Luis de la Carrasca

1-04-2014
"Tesoros Humanos" (human treasures), the Luis de la Carrasca's last show... a fabulous success
"Tesoros humanos" (trésors humains) le dernier spectacle de Luis de la Carrasca
…une réussite fabuleuse. - La Boîte à Culture

5-12-2013
Ce spectacle de haut niveau, sensuel et sauvage, plein de force entraîne les spectateurs vers l'Andalousie et touche au plus profond de l'âme. - L'Ardennais

25-11-2013
L'immersion en âme flamenca fut éblouissante, samedi soir au Sémaphore. Devant une salle comble, les cinq prodigieux artistes de la compagnie Flamenco Vivo ont en effet tout donné pour emporter le public dans leur sillage, au coeur même du flamenco. - Le Télégramme

15-07-2012
A real musical amazement as well as visual that filled the audience with enthusiasm. - La Marseillaise

01-08-2011
90 minutes of pure pleasure (…) Real musical fireworks ! - Théâtre du Blog

2-08-2010
« A high level show, offered by the company with a generosity which doesn’t deceive the audience. » - Midi Libre

19-03-07
Certainly he is alive and yet his life appears like a legend.
On the 27th May 1958 the hospital was full, and so Luis, son of María Fernández Torres and Francisco Valero Puentes, saw his firs light in a cave, like little Jesus boy. Except for the fact that it was in Huéscar, in Grenada province.
He adopted as his artistic name ‘Carrasca’, after the name of the farm where he grew up. As a child he did not go to school, instead he kept the sheep.

Since his childhood, Luis wanted to become a flamenco singer

He learnt to play the guitar in their company. In his paternal family everybody was a flamenco singer : his uncles, his cousins, his father, his elder brother and his sister as well, all of them with great voices. In their eye it was unattainable to become a professional singer, but Luis had a different view. Since he was a child, he always wanted to become one.
His idols were Camarón de la Isla and Paco de Lucía. After his military service in Cadiz, the young man, a flamenco lover, decided to consecrate to ‘cante jondo’, that is ‘deep singing’.
« It is a set of ingredients, it contains sacred chant, confession, it comes from the sufferance, it explores the depth of feelings. As time has gone by, it has become more accessible for joy and party. »
Ibiza, Alicante, Castellón, Palma de Mallorca,… Wherever he goes, he sings with his soul and from his guitar there gush sounds which evoke a huge emotion. He met the woman of his life, Béatrice, from Avignon, when she opened a French restaurant in Spain. They got married and they moved in Avignon in 1991.

Next Saturday at Le Thor

Together they created the Andalusian association ‘Alhambra’. Their passion is contagious and nowadays their festival attracts a great number of people. Thanks to Avignon’s festival, Luis meets lots of foreign artists. For him the most important thing is not the origin, but the skills. It is not a matter of being or not being a gypsy, it is rather about being a good or a bad flamenco artist.
Next Saturday 24th March, at Le Thor’s auditorium, you have an appointment with the flamenco show « Noche Arte Flamenco ». - Vaucluse Matin

11 July 2001
Camargue and Andalusia belong to gipsies and bulls. Provence and Spain have both shade and light. Then do not be surprised if flamenco blooms naturally in Avignon, where after ten years Luis de la Carrasca meets the greatest success with a constantly renewed « Flamenco Vivo ». The singer-composer gives a double blow this year with two creations.

With an incomparable intuition, Luis de la Carrasca knows how to hunt out skilled youngsters. After « Una vida de pasión » last year, real flamenco anthology since 1830, the artist returns with a more traditional show. He himself opens the performance with a deep chant without microphone or accompaniment. El Roto, Sevilian singer with a powerful tone, follows together with the percussionist Juan Cortés, and then the dancer Manuel Gutiérrez, with only eighteen years old, tackles his first solo with all his youthfull ardour. Melinda Sala, a French dancer from Nimes with Spanish roots, takes her turn and dances accompanied by the two singers. Her zapateado, with its elegance, nuances and speed, is outstanding. The guitarist Alberto Lucena fascinates with his fluent performance and his beautiful and non conventional melodies. Chants, dances and music alternate until the ravishing Beatriz Cabrera comes on stage, fitted into a gown with a long « cola ». This nineteen-year-old girl from Cordoba is the show’s sensation, performing an artistically inspired and a charming and devastating dance. The birth of a new star.

