About 5 years ago the British couple of Kate Edbrooke and Harold Burgon (the latter formerly sound technician for the Beatles and many other high-flying groups) living in Granada and working their independent recording studio happened upon a group of kids, much younger back then, that was so brimming with music and energy, they decided to try produce a record with them. It was a long and bumpy road, but finally, with the invaluable artistic direction of percussionist José Luis García Puche and the eventual collaboration of guest artist Enrique Morente, that dream came true. Many performances have surfaced since the release of the CD which won the Flamenco Hoy award for best percussion record of 2002, but the dynamic Edbrooke wasn't about to leave it at that and managed to cook up a North American tour that would be the envy of many a budding rock star.

When we asked Kate for details on how this miracle came about, she happily and breathlessly gave us the following background:

It began when we released the CD. I'd been surfing online for some time looking of ways to promote the recording and get contacts. When I came across a world music forum and posted a message there about our work, I immediately got a reply from Detroit asking for a promo package which I sent even though I thought it would be a waste of time as I couldn't for one moment imagine getting gigs out in the US when we were having a hard enough time working in Spain. But then I got a message from Toronto saying they would love to put us on their festival if we were in the area. That made me laugh, "in the area"! They also told me to connect up with Michael Orlove the festival director from Chicago. Funnily enough he had already emailed me as he was coming to Granada to get married, so it was a wonderful coincidence and we have him to thank for this trip. Everyone laughs on asking how we knew him...it sounds so corny, if not seedy, saying "we met via the internet".

When I took Michael to Almanjáyar to meet the group I think it was at that moment he knew he was going to present them in Chicago. Meanwhile I was contacting all the festivals I could around the Chicago area. Everyone was interested and as soon as Michael confirmed he had booked us, they all jumped on board. We also had interest from other festivals such as The Monterey Festival in California, but on realizing how large America really is we decided to keep it small and plan a longer trip next year if there was still interest. The World Music Institute has expressed an interest in presenting us next year and this would mean a full-blown tour schedule which would get us into prestigious theaters as part of their flamenco festival.

At first everyone thought this was going to be impossible. I think Puche [the band's leader] only really believed it when we bought the tickets. I forked out the money for the flights and Anaquerando [parent association that helps support ethnic social/cultural programs] forwarded money to fund hotels etc... We had no luck at all with sponsors in Granada, it's very sad. One sponsor came through for us from America: Paul O'Brian from Portland, Oregon heard about the project and spontaneously contributed a considerable sum to help with expenses.

The parents have been super super supportive and have not once expressed a doubt about our ability to pull this off. We're flying out on September 11th as we got cheap flights, but that ominous date doesn't worry them, just the fact of flying at all.

Taller de Compás includes the following people:

The kids:
María del Carmen Giménez Fernandez, 17 years old, lead voice and percussion
Zaira Santiago Cortes, 14 years old, voice and percussion
Andrés Giménez Fernandez 21 years old dancer/percussionist
Israel Bermúdez Heredia, 14 years old, percussionist
Israel Cortes Muñoz, 16 years old, percussionist

The grownups:
José Luis García Puche, percussionist/bandleader
Katrina Edbrooke Tour manager/chaperone
Harold Burgon Producer/sound engineer
Greg Byler Driver and guest guitarist

US/CANADA ITINERARY

Friday, September 12th
DETROIT FESTIVAL of the ARTS. Detroit MICHIGAN njiakai@wayne.edu

Saturday, September 13th
ARTS FESTIVAL OF DETROIT. Detroit MICHIGAN www.detroitfestival.com

Tuesday, September 16th
NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY. DeKalb, ILLINOIS

Wednsday, September 17th
Chicago. CD presentation at Border Books and Music, 12:30pm
Old Town School of Folk Music http://www.oldtownschool.org/

Thursday, September 18th
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, ILLINOIS
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/

Friday, September 19th
Chicago Cultural Center. Demonstration and discussion of their music broadcast live on RADIO WNUR 89.3FM.

Saturday, September 20th
Concert and workshop. Club Rhythm. http://www.drumallnight.com/

Sunday, September 21st
Oasis Stage Willy Street Festival, Madison,WISCONSIN

Monday, September 22nd
Madison, WISCONSIN
O'Keefe Middle School. Workshop
Wil-Mar Center, concert.

Thursday, September 25th
Toronto, CANADA
Toronto Small World Festival http://www.smallworldmusic.com/

Friday, September 26
Convention Center. Bloomington INDIANA www.lotusfest.org
Saturday, September 27
Bloomington INDIANA
InterArt Tent

Estela Zatania

Presentation of the TALLER DE COMPÁS in the Isabel la Católica Theater (Granada)