La Niña de los Peines
Encyclopedia
Pastora Pavón Cruz, known as La Niña de los Peines (Seville, Spain, February 10, 1890 - November 26, 1969), is considered the most important woman flamenco
singer of the 20th century. She was a sister of singers Arturo Pavón and Tomás Pavón, also an important flamenco singer, and aunt to Arturo Pavón, the first flamenco pianist. Both brothers, Pastora and Tomás, together with singer Manuel Torre
, were the inspiring models for the next generation of singers like Antonio Mairena
, Pepe de la Matrona or Fosforito
, who led the movement towards the revival of traditional forms in the decades of the 50s-70s.
. Later, when she was singing at Café de la Marina, a café cantante in Madrid, she acquired the nickname La Niña de los Peines (The Girl of the Combs, a nickname she never liked), as she usually sang a stanza in tangos
style with the following lyrics:
Peinate tú con mis peines
Mis peines son de canela
Comb with my combs
My combs are made of cinammon
She never learnt to read or write, and only learnt to sign when she was already an adult. Her family were in dire need of money, so she started to sing regularly as a professional in the Taberna de Ceferino, in Seville, and then spent a period in Madrid
and Bilbao
. In this town, she was not allowed to sing in public owing to her young age, so she sat as model for painter Ignacio Zuloaga
. Back in Andalusia
, she took part in the performances of several cafés cantante in Jerez
, Seville, Málaga
and other towns. In 1910 she made her first recordings, and in 1920 the Teatro Romea was paying her the highest fee it had ever paid to an artist. After that, she started a long series of tours in all Spain
.
In 1922 at Granada
, she participated at the Concurso de Cante Jondo
. This famous music festival was largely organized by Manuel de Falla
and also Federico García Lorca
in order to reinvigorate the flamendo arts. She was featured as a professional performer, along with Antonio Chacón
, Manuel Torre
, Juana la Macarrona
, Ramón Montoya
and others. She was also chosen as one of the judges for the contest between non-professionals.
Along her career she met or shared the stage with many classical flamenco singers of the Golden Age like Antonio Chacón
, Manuel Torre
, Francisco Lema (known as Fosforito El Viejo), El Canario, La Trini, or Frijones. She had also met in 1922 Federico García Lorca
, who, in a lecture given in 1933, stated:
In 1931, she married flamenco singer Pepe Pinto. After the parenthesis of the Spanish Civil War
, she came back to the stage, as part of several flamenco shows, together with artists like Concha Piquer
. After this, she retired for a few years, and came back with a show called España y su Cantaora (Spain and her singer), together with her husband, which she toured for a few months and was acclaimed by the critics. Then she definitely retired again. In 1961 she received an homage in Córdoba
, in which several well-known flamenco artists took part, such as Antonio Mairena
, Juan Talega, Manuel Morao, or Fernando Terremoto. In 1968, a monument was built in her honour in her quarter of Alameda de Hércules. In the last three years of her life, she was completely retired owing to senile dementia. She died in 1969, a month and a half after her husband. In that same year, singer Anotnio Mairena recorded his album Honores a la Niña de los Peines in homage to her. In 1996, during the IX Bienal de Flamenco, the autonomous Andalusian government declared the voice of La Niña de los Peines Bien de Interés Cultural (Asset of Cultural Interest).
to perfection, excelling especially in siguiriyas
of which she preserved several styles like those of Ciego de la Peña and El Marruro, which have reached our days thanks to her. She was a direct transmitter of the soléa of La Serneta
, which she learnt directly from her author, but also left memorable recordings of many other soleá styles like those of Enrique el Mellizo
, Frijones or many other styles from Alcalá
, Triana
or Jerez
.
Regarding her supremacy in tangos
and tientos, as early as 1908, when she was only 18 years of age, a newspaper already stated: "La Niña de los Peines is justly reputed today as the best singer for tangos. She has a beautiful voice and a delicious style. A times, when singing, she seems to be crying" (Quoted by Ortiz Nuevo in Museo Virtual de la Niña de los Peines). Mairena and Molina ([1963] 1979:230) consider her, among the masters of tangos: "the supreme figure (...) singer and inexhaustible creator.".
