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| Peter Baime |
Ah, sunny Spain…the land of bullfighting, tapas, siesta and flamenco. Flamenco is not just a style of dance or music – it’s a culture, and few traditions are as rich and visceral.
Paco de Lucia and the Gipsy Kings are two artists that have been a huge inspiration globally, popularizing the Spanish guitar. “The history of Flamenco is unorthodox, it’s handed down from generation to generation, but on a technical level, people have taken it so much further now,” says Milwaukee’s father of Flamenco Peter Baime.
Baime began playing guitar when he was16 and has been performing for more than 40 years from Spain and Italy to Canada and Mexico. He started as a classical guitarist but has been strictly dedicated to the art of Flamenco since the ’70s. “The thing that always attracted me was the improvisation and being able to create your own style. I spent a long time listening to everybody else and learning things from lots of other people, then I finally felt I could be creative to find my own voice and make it my own,” Baime says.
Baime began studying in the U.S. with Nino Bernardo and in Spain with the legendary gypsy guitarists Diego and Paco Gastor. He has been a faculty member of the Conservatory since 1969 and also teaches at UW-Milwaukee and Cardinal Stritch.
An art form rooted in tradition but heavy on improvisation, each flamenco song or palo evokes a certain emotion or mood. Songs are classified into palos based on elements such as rhythmic structure, pattern or form. Alegrias sound happy while Soleas are dark and slow. “Some of that becomes more obvious in the accompaniment since the dancer is on the exact same pace,” Baime says. See what he means in the video below.
As part of the Conservatory Nights series, Peter Baime will perform with flamenco dancer Jennifer Schmitz on Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Conservatory’s Helen Bader recital hall (1584 N. Prospect Ave.). Call 414-276-5760 to order tickets. And by all means, go with the urge to shout out “Ole” at the finale.
One more fantastic Flamenco guitarist to look for in Milwaukee is Evan Christian. His music is infused with an R&B flavor, and he plays a weekly gig at the Jazz Estate on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m.