We move now to a different set, in Théâtre de la Luna, where the intimist auditorium invites to « meeting » one’s friends. An unforgettable concert in which Luis de la Carrasca is accompanied from the beginning by the Iranian musician Farhad Sohee, who plays the sitar, and who recalls us, with its medieval sound, the sources of flamenco. Here, the mix of voice and instrument is really subtle. The opposite feeling than Alberto Lucena, who lets burst all the power of his guitar in a passionate dialogue with Luis de la Carrasca. Partner rather than accompanist, Alberto Lucena, 29 years old, is a stunning improviser and virtuoso. He draws from his guitar rich and varied sounds, as well as a classical rather than flamenco stylishness. The chant, guitar and Iranian flute trio is unfortunately deranged by this last instrument’s frail power. The show concludes with an intervention of beautiful Beatriz Cabrera in black trousers. In spite of being terrific, the dance does not convey anything in this concert which plunges us in a moment of uncommon beauty.

René Sirvin
- Le Figaro

20-03-07

A motionless silhouette of a grave man, inhabited by the flamenco art, the inner flame that he brought from his native Andalusia. Born in his grandma’s troglodytic house, « in a cave, like Christ » in Huéscar, Grenade, this son of peasants used to listen to his father singing softly while he played his guitar.
« He was in every party, he was invited and he always went to sing », recalls Luis. His father would have never imagined that singing could become a job. Still, Luis and his brother Paco wade through the stage. Later on it was just Luis who made it his job. Married to an Avignon native, he produced his firs show for Avignon’s Festival in 1991. « We resolved : we’ll stay here for a while and then we’ll leave again. It’s already been 16 years since that », he smiles. « The flamenco is the singing of the poor. It talks about suffering, the itch of living and of being free... Love, death, tragedy, joy… It also contains double meanings and metaphores, it’s a codified way to communicate under a dictatorship. »
Filled with Arab, Judaic, Gipsy or Celtic influences, Luis’ singing is ‘cante jondo’, which stems from the depth of the inner self. Usually a capella, it turns back to flamenco’s ritual sources. The ‘saeta’, a homage to the Virgin in the Holy Week processions. The blacksmiths’ singing, accompanied by hammer whacks…
« My soul is in Andalusia, my life and my spirit are here », explains Luis de la Carrasca. « Fate has pushed me to forward this culture elsewhere, as it also happens in America, or Japan. »

Luis de la Carrasca brought the ‘cante jondo’ from his native Andalusia. « Everything a human being feels can be expressed with Flamenco », he assures. - La Provence

13-10-2004
A packed theatre and standing ovation for Luis de la Carrasca’s Flamenco Vivo group. This show is the reflection of a social phenomenon which is both traditional and yet constantly evolving. Luis de la Carrasca and Antonio Paz (singers), José luis Dominguez (guitar), Antonio Gomez (percussion), Isabelle Pelaez (singer and dancer) Melinda Sala and Raimundo Benitez (dancers) hold the audience spellbound.
All the artists have been performing since their childhood and have worked with the great names of Flamenco in festivals in Spain and around the world. New to the group,Raimundo Benitez, 23, who is classically trained, treats us to a sober and orthodox but nevertheless intense Flamenco, inspired by the gypsy tradition of Granada.
Whether you are new to Flamenco, or an old hand, « Flamenco Vivo » will touch the very depths of your soul. This meeting of various cultures : Andalousian, Arab, Byzantine, Indian and Gypsy, is a celebration of singing, dancing and guitar playing. The audience is captivated by the « Duende » (magic) with its love, pain, sensuality and violence. - La Montagne

Andalucía, from soleá to bulería
28-02-2002

Photography exhibition, school performance, lecture, snack and flamenco danced and played, the association Alhambra, from Avignon, wants to spread the Spanish gipsy art by launching the first edition of its Andalusian Festival, with Luis de la Carrasca’s (Flamenco Vivo, Una vida de passion) show De Andalucía a Francia as the Festival’s main attraction.
He will be accompanied by Antonio Abardonado « El Titi » at the guitar, the percussionist Juan Cortés « Chulo » and the dancers Melinda Sala and Isabel Peláez.With his ample and somehow tragic voice, Luis de la Carrasca sings the Andalusian styles, with plenty of nuances, from a mournful soleá to a burning and festal bulería.

Bouziane Daoudi - Libération