz. The closer, featuring guests Jerry Gonzalez (the trumpeter has been living in Spain for a few years), pop star Alejandro Sanz (not singing but instead playing trés), and bassist Alain Pérez, brings a jazzy close to a refreshing album from the maestro. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

On his first outing in five years, and the first of the new century, flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucia has given us one of the most sublime recordings in his long career. This collection of "Good Little Things" (Cositas Buenas) is a step away from Nuevo flamenco, and back to the grain of the source music itself. It is a record full of handclapped rhythms, organic spare percussion, and burning, passionate songwriting and singing. The various singers -- including Paco himself -- wail, chant, moan, and ecstatically intone his new songs to the sheer rough-hewn grace of his playing. Most tracks are done in the canonical style of guitar, and voice with handclap accompaniment, but there are two -- the smoking, burning black soul of "El Dengue" and "Que Venga el Alba," on which he is accompanied by another guitarist. On the album's final cut, "Cassa Bernardo," a rumba, Jerry Gonzalez adds his mariachi trumpet to the proceedings. Cositas Buenas is an album that careens across the history of flamenco. While rooted in antiquity, it nonetheless points the way to a new music, one that extrapolates rhythm and harmony and adds syncopation, texture, depth, and multi-layered harmonics to the original framework. It is transcendentally beautiful if overwhelming in its passion and the sheer joy of performance. Indeed, Cositas Buenas sets a new standard for modern flamenco music and acts as the true bridge between the ancient and the future. No one but a master who cares nothing for his laurels could have articulated such a work. Thom Jurek