Once again I thought that summer is long 🙂 In Estonia the summer is just about 2-3 months but once its here it feels that it is going to stay forever. September has always been an important change in everybody’s life here – most of the people have to go back to schools and their… Continue reading
Guillem Alonso and TapOlé
I think it was the spring of 2007 when the “world champion of step dance” Guillem Alonso visited the annual step dance event in Tallinn. I knew nothing about him and about the event, too. But appeared that the organizers were forced to find a guitarist that would perform the Asturias by Albeniz as Guillem… Continue reading
Formation of the idea of the dance album
For 2007 I had recorded a classical guitar duo CD and some occasional tracks with modern music for the Estonian Public Broadcast Corp and for some young composers. Also, I had played in some guitar parts for some bands’ albums, we’d recorded our guitar quartet and so on, so I had plenty of recording experience… Continue reading
Musicians of The Dance Album
So I needed somebody to play the early music percussion, to clap hands and play castagnets, somebody who could get a samba groove out of the guitar and a cellist. To find somebody that is good with early percussion is easy in Estonia – you have just two choices. I chose both but started with… Continue reading
Got the recording contract!
Recording a classical music CD takes a professional crew and the only place to find such is the National Broadcast Company. In my case it is the Estonian Public Broadcast. Nowadays the waiting list can be long but that’s the way it goes – you write a project and it competes with others and a… Continue reading
Choice of the dances for the album
There are so many dances that classical guitarists perform every day! Minuets, waltzes and mazurkas in music schools, allemandes, courantes, gigues and all Baroque dances at the academies and not to tell about the world of the Spanish music! Sometimes you don’t even realize that you are actually playing dance music! My approach to the… Continue reading
How to get the rhythm?
Get a drummer! Or two. When I had realized that most of the interpretations of the enormous amount of dances written for the guitar are lacking the rhytmic flow I tried to find a way how I could fix it in my own playing. It is clear that solid playing techniques and proper arrangements and… Continue reading
How to Get the Rhythm?
<a href=”https://kristokao.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/20071221052735kristo_keila07_anne.jpg”><img title=”Anne Anderson (castagnets and clapping) Kristo Kao (guitar)” src=”https://kristokao.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/20071221052735kristo_keila07_anne-300×225.jpg” alt=”Anne Anderson (castagnets and clapping) Kristo Kao (guitar)” width=”300″ height=”225″ /></a>Get a drummer! Or two. When I had realized that most of the interpretations of the enormous amount of dances written for the guitar are lacking the rhytmic flow I tried to find a… Continue reading
Benefits of working in a radio station and “The Renaissance Album”
I used to be a “classical music DJ” in our national classical music radio station – Klassikaraadio. For some years I even did the morning programs that starts tooooo early for me 🙂 But there was a very good thing about the job – I listened to a lot of music that I would never… Continue reading
Welcome to the world of the classical guitar and dance music!
Are you surprised that something as academical as the classical guitar can perform dance music? Well, explore this site and find out! My Dance Album project is inspired by the fact that the guitar has always been used as a dance instrument. One thing is the choice of the dances – they are mostly well-known… Continue reading