Celebrity & Entertainment Industry Interview - Happy People: How Andy James is Revolutionizing Flamenco Jazz

Greg Staffa 0:00

You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, greg Staffa. My guest this episode is originally from Melbourne, australia. She's a world-acclaimed flamenco dancer who came to the US to become a jazz artist. She recently released her eighth studio album, happy People last month. It's available on all music streaming platforms. Andy James, welcome to the program.

Andy James 0:32

Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

Greg Staffa 0:34

Thank you, and Flamingo Dancer, that is something that I guess I don't associate much in the US. You accomplished all over. Why the US?

Andy James 0:45

Well, I actually flamenco danced in Spain and Australia mostly Spain. So when I stopped flamenco dancing or, you know, stopped dancing all full time, I came to the States to sing jazz, because I sang jazz when I was a little girl as well. So now I'm mixing the two.

Greg Staffa 1:05

And that kind of seems like you know the term peanut butter and jelly, things that mesh together. When I think of Flamingo and jazz, they don't seem to be something that's incorporated.

Andy James 1:19

What made you decide to take that route? Well, Chick Corea and Paco Dulcia, and he mixed Flamenco with jazz and he was a friend of mine in Spain. He used to come and visit and come to the clubs and stuff. And he said, well, since you sing jazz and you dance flamenco, why not mix the two? And I thought, well, you know, I'm flamenco dancing right now, so I wanted to just concentrate on that. But he was actually right.

Flamenco Upbringing & Influences

Andy James 1:44

Thank you, Mick.

Greg Staffa 1:45

And so tell us a little bit about your upbringing. What got you involved in dancing?

Andy James 1:50

My father was a flamenco aficionado. He just absolutely loved flamenco and so he used to play flamenco all the time and my mother used to play jazz all the time. So I kind of had both sounds going at the same time and I went with my father. I really respected my parents a lot and I grew to love flamenco and jazz. So I was, you know, a very energetic little kid. So I decided to, you know, try the dancing kind of you know, get fit, wear off the weight.

Greg Staffa 2:20

And what was it about it that you grew to love, about it?

Andy James 2:25

And what was it about it that you grew to love? About it, there's lots of very exciting rhythms and beats, and it was just something really kind of wild and exciting. So I just had the opportunity to work with some really great performers when I was in Spain Antonio Canales and Rafael Amargo and Ramon Jimenez and Paco de Lucia. So I was very lucky in that way.

Greg Staffa 2:47

And you've performed all over the world. Where are some of the more enjoyable places that you've come? What has been the reception? Because here I mean I'm just speaking for myself. It's not a huge thing. I mean, we all know what Flamingo is, but I associate it with Zorro films and stuff like that. What has been the reception worldwide? Are there

Global Reception of Flamenco

Greg Staffa 3:10

places where you really love bringing it to, or it may not be as culturally prevalent?

Andy James 3:17

It's very popular, I believe, in the Czech Republic. It's extremely popular in the festivals in the Czech Republic. It's popular in Italy. It's popular in Hungary, but you're right, it's on the fringe. In the States there's the flamenco festivals in New York, normally once or twice a year, and also the Bay Area in San Francisco, but definitely those other places it's more popular.

Greg Staffa 3:48

And when you're performing here in the US, is that something that you're trying to change the mindset? Is your goal to further educate or just do your performance and let those that appreciate Flamingo appreciate Flamingo, not really trying to insert yourself into the cultural things?

Andy James 4:06

Well, flamenco has some beautiful rhythms and some very soulful lyrics and music, and I'm singing it in English. So, yes, I'd like to see flamenco become more popular, and especially jazz flamenco.

Greg Staffa 4:22

Is that something that you're seeing as you're going about things? Is it a slow process? Have you seen a lot of advancements over the years? What is your kind of read when you think of America and flamenco and jazz?

Andy James 4:35

Well, it's coming together slowly. I think so definitely. I just started mixing the jazz with the flamenco. My first few albums we released here in the States were more traditional, you know Sarah Vaughan, ella Fitzgerald, that kind of music but now we're actually mixing it together. Korea made it quite popular actually.

Greg Staffa 5:00

Now jazz is popular in the US. For many people Was that kind of an added stepping stone to help influence or to showcase Flamingo, to incorporate the jazz that people are a little bit familiar with, to add a new twist to that. Is that something that you saw as a useful thing or just a natural progression?

