Juan Carmona

Juan Carmona fait partie des guitaristes virtuoses qui ont confirme leur place dans le monde du flamenco, en alternant la precision dans la tradition et des aventures audacieuses dans l ouverture musicale. Son parcours est jalonne de récompenses qui sont autant de temoignages de son immense talent – diplome des mains de Manolo Sanlucar de la "Fondation Flamenca de Jerez", premier prix du concours Paco de Lucia de Madrid – et sa carriere s’appuie sur une discographie riche de 12 albums qui l ont vu cotoyer les plus grandes figures du flamenco – Agujetas, Duquende, Moraíto Chico – et experimenter des rencontres avec d’autres styles, comme la musique marocaine (Orillas) et plus recemment la musique classique (Sinfonía flamenca). La renommee de ce Gitan français – Juan Carmona est ne à Lyon en 1963 – s etend un peu partout dans le monde : nomine en 2003 au "Latin Grammy Award" pour le meilleur album flamenco, il effectue depuis 2007 une tournee qui l’a transporte de Memphis à Alger, de la Macedoine à Vienne et, pour notre plus grand bonheur, lui a fait poser ses bagages aux Lilas les 7 et 8 fevrier, pour deux representations dans le cadre des "Nuits Flamencas" du Triton.
Charles Geoffroy - FLAMENCOWEB - 13/02/2008

Published January 30, 2006
With an overflow audience jamming the house and some of the world's finest folkloric musicians crowding the stage, Flamenco 2006--Chicago's annual celebration of Spanish culture--got off to an enthralling start Wednesday night.
If the rest of the monthlong festival proves as musically dynamic and intellectually probing as the opener, there will be
provocative listening ahead.
Though every performer offered music worth savoring, the most anticipated attraction--and the most rewarding--was
guitarist Juan Carmona, leading a remarkably well-honed ensemble.
Some listeners will remember Carmona from a Chicago appearance several years ago as an accompanist for a vocalist
from Marseilles, France. This time, Carmona stepped into the spotlight, proving himself as much virtuoso as showman,
a bona fide headliner in his own right.
Unlike the prototypical flamenco star, Carmona holds allegiance to the cultures of two nations--France, where he was
born, and Spain, where he has studied intensively (and where he has accrued several musical awards). But because
flamenco music itself has long since transcended borders, it accommodates multiple influences, as Carmona's set
proved.
He opened his performance playing a ravishing, extended solo in a single work drawing upon a vast vocabulary of
flamenco techniques. Heroic rhythms, lyrical song forms, pulsing dance beats, brilliant finger technique--these
elements and others reminded listeners of the syntax of flamenco, albeit expressed at an exalted technical level.
Before Carmona had finished the soliloquy, however, three members of his septet took to the stage, clapping hands in
the distinctly syncopated manner that gives flamenco its fervor and fire. The rhythmic detail that Carmona and his
accompanists articulated was remarkable to behold, beats layered upon beats, meters subdivided into extraordinarily
slender fractions.
By the time the entire septet was playing, the music--and its cultural references--expanded dramatically. The essentials
of flamenco music were plain to hear in the rhythmic patterns the percussionists offered and in the chanting phrases of
the band's tenor.
But the give and take among the musicians, as well as the alternation between composed ensemble passages and freely
improvised solos, inevitably evoked comparisons to the art of jazz. Considering France's long-time affinity for an
American art form, as well as Carmona's French heritage, the jazz influence perhaps should not have come as a
surprise.
Then, too, the performance brought forth the sound of gypsy music, which has roots in both flamenco and early
European jazz. You could hear as much in the plaintive lines of Carmona's violinist, in the constant changes from major
to minor keys, and, above all, in the freewheeling spirit of the often wordless vocals.
hreich@tribune.com Copyright © 2006,
By Howard Reich - Chicago Tribune - Tribune arts critic

The third annual GlobalFest, held at the Public Theater in New York during the weekend of January 21 and 22, provided a nonstop series of world music revelations. With 13 artists—from locales as far-flung as Senegal, Russia and Brooklyn—performing in three different interconnected venues, aficionados and newbies alike could sample from the international menu or, when intrigued enough by a particular artist, stay for the full course. Each artist performed a 45-minute set, with starting times staggered 20 minutes apart to allow for roomhopping. The same lineup performed both nights. Among the highlights were Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All Stars, who take the Jewish-originated party music to the next level by infusing the form with a funky downtown Manhattan sensibility. The basic klezmer group was augmented by Kol Isha, a troupe of Hasidic women vocalists, and Maracatú New York, a percussion ensemble that took its cues from Brazilian Carnivale drummes. Frenchman Juan Carmona, a virtuosic flamenco guitarist, started off solo, a fireball on his instrument, before bringing on his band, which expounded on the themes Carmona introduced on his own. A lone male dancer tapped rhythms and provided the link to the more traditional flamenco components. Other artists at GlobalFest included Brazilian DJ Dolores; the popular Louisiana Cajun band Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys; and three acts with a French twist to them: the folky Keren Ann; te Cuban-influenced Las Ondas Marteles (who trimmed down to a duo due to a MIA guitarist); and Roxane Butterfly’s Worldbeats, who seamlessly combined spoken word, dance and flamenco.
- GlobalFEST - Public Theater - New York

"Le flamenco n'est pas fait pour plaire" mais pour blesser, pour faire mal, dit Bernard Leblond qui se lanse d'entrée dans un survol de l'histoire d'un genre "né dans la rencontre entre un istrument occidental et une musique orientale". Le Guitariste Juan Carmona "un touche à tout", précise de ses musiciens tente à sa manière d'autres métisages. Lui qui est né dans Lyon dans une famille andalouse passé par l'alégrie s'est essayé aux musiques de film et au dialogue avec le jazz. Puis il a composé la Sinfonia Flamenca qui est au coeur de ce protrait.

Plus encore que les séquences tournées dans la banlieue de port de bouc ou chante son oncle, ou lors d'une fête familiale pour la guérison d'une petite fille ce sont les séances de travail avec les musiciens venus d'autres univers qui sont parlantes. Ainsi les master classés que Juan Carmona donne au conservatoire de l'Opéra de Toulon. Ainsi des répétitions avec l'orchestre régional de Basse-Normandie et le chef d'orchestre de l'opéra du Caire qui participent à sa Sinfonia Flamenca illuminée par la présence du jeune danseur espagnol Juan de Juan.

Eliane Azoulay - Telerama - 5 au 11 fevrier 2005