Just a few hours after publishing notification of the cancellation of Fernando Terremoto’s performance at the 2010 Jerez Festival, I learned from a French friend and flamenco lover that the famous flamenco singer from Jerez had passed away from a heart attack on February 13, 2010. He was only 40 years old.

Over 20 years ago, Fernando Fernández Pantoja, son of the also legendary Teremoto de Jerez, began his flamenco career as a guitarist, but debuted as a singer accompanied by the master guitarist Moraíto Chico at the Peña Don Antonio Chacón in Jerez in 1989.

Among the prizes Fernando won over the years, the most important include the first prize for singing in the Young Performers Contest at the IX Bienal de Flamenco in 1996 and the three National Prizes for Song (Manuel Torres for seguiriya and martinete; Niña de los Peines for soleá por bulería and bulería; and Antonio Chacón for malagueña and tarantos) awarded at the XV Concurso Nacional de Córdoba in 1998.

I am taking full advantage of my last days in Japan, and as that is the case, I don’t have much time to write and share my Japanese adventures with you at the moment. However, when I am back in Madrid, I’ll tell you all about my flamenco related experiences! I’ve already met Japanese flamencos, and it’s been an excellent experience.

For now, I would like to share a short video with you that appears on Flamenco.TV. By clicking here, you’ll be able to watch a little jota, the autochthonous dance of my beloved Aragón. Plus, the photo that you see to the left is one that I took of the jota being danced in the Procession of Flowers during the Fiesta del Pilar in Saragossa this past year.

I hope you enjoy this art form that is equally as Spanish as flamenco.

-Justine Bayod Espoz

Even though I have yet to meet any flamenco dancers or musicians (that I know of) in Japan, that doesn’t mean that the rest of you shouldn’t get to enjoy a little flamenco in my absence. I would like to remind my beloved madrileños (natives and non-natives) that Joaquín Cortés is performing Calé – a collection of the best pieces from the six shows that Cortés has choreographed and directed throughout his 20 year career – at the Nuevo Apolo Theatre, Plaza Tirso de Molina 1,until the 17th of January (the day I return from Japan).