Greg Staffa 5:24

It's definitely a useful thing and it was a progression as well, both and where, like if you could go anywhere to perform, where you just feel this is not necessarily home, but this is some place where I feel more comfortable, this is where I am loved and appreciated for the dances as I do. Where is kind of the most receptive place to perform Flamenco?

Andy James 5:54

Well, madrid, spain is definitely very popular with Flamenco. Madrid, barcelona, granada, but Madrid, I lived in Madrid for years. And flamenco there's a lot of theatres, a lot of very great artists. Paco de Lucia lived in Madrid. Antonio Canales, the great flamenco dancer, lived in Madrid. Joaquin Cortez, another great flamenco dancer. So Sevilla I actually recorded my album in Madrid and Sevilla.

Greg Staffa 6:28

And what message would you have for someone that really appreciates music and likes all kinds of diversity in music, that really hasn't had a chance to be exposed to flamenco? What kind of

The Happy People Album

Greg Staffa 6:42

advice or mindset would you tell them?

Andy James 6:46

You mean advice to artists, young artists who are aspiring artists.

Greg Staffa 6:50

Well, even artists, or even just fans of music that are reluctant to try something new that might not be as familiar to them as some other music here in the US.

Andy James 7:04

Well, flamenco definitely has completely different rhythms. A lot of it's in 12-8, so it has an edgy kind of sound to it and there's a lot of 4-4 and very sung in a very kind of ahead-of-the-beat method, which is quite a bit different to jazz. Jazz is often behind the beat, especially amongst today's artists, so you get a different kind of feel from it. Definitely. It's a more edgy kind of feel. So I think young people, you have to hear it, but I like it.

Greg Staffa 7:40

Is there enough room to grow in the US? Is this an untapped market? Do you see it as a tapped market where it has its fans and stuff like that, but there's not much room to go? Can Flamingo really take off here in the US, or are we kind of at a point where it's at a saturation? What do you see as the future for Flamingo and jazz here in the US?

Andy James 8:03

I think it is time. Actually, I think it is an uncapped market. There's not been a lot of Flamenco. There was in the 50s, in the 1950s, with Carmen Amaya. She was popular in the movies and then there was kind of a great big space in between, and then the Gypsy Kings were actually French. They came in in the 90s and there was another resurgence, so it seemed like it was kind of once every 40 years. So hopefully we can close the gap.

Greg Staffa 8:35

Tell us a little bit about Happy People. How did it come to play?

Andy James 8:39

It was many years in the making in my mind, actually Flamenco Jazz, the original album. It's got a lifetime of rhythms and musical stars that I've always wanted to create in jazz and it's kind of a flow on from what Chick Corea was doing, but with our own original touch. It's the mood of the Soliaco Bolerias, which is a 12-8 mood and then into the 4-4 moods, and we have instrumental track, which is El madero, which alex acuna from weather report is a wonderful percussionist and, uh, we do a cover of besame mucho, which is sung in spanish, which I sing in spanish and I absolutely love that song. It's it's 14 originals and two, two covers and it took quite a long time to record. We recorded in Sevilla, we recorded in New York, we recorded in Madrid, we recorded in Rome, we recorded in Las Vegas.

Greg Staffa 9:41

So yeah, and it was released last month, and how has your reception been?

Andy James 9:48

but people seem to like it. Yes, it's, you know. People are listening to it on Spotify and people are listening to it on YouTube. I've performed it live and people get up and dance, so they like it.

Greg Staffa 10:02

And is there a theme? Is there a message? What are you hoping that listeners that listen to this Happy People album take away from it?

Andy James 10:13

Well, especially with Happy People, the song we got such a feeling of we'd all be laughing every time we finished playing it when we first started. It's like happy people are all laughing. We'd like to, you know, spread the word of happiness, and we dance in it, we do the footwork in it with the tapateao. I have my flamenco guitarist, one of my friends from Spain, called Canito, and he plays flamenco guitar in it. So it's an unusual sound, it hasn't you know?

Greg Staffa 10:43

And when you're not performing, what kind of music do you listen to?

Andy James 10:46

I listen to a lot of jazz. I listen to Ray Charles. I listen to a lot of jazz. I listen to Ray Charles. I listen to Sarah Vaughan, I listen to Ella Fitzgerald, I listen to Luther Vandross. I listen to a lot of things. Actually, I really like all sorts of music. I listen to flamenco. I

Musical Influences & Future Plans

Andy James 11:04

listen to Maria Callas. I listen to a lot of different music. I love all sorts of music. It's good on there.

