On a bitterly cold December evening, just a few weeks ago, if you were wearing a certain kind of laminate around your neck, you could have slipped through a dark stage door at the nefarious corner of  Taylor and Market in San Francisco, and found yourself backstage at the Warfield Theatre, where three of the Reyes Brothers – Andre, Nicolas and Canut, and two of their cousins, Tonino and Paco Baliardo – would have greeted you with warm hugs and invited you to sit down and sup with them at their large round dinner table. This was a very special dinner of sorts because they were being joined on this tour on stage for the first time by members of a third generation of this family of musicians–Michael Baliardo, Tonino’s son, and George Reyes, Nicolas’ son.

They were a handsome and elegant group of men: fathers, sons, uncles and cousins chatting animatedly, primarily in French, with, quite possibly, a little Calo being tossed about here and there in conversation. Calo, or Spanish Romani, is a dialect that originated in Spain and is spoken by the Gitanos, blending native Romani vocabulary with Spanish grammar. The round table was covered with a white tablecloth and they were eating a delicious dinner of tilapia and lemon herbed chicken, salads and profiteroles, drinking sweet iced tea, laughing and joking and offering their guests wine and food. Casually, the diners excused themselves from the table and moments later began to go upstairs to perform to a packed theatre where the excited crowd of over 2000 fans erupted in cheers.

In the third decade of the 20th Century during the Spanish Civil War, a group of Catalonian gypsies afraid for their wives and children fled Spain for France. In a recent interview, Nicolas Reyes explained the decision: “The Gypsy people were not allowed to take part in the fight, other than being shot at, so the best way to stay alive was to run away from Spain.” Most of these gypsy families settled in the Camargue region, where they live now, between Marseille, Arles and Montpellier. The Reyes family joined a Gypsy encampment at Arles in 1936, and they sang as they worked odd jobs, did horse trading, harvested grapes and gathered scrap metal. In the evenings they brought out their guitars and the traditional songs and sang at Sunday village gatherings while the women danced in the safe and intimate caravan circles. They improvised with guitar players, Palmas (clapped rhythms which are derived from their Spanish heritage), and singers around the campfires of their adopted home. “They still do that, even now,” Said Josquin Des Pres, who grew up in San Tropez and has known the Reyes and Baliardos for decades.

Des Pres, an award-winning record producer and songwriter here in Southern California, said that it was in the Fifties, during a traditional Gypsy pilgrimage–”Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer” in the Camargue–that their unique flamenco singing and guitar strumming gained mainstream notice. Ricardo Baliardo, or “Manitas de Plata” (Little Hands of Silver) was being feted by artists from the area including Pablo Picasso, Cocteau and Salvador Dali; his nephew, Jose Reyes, quickly became renowned as the best flamenco singer in France and was accompanied by his uncle, Manitas de Plata, who is still considered one of the best guitarists in history. Picasso is said to have exclaimed of Baliardo’s playing in Arles in 1964, “that man is of greater worth than I am!” He proceeded then to draw on the guitar.

The style of their music, “Flamenco Puro” was so popular that their fame spread worldwide and they had fans like Charlie Chaplin and Brigitte Bardot to name a few. Jose Reyes and Ricardo Baliardo performed to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall in December of 1965. Manitas’ brother Hippolyte Baliardo, a well known Rumba guitar player, invited his sons to become the members of Los Baliardos Players. In the Sixties and early Seventies, after he left Manitas, Des Pres said, “Jose Reyes, with Plata and Baliardo, who was an uncle, formed a group called ‘Los Reyes’, which means “The Kings,” which included four of his five sons, (Andre was too young at the time), and Chico Bouchikhi, who was married to one of Jose’s daughters”.

In 1979, the patriarch Jose Reyes died, and the Reyes Brothers formed a union with their cousins, the Baliardos. This group was a more modern fusion of the music they had played in their family for generations. There are eight members of the Gipsy Kings but you’ll see six on the stage because they rotate on tour. Some like to travel more than the others. Nicolas Reyes, the main singer, Canut and Andre performed on stage at the Warfield that night, and at the new Conga Room in Los Angeles, on New Year’s Eve; the two other Reyes brothers Patchai and Paul remained home with their families. They still live in the Camargue region when they are not on tour and are devoted to their wives and children. The Baliardo Brothers–Paco, Tonino and Diego–are guitar wizards. All of them have played together since they were young and prefer to compose and play their own music. Their music is derived from a form of flamenco, a sort of rumba: “Rumba Flamenca, which is easier to dance to,” said Patty Weiss, who has played violin with the Gipsy Kings on some of their North America tours, including here in LA at the Greek Theater.

Their songs are mostly about love and travelling and having a good time and are sung in a mixture of French, Spanish and their own gypsy dialect, Calo.

“They learn to play a guitar as soon as they are born,” said Des Pres of the Reyes and Baliardo families. “There is a Gypsy legend which says that when an old Gypsy singer or guitarist is ready to die, he will sing or play for a pregnant woman. Then that baby will get his talent. Many times when the Gypsy Kings are on tours, at the end of the show, they will put one of their younger children on stage. They all know the strum.”

The crowd at the Warfield demanded two encores and the concert ended with standing ovations from the audience.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did. Drums and bass guitar are not traditional gypsy instruments. Their sons did really really well tonight, “Des Pres told their manager, Michel Crupel, that night after the concert when everyone was getting ready to go to the Four Seasons. “For gypsies, as an ever oppressed and pursued community, our children have a particular importance.” Nicolas Reyes has said in many interviews, “Children are Kings!”

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