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When I discovered that Manuel Agujetas had an ipod, that Antonio Nuñez Montoya, a chocolate gypsy, sang for Frank Sinatra and that José de la Tomasa only plays lyrical music in his car, that he is already flamenco, as he told me, I started a project personal: ask flamencos about the music they listen to. That they recommend me, for now, ten pieces of the styles that they considered. That’s how Vainica Doble reached my ears. The two friends, who gave birth to a strange and beautiful paradise through their lyrics, drive Rocío Márquez crazy. The bailaor Israel Galván spoke to me about rock. Rafael Riqueni, by Isaac Albéniz, musical nationalism and Bach, father of much of what has been developed up to now.
Jazz, indie, blues and electronica appeared for that work. Also fado, Latin American folklore, copla, rap, life. Miguel Poveda approached to suggest music, such as Estrella Morente, Carmen Linares, Fosforito, Antonio Canales, Merche Esmeralda, David Dorantes and countless other artists in whom I thought I saw, from the beginning, something to tell.
One of them, Fernando de la Morena sang his musical delusions on the other side of the phone, with the texts, some in English, diffuse in their language, but always within the appropriate rhythm. So he gave me, disjointed, ten references that had accompanied him up to that moment. I wrote, in a word document, comments on those ten stakes. A few months later, in June 2019, he passed away, before I, with more rest on the keyboard than his heart in this life, could make public his willingness for this project.
video of the popular singer from Jerez it has gone viral these days. The fragment, of few minutes, belongs to the documentary ‘Trance’, by Emilio Belmontewhich hits theaters this 2022. The feature film, a kind of ‘roadmovie’ with Jorge Pardo as the protagonist, makes a stop in Jerez de la Frontera so that Fernando, one of the kings of the bulería, corrects a director of orchestra to explain to him the beat in which the complaints down there are squared: «Where there is no more measure, we give it. It is being on the edge, on the edge of the precipice”.
Let your tastes manifest nowwhen it is back in the news, albeit posthumously, as I never would have imagined.
genuine flamingo
It took him a while to dedicate himself professionally to cante, but when he took that step he had already learned almost everything. His relatives, those from la Morena, put their knuckles in his blood, so he soon became gifted with compass. Perhaps he always was, with that of playing three by four from the babbling. He did it without pretense, in the neighborhood of Santiago, one of the two most flamenco in the entire world geography, until create your own style of bulería. Fun, naughty and absolutely deepa.
This trimmer of light thirds did not reveal itself overnight, but rather emerged as a cut stick does from its land, almost without warning, with little haste. Listening to the older men who worked and eased their throats in the vine fields, as well as their countrymen, allowed him to take on this culture first-hand. His appearance in the film ‘Flamenco’ (1995), by Carlos Sauraand albums such as ‘De Santiago a Triana’ (1994), ‘En Ca de la Morena’ (1999), ‘Jerez de la Morena’ (2002) and ‘VORS, Jerez al cante’ attest to this.
From Uncle Borrico to Elton John
With some of the names that he recalls in this chosen repertoire, he has shared a poster, as well as countless parties. A story, in short, of colleagues and friends. He does not opt for a single school, although he does have a special predilection for that of Antonio Mairena, with hundreds of followers in any corner of Andalusia. Few interpreters come so close to an aesthetic without completely resembling it. It looks like your strong personality He played a very prominent role in it. Everything was receiving and filtering with creativity.
EarthquakeManuel shoelaces, Deaf Manuel, uncle donkey and Chocolate, who left for Seville as a child, are idols among jondo fans. And he has reserved an ole for each one. The point that all of them have in common, like Shrimp and The Sernite, a loose verse from Jerez dedicated to embellishing cante when everyone tended to strip it of its adornment, is genuine character. There was a special taste in the de la Morena for the art of experiences. The natural, the slums, the fire… Even so, he does not stop remembering others who took him to record stores: Frank Sinatra and Elton Johnicons of international music that permeated their eardrums when they were virgins from external agents.
It is also interesting to see the impact that the album ‘Canta Jerez’ (1967) had until the end of its days. That album, for many, the best that has ever been recorded as far as cante is concerned, is a portrait of an essential generation whose members, in those decades, passed through that moment in which man enjoys fullness and experience. A snapshot to a luck of Jerez flamenco generation of 27. Through it you can see the highest that came out of the many admirers of Antonio Chacón and Manuel Torre. Of the rituals of the houses and cellars. Of direct cante and the marrow that so many shirts have left and that sometimes she also looked at herself in Cadiz, her neighbor and friend. And from that generation, of course, he drank El Torta, El Capullo and himself, Fernando de la Morena and all the fans of that “extra measure” that from the schemes of that orchestra director seemed indecipherable. She filled the stalls with young people. He fought without fuss in the best bullrings and was, in short, a gentleman of the bulería like the tip of an iceberg that housed the cloth of the soleá and the trilla, of all styles, in fact, which in his voice received own stamp.
1. ‘At the door with your mare’ (bulería), Terremoto de Jerez. ‘Earthquake’ (1958)
2. ‘Since you left’ (seguirillas), Manuel Agujetas.
3. ‘In the reflection of the wine’ (fandangos), Sordera de Jerez.
4. ‘The Mayor of Guadix’, El Chocolate (taranto and abandolao). ‘Masters of singing’ (1973)
5. ‘Romance de la Princesa Celinda’ (romance), Antonio Mairena. ‘Triana, root of cante’ (1973)
6. ‘New York, New York’, Frank Sinatra. ‘Trilogy’ (1980)
7. ‘Don´t go breaking my heart’, Elton John y Kiki Dee. ‘Elton John´s greatest hits volume II’ (1976)
8. ‘Your eyes are two stars’ (bulerías), Camarón de la Isla. ‘El Camarón de la Isla with the special collaboration of Paco de Lucía’ (1971)
9. ‘I’ll be firewood in your corral’ (soleá), Tío Borrico. She Sings (1967)
10. ‘Ibis on horseback’ (cabales), El Sernita. She Sings (1967)