Ketama

Ketama are a Spanish flamenco group in the fusion flamenco style. The leaders of what has been called New Flamenco, they brought a style that was somewhere between flamenco and pop salsa onto the musical scene that drew as much criticism as praise, but which has won over the young public and has given them millions of sales. In their records they have mixed flamenco with salsa, Brazilian music, reggae, funk, jazz and, in their last work (2002) "Dame la Mano", they have been so bold as to mix it with hip hop and house.

Ketama was formed in Madrid in the early eighties, taking its name from a well-known valley in Morocco. The Sorderas and Habichuelas come from two great gypsy flamenco families, and the initiative to set up the band came from the guitarists, José Soto, Sorderita, and Juan Carmona. They were joined by Ray Heredia, the son of the bailaor Josele. Their first work, "Ketama", was released in 1985, although it was recorded two years earlier. It was the great gamble by the independent company that was the driving force behind the Jóvenes Flamencos record label, and in a few years it bore its fruits. Nonetheless, Ketama did not just live off 'salsero' pop. They got close to a number of different musical genres, mainly those arising from black roots, like blues, jazz or the African kora, as well as funk, reggae and Brazilian music. Without ever leaving flamenco behind. It was not in vain, considering that all its members belong to great flamenco dynasties: the Heredias of Madrid, the Habichuelas of Granada and the Carmonas of Jerez.

They were not the first to do fusion. Smash, Kiko Veneno, Los Chorbos and Pata Negra, among many others, had done it before them. However, no one has any doubt in crediting them with two important achievements: attracting a young audience to flamenco and, most of all, bringing it closer to people who had never heard it before.

The band was formed in the mid-1980s. The initial line-up featured José Soto (guitarist), Juan Carmona (guitarist) and Ray Heredia (singer). The latter one left the band shortly afterwards, and he was replaced by Antonio and José Miguel Carmona. Thus, the trio became a quartet, but this was only for a short time, because José Soto left Ketama a few records later.

First Ray Heredia and later José Soto left the band, and it was joined by José Miguel Carmona, on guitar, and Antonio Carmona, as a lead singer. They earned international recognition with their third record, Songhai, a fusion of flamenco with Toumani Diabate and Danny Thompson´s African kora, which was praised in reviews in The Times and The International Herald Tribune. Nonetheless, their ultimate success was "De akí a Ketama", which was recorded live with the participation, among others, of Antonio Flores and Antonio Vega. It sold over a million copies, it spent a year in the Spanish hit parade, and won the Ondas award for Best Album (1995), Best Spanish Group (1996) and the Premio de la Música in the Best Song category in 1996 with the song "No estamos lokos". In the same year they contributed to the film Alma Gitana with two songs. In 1987, "La Pipa de Kif" was released. The solo singing was still José Soto's responsibility, but in this record Antonio Carmona started to show the qualities that turned him into the band's undisputed leader. It is one of the works by Ketama that drew most acknowledgements and served to launch them at an international level. The record was mentioned in important newspapers like The Times and The International Herald Tribune, and in 1989 it came away with prizes for the best world music albums from prestigious international music magazines like New Musical Express and Folk Roots. This record had a sequel in 1994, "Songhai 2".

Violins, an electric guitar, bass, piano, trumpet, trombone and sax can he heard playing alongside Ketama -which was still a quartet- in "Y es ke me han kambiao los tiempos" (1990). The time has come for the rumba and salsa, both of which are flamencoised in this record. "El arte de lo invisible" (1993) leaves fusion temporarily aside and recovers a more traditional sound. Thus, Ketama came to make the live record to which it owes the fame that it attained in Spain. Until then, although it was a successful band with an acknowledged reputation, it had not reached the public at large yet. "De akí a Ketama" (1995) represented a big push in terms of their economy and sales and it showed that the band's three members moved on the stage as comfortably as fish in water. Numerous artists participated, like El Potito, Chonchi Heredia, Antonio Vega, Antonio Flores and Juañares.

After "De akí a Ketama", the band tried to break away from their last record. It was conscious of the fact that it would be difficult to repeat such a big success but, at the same time, it did not want to be repetitive. The end product was "Konfusión" (1997), which achieved some good sales figures as well, without relinquishing their quality or the Ketama imprint. In 1998, the band won the Ondas award for the Best Album again, this time with Konfusión, which sold 300,000 copies.

In these early records, it is already possible to appreciate a review of the legacy of their respective families, although they are still distant from the audacious developments that were to come, not long afterwards. In 1988, "Songhai" was released on the market, and its name was that of the court of the Mandinga empire (Sudan). Here, flamenco was blended with African music, Toumani Diabate's kora to be specific, alongside which African choruses, the guitar playing and voices of Ketama and Danny Thompson's folk-jazz double bass could be heard. The version of "Vente pa' Madrid" following the rhythm of the kora is indispensable. "Toma Ketama" arrived in 1999, following a compilation record that collected the best themes that they released between 1990 and 1997. "Toma Ketama" sounds more like a flamenco record than "Konfusión", although this does not mean that different influences like pop -which in reality had always been present-, blues or Latin rhythms are absent.

In 2002, Ketama went a step further and was so bold as to blend flamenco with rap, hip-hop and house music in "Dame la mano". This was the last release before their break-up began. In order not to leave anyone with a bad taste in their mouth, their farewell was accompanied by "20 pa' Ketama" (2004): twenty songs for their followers. With a selection of their best songs and few other new releases and surprises, the band put an end to their twenty-year professional and musical career.

And one cannot forget Ketama's contribution to cinema. In 1995, the band was responsible for the original soundtrack of the film "El efecto mariposa" (The butterfly effect), a Spanish film directed by Fernando Colomo. Their music was also heard in the film "Alma gitana", directed by Chus Gutiérrez and whose protagonist was Amara Carmona.

Source: esflamenco.com

Their current members are Antonio Carmona (Vocals) José Miguel Carmona, Juan Carmona.

The Biography appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketama. Portions of this Biography may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.