Her name has become inextricably linked to the peteneras
and to the bambera
, a folk song she turned definitely into a flamenco palo. She was also one of the main interpreters of saetas
in history: "("[As to the great interpreters of this style], in our century, Manuel Torre, Niño Gloria, Pastora Pavón, Tomás Pavón, Manuel Centeno and Manuel Vallejo." (Molina and Mairena [1963] 1979: 258).
She was a landmark in the transformation of garrotín into a completely flamenco style, and gave a definite impulse to bulerías
: "Unrivalled queen of bulerías" (Molina and Mairena ([1963] 1979:263).
Critics like Molina and Mairena ([1963] 1979:305), Martín Salazar (1998) also highlight her importance for palos like malagueñas
, tarantas, cartageneras
or granaínas: "As we said before, Pastora was also an excellent malagueñera, who marked with her deep personality such different styles as those of Chacón, El Canario, and Fernando de Triana. She also created her own malagueña, based on the one by Maestro Ohana" (Martín Salazar 1998).
She has been accused by a few critics of having surrendered to the fashionable trends in at the time of ópera flamenca, as she recorded many examples of the so called canción por bulerías
and cantes de ida y vuelta
(both condemned by purists) and took part in theatrical shows. However, she never abandoned the more traditional flamenco songs, which form the greatest part of her discography.
Even though she was a link between the traditional flamenco of the 19th century and the revival of traditional forms after the ópera flamenca period, as she kept many alive traditional songs and styles that were about to disappear, she was skeptical about the work of resurrection and classification of songs carried out by Antonio Mairena
or Juan Talega. In her view, songs like the soleá de la Serneta were never the same thing in the voices of different singers, and they were but outlines used as basis for singers to improvise and create. (See Lefranc 2000: 197-198)
"We already saw, in the words of García Lorca, what La Niña de los Peines was when she sang with duende. A sombre, agonizing angel, who surpassed all measure, who embraced all emotions (…)." (Álvarez Caballero 1998:250)
"Pastora is the incarnation of flamenco singing, as Bach was of music. Geniuses of the size of this Gypsy appear in history only once in a while. She is a pontifical figure who links, through her personality, the illustrious past with the present renaissance. (...) We do not know what La Andonda, La Serrana, María Borrico, Merced la Serneta and many other famous women singers sang like, but it seems impossible that any of them surpassed Pastora Pavón in the vastness of her repertoire, the freshness of the voice, Gypsy rajo and catching vitality." (Ricardo Molina, flamecologist, quoted by Ríos Ruiz 2002:103)
"Among women, I have never known an artist like Pastora, and I think it will take centuries before her equal is born." (Pepe de la Matrona, singer, quoted by Álvarez Caballero 1998:252)
"[Referring to the singers of the ópera flamenca period] there remains, towering, as a challenging unique figure, Pastora Pavón, La Niña de los Peines, battling the fandangueros in their own territory, the theatre stages, and achieving indisputable success with the old styles of seguiriyas, soleares, malagueñas, peteneras, tarantas, tientos and bulerías." (Martín Salazar, n.d.)
"it can be assured that there has never been a more prolific and encyclopedic singer than Pastora. Nobody has had her flavour, nobody has been her equal." (Antonio Reina in Museo Virtual de la Niña de los Peines)
"Pastora Pavón Cruz, the incomparable Niña de los Peines, has probably been the greatest genius in the history of [flamenco] singing. An all-style interpreter, she completely mastered the fundamental songs (seguiriyas and soleares), the festive ones (tangos, bulerías and cantiñas), the peteneras and the cantes de Levante ((malagueñas, cartageneras, tarantas and granaínas). (Martín Salazar 1998)
"With La Niña de los Peines, all discussion comes to an end: flamencologists, artists, flamenco fans, critics and everybody interested in flamenco, in general, state that she is the greatest woman singer to date." (Manuel Bohórquez, quoted by Antonio Reina in Museo Virtual de la Niña de los Peines).
