The Gipsy Kings celebrate in South Florida as they bring their 25th Anniversary Tour to Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 8 p.m. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 7, at 11 a.m.
Twenty-five years ago, the Gipsy Kings captured the world’s imagination with their self-titled debut album—a record that became a genuine phenomenon, certified gold and platinum around the globe, introducing millions of listeners to a unique, irresistible blend of traditional flamenco styles with Western pop and Latin rhythms. Since then, the band has toured virtually non-stop, to the farthest-flung corners of the planet, and sold almost twenty million albums, all the while retaining the same line-up of virtuoso musicians.
Now the Gipsy Kings return with Grammy award-winning album Savor Flamenco, their ninth studio album and first new release in six years. The project marks the first time in their storied career that the Kings have produced themselves and written all of the material. It also starts a relationship between France’s most successful musical group of all time and a new label, Knitting Factory Records.
“Music has always been a passion,” says lead guitarist Tonino Baliardo. “Even after all this time, after all these years of touring and working. It has given us so much. We have matured, we have developed in music, and it has been so good for us.”
“World Music” is often a meaningless catch-all phrase, a marketing shortcut, but as one of the acts that first helped define the phrase, the Gipsy Kings create music that really does cross all borders. From the beginning all the way through SAVOR FLAMENCO, their sound has reflected the constant travel and diverse influences of the gypsy heritage. Their 1987 debut album, which spent forty weeks on the US album charts, introduced the world to “Rumba Gitano”—South America’s rumba rhythm married to the fleet attack of flamenco guitars. That record’s “Bamboleo” became a huge, break-out worldwide hit (more than twenty years later, it even turned up on an episode of the TV series Glee).
Over the years, the music of the Kings incorporated elements of Latin and Cuban styles, Arabic music, reggae, and jazz guitar reminiscent of the French Gypsy master Django Reinhardt. Yet, as heard on the new album, they have never lost their intense connection to the traditional flamenco of their heritage, keeping a spotlight on Tonino Baliardo’s fluid guitar work and Nicolas Reyes’s powerful vocals. This broad cultural mix has enabled the Gipsy Kings to be embraced wherever they play—from China to Brazil, New Orleans to Russia, Australia to Africa.
The Gipsy Kings have spent a remarkable two-and-a-half decades at the top, in a category that’s all their own. Yet in those occasional periods when they aren’t touring, the band members still live with their families in the south of France, the area that defined their identities and their sound. Each time, they return to their isolated enclave, and then recreate the experience of immigrants coming to a new land. Certainly, their lives are different from those of their ancestors, but something fundamental still remains; as they continue to travel the world, absorbing new cultures and styles, this mobility, curiosity, and adaptation drives their music ever forward.
Tickets cost $81.50, $71.50 & $61.50.* all seats are reserved for reserved seats, and are available at all Ticketmaster outlets online at www.myhrl.com, www.ticketmaster.com or charge by phone: 1-800-745-3000. Doors open one-hour prior to show start time. *Additional fees may apply.