Greg Staffa 11:13

Now, Flamingo and jazz seem, at least to me, a unique pairing. Is there any other pairings that you would like to see or explore with Flamingo to see if you can incorporate? I mean, could you rock Flamingo? Is there a desire for stuff like that?

Andy James 11:30

Yeah, you could rock Flamingo. You could blues Flamingo. Is there desire for stuff like that? Yeah, you could rock Flamingo. You could blues Flamingo. Definitely Ray Charles' Flamingo would be great. I think he was such a wonderful player. He played all sorts of different styles, from jazz to pop to rock, to you know, so you could definitely mix Flamenco with it. It's just the way it's got to be done in a certain way.

Greg Staffa 11:57

Sure, is that something that you're interested in exploring as far as a way to bring it to newer audiences, or is Flamenco still kind of revered, in that you don't want to mix it up too much, but some exploration is okay.

Andy James 12:13

Yeah, I think why not? You know, if you try it and if it works, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't, and then you don't pursue it. So a lot of it depends on the song, and nothing's off limits really.

Greg Staffa 12:27

And then you're performing it now. I mean you're going around and performing it. I assume what's next for you?

Andy James 12:34

we're going to it. We're doing a tour of italy. We're starting on the first of may. We're doing a two-week tour in italy. We're going to rome, we're going to venice, we're going to florence and we're we're traveling around doing our happy People album and then we're recording after that. We have some projects that we're bringing out from the past recordings. I did a big band recording with Joe LaBarbera, who worked with Bill Evans, and that was recorded in Capital Studios in Los Angeles before it closed down for a while. And then I have an album coming out that had some songwriters from Nashville who wrote me some songs. So it's another original album with Nicholas Payton on trumpet and Greg Lace, who's a really wonderful kettle steel guitar player so he's on the album as well with John Patitucci and John Coward, who are both John Patitucci's a wonderful bass player, legendary bass player. So I have some wonderful players with me.

Greg Staffa 13:40

So are we seeing a little bit of country in Flamingo. Is that what we're getting ready to see?

Andy James 13:47

Yeah, we could.

Greg Staffa 13:49

Just filming in Nashville.

Andy James 13:50

We definitely could.

Greg Staffa 13:52

What has I mean? You do so much world traveling? Has that made you not a better world citizen? But what has it been like to see the different cultures, the different political, the different environments? What do you take away from what's going on in the world?

Andy James 14:16

Well, definitely, learning Spanish and learning how to communicate in Spanish to the Spanish people was a definite eye-opener, because they have such a different way of life in America. It's a much kind of more relaxed, more slow sort of. It used to drive me crazy because everything would be kind of like mañana o mañana, la semana que viene or dentro de tres

Cultural Observations & Final Thoughts

Andy James 14:40

semanas.

Andy James 14:40

You know you break a pipe and it's going to take you three weeks to get it fixed, but they're completely different type of people. Um, but if you went, I remember once we went away and we left and we can't. We were in australia and we get a phone call for our neighbors saying come back straight away, they're going to sell your apartment and so we had to rush back and pay a bill that hadn't been paid by one of the lawyers. So the sense of family and stuff was great, because these people were just our neighbours. We hadn't actually spoken to them for very long. So the family neighbourly thing was something that really was an eye-opener. It was like going back to the 1950s, I think now.

Greg Staffa 15:23

You're currently in Vegas. Is that where home is now, or is home just kind of everywhere for you?

Andy James 15:31

well, this is where my cats live. So, yes, this is my home um. We live in vegas. We're away a lot, but we live in vegas.

Greg Staffa 15:42

I love vegas that sounds like a poster that hangs above someone's wall. Home is where the cats live I'm not.

Andy James 15:51

I can't go away for too long unless I take the cats with me so what do you hope?

Greg Staffa 15:57

people that are listening to this, wanting to check out Flamingo and go to listen to happy people that have never really heard it before, they're new to it, that just are listening to this and deciding to give it a chance. What are you hoping that they take away from it?

Andy James 16:13

A sense of well-being, definitely A sense of. I mean, the world is kind of a bit of a mess right now, so it'd be good to love one another and feel better with one another these days.

Greg Staffa 16:28

Well, andy, I appreciate your time and I encourage people to check out Happy People and I'll put a link to it where they can listen to it on all the streaming platforms, and I look forward to seeing where the world takes you next and wish you success in your career.

Andy James 16:44

Thank you very much.

Greg Staffa 16:45

You have yourself a great day.

Andy James 16:47

You too, thank you.