His hoarse cracked voice gave rise to the term afillá which is still used to describe this kind of voice. He was first recognised as a brilliant maestro of the siguiriya.
The two most notable names were El Planeta, the first singer of cante jondo who sang romances, polos, siguiriyas (his being the oldest which is still sung today) and also played the guitar, and El Fillo, collector and disseminator of songs, and perhaps the originator of others. There is much testimony to the tremendous flamenco activity that developed in Triana during the last third of the nineteenth century. At the same time we see the emergence of tonás, martinettes, deblas, carceleras, gilianas & the first siguiriyas. The first flamenco song forms or ‘palos’ are thought to have been the corrido, corrida or romance gitano – a development of the romaces castellanos, flamencoised by gypsy singers and sung without musical accompaniment. Cante flamenco could have been born in any of these three towns, nurtured by gypsy families and first performed in their private fiestas. The three most important places at this point in time were the Cradles of Cante – Cádiz, Triana (Sevilla) and Jerez de la Frontera, where the first known flamenco singer Tío Luis el de la Juliana was born. The popular songs and dances already existing in Andalusia were often appropriated and influenced the early formation of cante flamenco and it’s logical to assume that in a region which has been a melting pot for some of the worlds most important cultures, an evolving and distinct artform such as flamenco would contain traces of all those before it – Romans, Tartars, Goths and seven centuries of Muslim domination which tolerated and even encouraged cultural exchange between the Arabs, Moors, Jews and Christians. The historical origins of Cante are always connected with towns and cities with large gypsy communities. The Gypsies arrived in Spain in the early fifteenth century, and settled in all regions and especially in Andalusia where they had more in common with the existing population.
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