Flor Sinqueña

Flor Sinqueña
24" x 12"
oil on luan, 2012

Aah...the banana plant is still there, part of the floral design of Flor's transparent Peruvian dress. I can't get enough of playing those Peruvian records I got this year and the one by "La voz filamonica del Peru" is my favorite from that modest collection. The record situates itself to the left of the western orchestrated, beautiful and smooth music of a singer like Maria Jesus Vazquez, but well right of the raw huaylas by a typical Huanca orchestra. The orchestra here has the characteristics of the traditional huayno orchestras of Central Peru and other Andean regions. Flor's voice is pretty straight forward without many frills, no emotive extroversion, but solid and sober. The language is Spanish (as opposed to Quechua). Most of the tracks on that record of hers, El Peru con Flor (1989), are in the huaynos style (a dance), but a few tunantadas are also included. A slower tunantada Mi Ultimo Aviso is my favorite track on the album. I'm in the process of learning Spanish but I'm not nearly far enough to understand Spanish language web sites (I can barely count to twenty) so haven't been able to find too much information on the singer Flor Sinqueña. Translated sites don't go much beyond calling her "Flower" Sinqueña. I once saw a film about rocker Neil Young on German TV; they translated the name Johnny Rotten in the song lyrics of Hey Hey My My as Johnny Verdorben. 

The above text is edited from an article titled El Peru Con Flor that I wrote last June for Musical Thrift Store Treasures. Following the link you can listen to Mi Ultimo Aviso as well as to the huayno song Vas a Llorar, both from El Peru Con Flor.