{"id":17989,"date":"2020-02-14T10:17:19","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T09:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expoflamenco.com\/archivo\/?p=17989"},"modified":"2020-02-14T10:18:14","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T09:18:14","slug":"remembering-el-carbonerillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expoflamenco.com\/archivo\/en\/bordonazo-new\/remembering-el-carbonerillo\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering El Carbonerillo"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Carbonerillo would be 114 years old today, hadn\u2019t he died on April 6th, 1937, age 31. The cause of his death was tuberculosis, an illness that killed many artists of cante, such as Manuel Torres, Paco Mazaco and Currito el de la Jeroma. El Carbonerillo\u2019s real name was Manuel Vega Garc\u00eda, and he came to this world on February 8th, 1906, on Sol Street, which was also the birthplace of Mochuelo, the bullfighter Manolo Gonz\u00e1lez and the cantaora Emilia Jandra. His mother, Roc\u00edo Garc\u00eda Cuesta, was from old-town Seville, and his father, Manuel Vega Villar, was from Benacaz\u00f3n, in the province of Seville, although he grew up in Triana. El Carbonerillo\u2019s father was a non-professional bailaor and he was a coalman (carbonero<\/em>) who supplied coal to many coalyards in Seville. Thus his son was nicknamed El Carbonerillo<\/em> (\u201cthe little coalman<\/em>\u201d) when he started singing, first at La Macarena neighborhood in Seville, and later all over Spain. As a child he worked with his sisters at the Pikman a garment factory in Seville. At lunchbreak, with his sisters would put him on a table for him to sing fandangilllos<\/em>, earning cheers and treats from all in the factory. His sister Anita told me he that was born to be a singer, and that he sang like a nightingale, but his mother Roc\u00edo, the family\u2019s boss, never wanted him to become a cantaor, which was an art of disrepute in those days, even as cante was already being dignified in the theatres by stars such as Ni\u00f1a de los Peines and Chac\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

The childhood best friend of El Carbonerillo\u2019s was Pepe Pinto, another prodigy of cante who was born three years before him at la Macarena neighborhood. They would hang out around the taverns in the area, and one morning they ended up singing at the Caf\u00e9 Novedades with another rookie, Ni\u00f1o de Marchena. Such was their performance that the caf\u00e9 ended up filled with coins and flowers. Thus began the career of El Carbonerillo, who soon started to perform in the surrounding towns with guitarists such as Antonio Peana and Pepe el de la Flamenca, and later with another guitarist called Manolo El Carbonero, who later became known as Ni\u00f1o Ricardo. It was with Ni\u00f1o Ricardo that El Carbonerillo recorded his first albums in 1928, for the Regal record company, when he already was a well-known cantaor in all of Spain, even as he was just 22 years old. Fame, money and love \u2013 rather heartbreak \u2013 turned him into someone full of vices, trapped specially by alcohol, something quite normal in those days among the flamenco artists, who lived the nights in a Seville full of caf\u00e9s, party halls and brothels. Those who knew him well, such as the guitarist Peana and the cantaor Enrique Orozco, told me that more often than not, he would be drunk at daybreak in some party hall, hauntingly singing lyrics torn from his heart, cursing women and ready to scuffle with any waiter who refused to serve him one last drink.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, El Carbonerillo performed in several companies with the greatest artists of those days, in the 1930s, before the Spanish Civil War on 1936. He performed in shows featuring Ni\u00f1a de los Peines, Mazaco, Fregenal, El Pinto and Vallejo, among other great stars, and he left us a very interesting discography, now available in CD. That\u2019s the legacy of music and lyrics left by this brilliant cantaor from Seville, the last romantic of the cante macareno, who with one stanza of fandango was able to overwhelm with sorrow or with joy. Not only by fandangos, but also by other palos such as seguiriyas, soleares, tarantas or those colombianas a comp\u00e1s so celebrated all over Spain: Cuna donde yo he nac\u00edo, Sevilla la tierra m\u00eda(1). <\/em>Although he would always be remembered as a great fandanguero <\/em>and for lyrics such as this, recorded with Sabicas in 1932:<\/p>\n

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Que quien te quiere soy yo<\/em>
\nhaz por quererte t\u00fa a m\u00ed<\/em>
\nQue quien te quiere soy yo<\/em>
\nT\u00fa quieres a quien no te quiere<\/em>
\nV\u00e1lgame el amor de Dios<\/em>
\nQu\u00e9 desgracia\u00edta eres<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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