La voz de interes cultural: La Niña de los Peines, Colección Quejío, EMI-Odeón, Madrid, 1997 — Partial compilation
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
singer of the 20th century. She was a sister of singers Arturo Pavón and Tomás Pavón, also an important flamenco singer, and aunt to Arturo Pavón, the first flamenco pianist. Both brothers, Pastora and Tomás, together with singer Manuel Torre
Manuel Torre
Manuel Soto Loreto, known as Manuel Torre or Manuel Torres , was a Romani flamenco singer.- Beginning :...
, were the inspiring models for the next generation of singers like Antonio Mairena
Antonio Mairena
Antonio Cruz García, known as Antonio Mairena was a famous flamenco singer. He led the movement towards the revival of traditional flamenco in the fifties and subsequent decades....
, Pepe de la Matrona or Fosforito
Fosforito
Antonio Fernández Díaz known as Fosforito, is a flamenco singer and winner of the fifth Golden Key of flamenco singing. Only five of these have been awarded since the award's inception in 1862...
, who led the movement towards the revival of traditional forms in the decades of the 50s-70s.
Biography
Born in the famous quarter of Alameda de Hércules, in Seville, she started singing for the public as at the age of 8, in the Seville Spring FairSeville Fair
The Seville Fair is held in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain. The fair generally begins two weeks after the Semana Santa, or Easter Holy Week....
. Later, when she was singing at Café de la Marina, a café cantante in Madrid, she acquired the nickname La Niña de los Peines (The Girl of the Combs, a nickname she never liked), as she usually sang a stanza in tangos
Tangos
Tangos is a flamenco palo closely related in form and feeling to the Rumba. It is often performed as a finale to a Tientos. Its compas and llamada are the same as that of the Farruca and share the Farruca's lively nature. However, Tangos is normally performed in the A Phrygian mode.Tangos is...
style with the following lyrics:
Peinate tú con mis peines
Mis peines son de canela
Comb with my combs
My combs are made of cinammon
She never learnt to read or write, and only learnt to sign when she was already an adult. Her family were in dire need of money, so she started to sing regularly as a professional in the Taberna de Ceferino, in Seville, and then spent a period in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
. In this town, she was not allowed to sing in public owing to her young age, so she sat as model for painter Ignacio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta was a Basque Spanish painter, born in Eibar, near the monastery of Loyola. He was the son of metalworker and damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the organizer and director of the royal armoury in Madrid.-Biography:In his youth, he drew and worked in his father's...
. Back in Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, she took part in the performances of several cafés cantante in Jerez
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia...
, Seville, Málaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
and other towns. In 1910 she made her first recordings, and in 1920 the Teatro Romea was paying her the highest fee it had ever paid to an artist. After that, she started a long series of tours in all Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
In 1922 at Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, she participated at the Concurso de Cante Jondo
Concurso de Cante Jondo
El Concurso del Cante Jondo was a well-known celebration of the art of flamenco, its music, song, and dance, held in Granada, Andalusia on Corpus Christi, the 13th and 14th of June, 1922.-Falla's purpose:...
. This famous music festival was largely organized by Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
and also Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
in order to reinvigorate the flamendo arts. She was featured as a professional performer, along with Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...
, Manuel Torre
Manuel Torre
Manuel Soto Loreto, known as Manuel Torre or Manuel Torres , was a Romani flamenco singer.- Beginning :...
, Juana la Macarrona
Juana la Macarrona
Juana la Macarrona was a famous Spanish flamenco dancer . Born as Juana Vargas at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, her Gitano parents started her on her dancing career, which lasted well into the twentieth century....
, Ramón Montoya
Ramón Montoya
Ramón Montoya , Flamenco guitarist and composer.Born into a family of Gitano cattle traders, Ramón Montoya used earnings from working in the trade to buy his first guitar...
and others. She was also chosen as one of the judges for the contest between non-professionals.
Along her career she met or shared the stage with many classical flamenco singers of the Golden Age like Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...
, Manuel Torre
Manuel Torre
Manuel Soto Loreto, known as Manuel Torre or Manuel Torres , was a Romani flamenco singer.- Beginning :...
