Paris 87

This live album, released well after Camaron's death in 1992, comes from the latter stages of his career and features the great flamenco singer accompanied by his second longtime partner, Tomatito. Camaron apparently was suffering health problems at this point, and his voice sounds weak on the opening "Tus Ojillos Negros," especially measured against Tomatito's very strong guitar presence. The arrangements are very spare, foregoing the usual flamenco flourishes -- the unadorned "Sonidos Negros" is more a call-and-response between voice and guitar a la blues than performed together. Camaron picks up vocal strength on "Panuelo a Rayas" -- it seems like bulerias is the form people unfamiliar with the different varieties of flamenco would recognize and define as "flamenco." "Como el Agua" gets a big audience response from the opening lines (it's also featured as the CD-ROM video track) but weirdly fades out rather than finishing. Much the same happens on "Yo Pienso Como el Cipres" -- the audience applause is brought up so abruptly and prematurely, it makes you wonder if the producers were covering for a botched ending. Truthfully, you don't get much sense of set dynamics or building momentum to a climax, but Paris 1987 does close strongly with impassioned singing on "Panuelo a Rayas 2," "Mas Duro Que el Acero," and "Tirititando de Frio." With two songs repeated twice out of only nine tracks, Paris 1987 isn't essential -- it's more for confirmed fans than people looking to get into Camaron. ~ Don Snowden