The Gipsy Kings are set to perform at Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, April 27th.
"Pasajero" (Tinto Tinta) finds
The Gipsy Kings back on top form following the success of the acclaimed 2004 album "Roots." "Roots" showcased a band hungry to prove themselves, intent on displaying their artistry. "Magnificent" said BBC DJ Charlie Gillett. "Treasure" exclaimed Billboard. Roots re-established the Kings with both their core audience and world music fans, many having forgotten the Kings were world music's first superstars.
"Roots" involved a literal return to the band's roots: the acoustic music they grew up playing at Gypsy gatherings across the south of France and Catalonia. "Roots" was an album of startling beauty, the raw, soulful voices of the Reyes' matching the magical guitar interplay of the Baliardo brothers. "Pasajero" continues this journey, building on "Roots" while adding the fiery Latin American flavours long a part of
The Gipsy Kings sound.
Produced by Phillipe Eidel (celebrated for his work with Khaled), "Pasajero" is the sound of musical legends celebrating their heritage. Across the album "Pasajero" offers great vocal performances from Nicolas and Canut and Andre and Patchai (a band with four
Master Singers) while those irresistible rumba-Gitano rhythms flow forth. Up-tempo dance numbers ‘Si Tu Me Quieres (Yes, I Like You)' and ‘Mira La Chica (Look At That Girl)' find Nicolas celebrating his favourite subject while ‘Sol Y Luna (Sun & Moon)' allows Canut to wail those ancient Gypsy blues.
"Pasajero" is very much a product of the South of France's cultural flux. Across "Pasajero's" 14 tracks raw flamenco, jazzy guitar, Latin rhythms, Cuban pop, even traces of reggae and Arabic music weave together.
For almost two decades
The Gipsy Kings have been musical heavyweights, filling international arenas and selling over 18 million albums; "Pasajero" finds the world's favourite non-English speaking band on the road again. Listen to the guitars on this CD: guitars played as percussive instruments, pushing forth irresistibly raw grooves, and guitars played with grace and beauty - across three instrumentals (‘Canastero', ‘Guaranga', ‘Recuerdo') Tonino fuses flamenco's savage tone with Django Reinhardt's jazzy lyricism so proving he's a master musician. "Pasajero's" title track acknowledges how the freedom to keep moving is essential for Gypsies. Album closer, ‘La Vida de Gipsy (The Life of the Gipsy)', reflects on what it means to be a 21st Century Gitano.
The Gipsy Kings are that rare thing - a household name famous solely for their music; the most successful French musical outfit ever are big in Brazil and popular (extremely so) in Persia, honoured at The Alamo in Texas and celebrated in China. All this achieved without MTV videos, hype, reality TV appearances, famous girlfriends, bad behaviour . . . an international audience won over purely by the music and the big, welcoming soulfulness of its creators. That's no ordinary achievement. Understandably,
The Gipsy Kings are extraordinary characters: to play guitar and sing is something their fathers, grandfathers and ancestors did.
The Gipsy Kings make music as communion, artistry rooted in the past yet focused on the future.
The Gipsy Kings consist of two bands of brothers: the Reyes (Nicolas, Canut, Paul, Patchai, Andre) and the Baliardos (Tonino, Paco, Diego). The Reyes and Baliardo boys were the offspring of Spanish Gypsy families that had fled into France to escape Spain's Civil War. They grew up roaming the south of France, working harvests and making music. Jose Reyes - father of the GK's Reyes - sang alongside guitarist Manitas de Plata and did much to popularise flamenco internationally:
John Steinbeck,
Charlie Chaplin, Pablo Picasso,
Miles Davis and Salvador Dali were amongst the duo's admirers. Jose split from Manitas in the 1970s and formed Los Reyes with his teenage sons. His death devastated the Reyes yet lead to their fortuitous encounter with the Baliardos at the St. Marie de la Mer Gitan pilgrimage. On that warm night, as they passed the guitar, shared songs and wine, history was shaped.
Initially, the Reyes and Baliardos busked on the streets of Cannes, played weddings and parties, young men flavouring flamenco with Western pop and Latin rhythms. When an American admirer told the band their name Los Reyes meant "The Kings" in English they realised they were born to be Gipsy Kings. In 1987
The Gipsy Kings' self-titled debut album introduced the world to ‘rumba Gitano' - the sound of South America's rumba rhythm married to flamenco guitars - and with ‘Bamboleo'
The Gipsy Kings scored a huge international hit. Since then the Kings have never stopped singing to the world.
Today
The Gipsy Kings still live with their families in the south of France. Life may have changed for them - they no longer busk on streets or pick crops when times are hard or travel in caravans - but still, at heart, they remain Gypsies, the proud descendants of an ancient people who seduced the world with music and dance. On Pasajero
The Gipsy Kings continue their epic musical journey.
For more information or to order tickets, visit online at www.radiocity.com.
