My friend Paul Gammon called at noon on Sunday to say Payo Humberto was visiting again and would be at his place in about ten minutes. They were wondering if I would like to come over with my guitars.

Payo Humberto explains his reason for coming to Salt Lake City in this video:

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I am sure you are all familiar with the many flamenco tutorials Payo Humberto has created and posted at YouTube. He purposely produced those tutorials in a light-hearted, informal and friendly style in contrast to the authoritarian "you will never be able to play like I do" exhibitions sometimes seen. I have learned from his tutorials and appreciate the time and effort he put into creating them. Many others also are certain to have benefitted from them.

Payo Humberto was born in the Netherlands, but went to Spain at the age of twenty, eventually married a Spanish lady, and spent many years playing flamenco professionally in Madrid and to a lesser extent also in Seville, Cadez, and other places. His Spanish wife died from breast cancer a few years ago. He has since remarried a Dutch lady and they now live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He is a great admirer of the flamenco master Niño Ricardo who lived in Seville and died in 1972 at the age of 68. He has many interesting stories and insights related to Niño Ricardo and other great masters that we all admire from those days. He speaks Spanish, Dutch, English, Japanese, a little French, has traveled extensively both within and outside Spain, and is very interesting to talk to about a wide range of subjects.

However, the real highlight on Sunday was watching and listening to him play. His tutorials don't do justice to his playing abilities because he continually starts and stops to explain things and because even with good equipment recorded flamenco never has the sound-quality or emotional impact of the real thing. It was especially interesting hearing him play my guitars. I have rarely had the opportunity to hear someone who plays flamenco well play them, and as Sam recently observed while I was playing his guitars in Oregon, guitars sound significantly different out-in-front than they do to players.

For example, my Contreras doesn't sound nearly as bright to me as either my Ramírez or Tsiorba when I play them. However, when Payo Humberto played the same Fandango de Huelva on my Contreras and Ramirez in a quick A/B comparison I heard surprisingly little difference, even though the Contreras is a Brazilian Rosewood negra and the Ramírez has Cyprus back and sides.

Anyway, I wish you all could have joined us. We had a great time.

-Bob

Bob, Isn't Paul the one that used to open for Sabicas on occasion?

No, Paul doesn't play guitar. He just loves flamenco, has been collecting flamenco recordings for about 40 years, and now has what may be the largest library of old flamenco recordings in existence.

He and I grew up in what at that time was a small town about 45-miles south of Salt Lake City and knew each other as teenagers. He lived on a farm and had a teenage job selling fresh vegetables to local residents from a trailer that he drove around town. My mother was one of his customers. I played guitar at that time and had collected some flamenco recordings, but Paul became interested in flamenco later while serving in the military.

We lost touch with each other for about 55 years. I was very surprised a few years ago when he called on the phone, explained who he was, and refreshed my memory about the vegetable trailer. I was even more surprised to learn of his interest in flamenco. A few days before that I had played a little flamenco at a local guitarist get-together and someone who was there had told Paul about me. That enabled us to renew our friendship.

-Bob

Payo Humberto plays his personal bulerías in this video. The playing starts a couple minutes into the recording and he explains at the end why he was drinking milk instead of wine.

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-Bob