, Francisco Lema (known as Fosforito El Viejo), El Canario, La Trini, or Frijones. She had also met in 1922 Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
, who, in a lecture given in 1933, stated:
This woman's voice is exceptional. It breaks the moulds of all singing schools, as much as she breaks the moulds of any built music. When she seems to be out of tune, she is not out of tune: on the contrary, she is incredibly in tune as, owing to the special miracle of this style and the passion with which she sings third tones and quarter tones, impossible to record on the staff. (Quoted by Antonio Reina in Museo Virtual de la Niña de los Peines)
In 1931, she married flamenco singer Pepe Pinto. After the parenthesis of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, she came back to the stage, as part of several flamenco shows, together with artists like Concha Piquer
Concha Piquer
Concha Piquer , born María de la Concepción Piquer López, was a Spanish singer and actress, sometimes billed as Conchita Piquer...
. After this, she retired for a few years, and came back with a show called España y su Cantaora (Spain and her singer), together with her husband, which she toured for a few months and was acclaimed by the critics. Then she definitely retired again. In 1961 she received an homage in Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
, in which several well-known flamenco artists took part, such as Antonio Mairena
Antonio Mairena
Antonio Cruz García, known as Antonio Mairena was a famous flamenco singer. He led the movement towards the revival of traditional flamenco in the fifties and subsequent decades....
, Juan Talega, Manuel Morao, or Fernando Terremoto. In 1968, a monument was built in her honour in her quarter of Alameda de Hércules. In the last three years of her life, she was completely retired owing to senile dementia. She died in 1969, a month and a half after her husband. In that same year, singer Anotnio Mairena recorded his album Honores a la Niña de los Peines in homage to her. In 1996, during the IX Bienal de Flamenco, the autonomous Andalusian government declared the voice of La Niña de los Peines Bien de Interés Cultural (Asset of Cultural Interest).
Artistic legacy
A complete artist, she sang all palosPalo (flamenco)
A palo is the name traditionally given in the flamenco environment for the different musical forms that constitute the traditional musical heritage of flamenco...
to perfection, excelling especially in siguiriyas
Siguiriyas
Siguiriyas is a form of flamenco music belonging to the cante jondo category. Its deep, expressive style is among the most important in flamenco...
of which she preserved several styles like those of Ciego de la Peña and El Marruro, which have reached our days thanks to her. She was a direct transmitter of the soléa of La Serneta
La Serneta
La Serneta was a famous Spanish flamenco singer . She was seminal in soleares style. Her real name was Merced Fernández Vargas, and she was a very popular celebrity in flamenco cafés....
, which she learnt directly from her author, but also left memorable recordings of many other soleá styles like those of Enrique el Mellizo
Enrique el Mellizo
Enrique Jiménez Fernández , known as Enrique el Mellizo was a famous flamenco singer, the most influential one in the development of the Cádiz flamenco styles. Together with Silverio Franconetti and Antonio Chacón, he is considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of...
, Frijones or many other styles from Alcalá
Alcalá de Guadaira
Alcalá de Guadaíra is a town located approximately 10 km southeast of Seville, Spain; in recent years the expansion of Seville has meant that Alcalá has become a suburb of that city. Alcalá used to be known as Alcalá de los Panaderos because it provided most of Seville's bread...
, Triana
Triana (band)
Triana was a Spanish progressive rock band from the 70's and early 80's, heavily influenced by flamenco, hailing from Andalusia. It was composed of Jesús de la Rosa Luque , Eduardo Rodríguez Rodway and Juan José Palacios "Tele" .-History:The main goal of the band was to...
or Jerez
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia...
.
Regarding her supremacy in tangos
Tangos
Tangos is a flamenco palo closely related in form and feeling to the Rumba. It is often performed as a finale to a Tientos. Its compas and llamada are the same as that of the Farruca and share the Farruca's lively nature. However, Tangos is normally performed in the A Phrygian mode.Tangos is...
and tientos, as early as 1908, when she was only 18 years of age, a newspaper already stated: "La Niña de los Peines is justly reputed today as the best singer for tangos. She has a beautiful voice and a delicious style. A times, when singing, she seems to be crying" (Quoted by Ortiz Nuevo in Museo Virtual de la Niña de los Peines). Mairena and Molina ([1963] 1979:230) consider her, among the masters of tangos: "the supreme figure (...) singer and inexhaustible creator.".
