Radio Tarifa - History

History

Both Fain Dueñas (percussion, Spain) and Vincent Molino (flute, France) were students of Moroccan multi-instrumentalist and composer Tarik Banzi of the Al-Andalus Ensemble. Together they founded an early music group playing music from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance called Ars Antiqua Musicalis, although this group was unable to find commercial success. When they met Benjamin Escoriza (Granada), a troubador flamenco singer raised by Gypsies, in Madrid in the late 1980s the last piece was in place. Their first recording together, Rumba Argelina, was recorded in 1993 and became a sensation in Europe when it was released in 1996, and again when it was issued (through association with Nonesuch Records) in America in 1997. The critical and financial success of that disc made it possible to put together a full-fledged touring band which played Germany, Italy, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada and the United States". After nearly 20 years together, according to their website their farewell performance occurred November 2006, in Barcelona. Benjamin Escoriza died on March 8 2012 at the age of 58.