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The Gipsy Kings perform live [210k MPEG-3] or [290k WAV]

July 13, 1999
Web posted at: 4:06 p.m. EDT (2006 GMT)

From Debra Daugherty
CNN WorldBeat Correspondent

(CNN) -- The Gipsy Kings' work has made them one of the top-selling pop-flamenco ensembles in the world. But this band of brothers and their cousins didn't start off that way.

The group was created when an offshoot of the family ensemble Los Reyes joined with three cousins from the Bailardo family. Together, these relatives from the South of France were wandering minstrels, speaking primarily the Gitane gypsy dialect.

They began adding influences from North Africa and South America, and suddenly found themselves on music charts all across Europe. Thanks to strong albums and hit songs like their 1987 single "Bamboleo" -- which got fresh exposure in an ad campaign for Burger King last year -- the group has also become the biggest-selling French ensemble in the United States.

"The rhumba and flamenco is something they learned themselves," says manager Pascal Imbert. "It's like coming from Africa, they then went to Cuba and came back through Spain, and they saw the girls dance the rhumba. They said, 'This is good music.' And then the Kings developed that style and added more rock elements by bringing drums, bass and keyboard."

The band comprises lead singer Nicolas Reyes, the son of famed flamenco singer José Reyes; singers and guitarists Canut, Pablo and Patchai Reyes; and Diego, Paco and Tonino Bailardo. As the band's work developed, its music has evolved into what Imbert calls a kind of a rhumba-flamenco. They use their own unique language, as well -- a combination of Catalan Spanish, a French patois, and the gypsy dialect of southwest France.

The Gipsy Kings sing about their heritage and the nomadic principle of freedom to travel from place to place without boundaries or borders.

"It's based (on) a community of gypsies living together," Imbert says, "living in encampments and pulling out guitars, creating music together. It's really mostly this and the freedom that it gives them to move around when they want, to go from one place to the other, move the caravans, and live like that."

And there's another message behind many of their songs, Imbert says: "To have peace in the world, and to live with happiness and pick up the good things and the bad things ... everybody should be good with everyone."

The Gipsy Kings have taken their music on the road to many parts of the world. As they travel, they pick up new musical influences and absorb them into their own developing sound, from places as far-flung as Cuba and Saudi Arabia.

"They love Cuban music," says Imbert, "so that's maybe the next influence that's going to come into their style."

As the Kings have been influenced by other musical cultures, they've in turn influenced a new generation of flamenco artists to continue the tradition. Famed flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook of Canada says he was 18 or 19 when he ran into the group.

"I was visiting my dad who lives in Arles in the South of France," Cook says, "and he was playing me their record. And I thought, 'Wow, that's great, I love it.' The record ended, and I remember we heard what we thought was somebody else playing the same record coming from the roof above our heads.

"So we quickly climbed the stairs to my father's roof, and there on the neighbor's roof was this big gypsy party going on. And they finished their song, and my dad quickly handed me my guitar and said, 'Strum.' So I strummed, and they all turned -- olé. And you know, the next thing I know, we were invited to a jamboree with the Gipsy Kings. It was great. We had a great time."