Her name has become inextricably linked to the peteneras
Peteneras
The Petenera is a flamenco palo in a 12-beat metre, with strong beats distributed as follows: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]...
and to the bambera
Bambera
Bambera is a cante, one of many traditional song forms associated with flamenco.-Definition:The bambera or bamba derives from the cante de columpio, meaning "song of the swing", which is one of the traditional Andalusian song forms associated with flamenco...
, a folk song she turned definitely into a flamenco palo. She was also one of the main interpreters of saetas
Saeta (flamenco)
The Saeta is a revered Spanish religious song, whose form and style have evolved over many centuries. They evoke strong emotion and are sung most often during public processions.-Performance:...
in history: "("[As to the great interpreters of this style], in our century, Manuel Torre, Niño Gloria, Pastora Pavón, Tomás Pavón, Manuel Centeno and Manuel Vallejo." (Molina and Mairena [1963] 1979: 258).
She was a landmark in the transformation of garrotín into a completely flamenco style, and gave a definite impulse to bulerías
Bulerias
Bulería is a fast flamenco rhythm in 12 beats with emphasis in two general forms as follows:1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11 [12]or...
: "Unrivalled queen of bulerías" (Molina and Mairena ([1963] 1979:263).
Critics like Molina and Mairena ([1963] 1979:305), Martín Salazar (1998) also highlight her importance for palos like malagueñas
Malagueñas (flamenco style)
Malagueñas is one of the traditional styles of Andalusian music , derived from earlier types of fandango from the area of Málaga, classified among the Cantes de Levante. Originally a folk-song type, it became a flamenco style in the 19th century. It is not normally used for dance, as it is...
, tarantas, cartageneras
Cartageneras
Cartageneras are a flamenco palo belonging to the category of the Cantes de las minas or cantes minero-levantinos . As the rest of the songs in this category, it derives from older folkloric fandango styles...
or granaínas: "As we said before, Pastora was also an excellent malagueñera, who marked with her deep personality such different styles as those of Chacón, El Canario, and Fernando de Triana. She also created her own malagueña, based on the one by Maestro Ohana" (Martín Salazar 1998).
She has been accused by a few critics of having surrendered to the fashionable trends in at the time of ópera flamenca, as she recorded many examples of the so called canción por bulerías
Bulerias
Bulería is a fast flamenco rhythm in 12 beats with emphasis in two general forms as follows:1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11 [12]or...
and cantes de ida y vuelta
Cantes de ida y vuelta
Cantes de ida y vuelta is a Spanish expression literally meaning roundtrip songs. It refers to a group of flamenco musical forms or palos with diverse musical features, which "travelled back" from Latin America as styles that, having originated in the interplay between Spanish musical traditions...
(both condemned by purists) and took part in theatrical shows. However, she never abandoned the more traditional flamenco songs, which form the greatest part of her discography.
Even though she was a link between the traditional flamenco of the 19th century and the revival of traditional forms after the ópera flamenca period, as she kept many alive traditional songs and styles that were about to disappear, she was skeptical about the work of resurrection and classification of songs carried out by Antonio Mairena
Antonio Mairena
Antonio Cruz García, known as Antonio Mairena was a famous flamenco singer. He led the movement towards the revival of traditional flamenco in the fifties and subsequent decades....
