Why has jazz turned out so good? Flamenco and blues: Affinity and descent

Pointing out a few paralells between flamenco and the original blues leads to comparisons between origins, genealogies and lines of descent as the mys tery of jazz is seen to be a problem. Probably less well known to readers t han blues or jazz, flamenco cante has not, till present, mixed with other m usical currents in a stream as vast as jazz, a stream that maintains and re news the music while making it universal. Evidence of this contrast is soug ht in certain recent syncretic trends in flamenco (flamenco-rock, etc.), wh ich are, however, threatened by pure juxtaposition. All these questions run through anthropology. If jazz has turned out so good, the reason is that i t is a kind of musical anthropology.