Great Masters of Flamenco, Vol. 3
The great connoisseurs, from Lorca to Mairena have written of La Nina de Los Peines in the most glowing terms, piling superlative upon superlative. Towards the end of her life, men would throw their hat at her feet as she passed through the streets of her hometown, Seville. And when she died at 79 in 1969, the whole of Andalusia wept and the poets grieved. She was born into a poor gipsy family in 1890 and began to sing at the age of 8 in a Madrid cafe, with large combs in her hair that may be the origin of her nickname, ''The little girl with the combs''. She was a close friend of Falla and Lorca, and she sat alongside such eminent figures as Antonio Chacon, Andres Segovia and lgnacio Zuloaga, on the jury of the first Cante Jondo competition, organized by Falla in 1922. She was the sister of the great cantaor Tomes Pavon and she married the cantaor Pepe Pinta, who were sometimes described by their connection to her on the tablaos flamencos notices. She made a great many records, revisited on this release, including different genres from the most jondo to the most chico, and sometimes more commercial music.