Flamenco Museum / Peña Juan Breva

This guide to the Flamenco Museum and Peña Juan Breva in Málaga opens with a paradox: a singer good enough to perform for a king who still needed friends to pass around a hat to bury him. Born Antonio Ortega Escalona in 1844 near Vélez-Málaga to a family of fig sellers, he built a lighter, non-gypsy style called the malagueña, sold out Madrid's café cantante stages, and became the first flamenco singer invited to perform for the King and Queen of Spain, who once even freed a jailed friend at his request. Stand inside the walls this club built to hold his memory, surrounded by guitars older than the building, wax cylinders, and thousands of old records.