Album: Various artists

The Rough Guide to Flamenco (World Music Network)

Anybody wanting a quick immersion in all varieties of flamenco should get this. It opens with some sensual bulerias by La Macanita, her voice both masculine and feminine, and it segues into a tribute (with 21st-century backing) by Diego Carrasco to the great El Camaron, who is himself gloriously present in the following track. We get everything: from a duet by two groups of women in Seville to the ruminative jazz piano of Monroy backing a duet between Raul Galvez and Javier Ruibal; we get Estrella Morente and her father Enrique, whose solo, backed by Pepe Habichuela, has austere beauty.