or Juan Talega. In her view, songs like the soleá de la Serneta were never the same thing in the voices of different singers, and they were but outlines used as basis for singers to improvise and create. (See Lefranc 2000: 197-198)
Views on La Niña de los Peines
"In some sort of way, Pastora Pavón was a revolutionary of the flamenco song, serving as link between the traditionalism of the last century and all the modernisms the current one, even the most detestable, which she did not reject without experimenting on them first, assimilating and enlarging everything that had some valuable element." (Álvarez Caballero 1998:249)"We already saw, in the words of García Lorca, what La Niña de los Peines was when she sang with duende. A sombre, agonizing angel, who surpassed all measure, who embraced all emotions (…)." (Álvarez Caballero 1998:250)
"Pastora is the incarnation of flamenco singing, as Bach was of music. Geniuses of the size of this Gypsy appear in history only once in a while. She is a pontifical figure who links, through her personality, the illustrious past with the present renaissance. (...) We do not know what La Andonda, La Serrana, María Borrico, Merced la Serneta and many other famous women singers sang like, but it seems impossible that any of them surpassed Pastora Pavón in the vastness of her repertoire, the freshness of the voice, Gypsy rajo and catching vitality." (Ricardo Molina, flamecologist, quoted by Ríos Ruiz 2002:103)
"Among women, I have never known an artist like Pastora, and I think it will take centuries before her equal is born." (Pepe de la Matrona, singer, quoted by Álvarez Caballero 1998:252)
"[Referring to the singers of the ópera flamenca period] there remains, towering, as a challenging unique figure, Pastora Pavón, La Niña de los Peines, battling the fandangueros in their own territory, the theatre stages, and achieving indisputable success with the old styles of seguiriyas, soleares, malagueñas, peteneras, tarantas, tientos and bulerías." (Martín Salazar, n.d.)
"it can be assured that there has never been a more prolific and encyclopedic singer than Pastora. Nobody has had her flavour, nobody has been her equal." (Antonio Reina in Museo Virtual de la Niña de los Peines)
"Pastora Pavón Cruz, the incomparable Niña de los Peines, has probably been the greatest genius in the history of [flamenco] singing. An all-style interpreter, she completely mastered the fundamental songs (seguiriyas and soleares), the festive ones (tangos, bulerías and cantiñas), the peteneras and the cantes de Levante ((malagueñas, cartageneras, tarantas and granaínas). (Martín Salazar 1998)
"With La Niña de los Peines, all discussion comes to an end: flamencologists, artists, flamenco fans, critics and everybody interested in flamenco, in general, state that she is the greatest woman singer to date." (Manuel Bohórquez, quoted by Antonio Reina in Museo Virtual de la Niña de los Peines).
Complete works
La Niña de los peines, Patrimonio de Andalucía , Fonotrón, 2004, — The complete collection of her songs, recorded between 1910 and 1950, in 13 CDs, including CD ROM with a study of her artistic legacy. www.fonotron.comPartial compilations
La Niña de los peines, voz de estaño fundido, Sonifolk, Madrid, 1997La voz de interes cultural: La Niña de los Peines, Colección Quejío, EMI-Odeón, Madrid, 1997 — Partial compilation
Sources
- ÁLVAREZ CABALLERO, Ángel: El cante flamenco, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, Second edition, 1998. ISBN 84-206-9682-X (First edition: 1994)
- ÁLVAREZ CABALLERO, Ángel: La Discografía ideal del cante flamenco, Planeta, Barcelona, 1995. ISBN 84-08-01602-4
- BLAS VEGA, José and RÍOS RUIZ, Manuel, Diccionario Enciclopédico Ilustrado del Flamenco, Cinterco, 1985, quoted in
- LEFRANC, Pierre: El cante jondo, Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, 2000 ISBN 84-472-0610-6
- MARTIN SALAZAR, Jorge: Los cantes flamencos, Diputación Provincial de Granada, 1991
- MARTIN SALAZAR, Jorge: La malagueña y los cantes de su entorno, Asociación Cultural Guadalfeo, Motril, 1998 ISBN 84-923486-1-5
- RÍOS RUIZ, Manuel: El gran libro del flamenco, Vol. II: Intérpretes, Calambur, Madrid, 2002. ISBN 84-88015-95-X
External links
— Contains biography, analysis of his works, and audio samples.- Samples of Seguiriyas by Pastora Pavón and other traditional flamenco artists —Her version of the Siguiriya of El Marruro, recorded 1928, shows her special ability for microtonal singing.