A couple of times I had the opportunity to talk about cante with Antonio Mairena, who for me is one of the greatests cantaores in flamenco history. I\u2019ve never said he was \u201cthe best\u201d, because there is no \u201cbest\u201d, at least in an art where personal tastes are of such importance. The first time I even talked with him was at his own house on Padre Pedro Ayala street in Seville, near the Cruzcampo brewery. I remember that he got me talking about my own tastes in cante, and because I was only 20 years old, innocent and na\u00efve, I told him I loved Carbonerillo de la Macarena and Camar\u00f3n. The master smiled and then told me about Juan Talega, whom I had never heard singing and whose name I had only heard a couple of times. Mairena also talked about Manuel Torres, of whom I didn\u2019t know much, either. On Antonio\u2019s advise, I bought a small record of this genius from Jerez, in a music shop on Cuna street, and I have to confess that I didn\u2019t like it at all, at the time. I mentioned this to Mairena on the phone, and he said that it was normal that I hadn\u2019t liked it, because my ears were used to more modern music. \u201cHear it ten or twelve times and you\u2019ll change your mind\u201d, he told me. I did just that and, indeed, I ended up discovering in Torres\u2019 gypsy echoes one more reason to keep exploring old cante. Antonio Mairena was a big fan of the Pav\u00f3n family, particularly Pastora(1) and Tom\u00e1s, but he rarely talked about Arturo, the eldest of the three siblings. They didn\u2019t get along, as they had some personal (and political) disagreements, but Antonio admitted that Arturo was another genius of cante, able to sing for hours the styles that only the great masters could sing, without ever repeating any lyrics.<\/p>\n
I have only met two great masters who loved talking about cante jondo: Antonio Mairena and Juan Valderrama. Antonio was truly passionate about discussing cante, as for him cante was much more than just a means to earn a living. He had his own personal tastes, like everyone else, which were rather obvious. He talked about Tom\u00e1s Pav\u00f3n with true devotion, although, contrary to popular belief, Antonio\u2019s own style of singing wasn\u2019t influenced by him. Mairena really admired Tom\u00e1s purity, the fact that he never quite commercialized his gypsy heritage, and the fact that Tom\u00e1s always refused sing in places where this purity wasn\u2019t respected. Antonio\u2019s singing style was more based on Pastora\u2019s, something that can be attested by listening to his album Honores a la Ni\u00f1a de los Peines: <\/em>changing the speed while playing this vinyl record shows that Pastora and Mairena were just like two peas in a pod. It is true that Antonio adhered more closely to Pastora\u2019s style when he recorded his album, but the influence of La Ni\u00f1a on Mairena is unquestionable, with regards to the basic palos. A few times I\u2019ve told the story when Antonio received his Golden Key in C\u00f3rdoba in 1962, and he couldn\u2019t quite figure out how to show this award to Pastora, as in those days they weren\u2019t on speaking terms with each other. Then he came up with a peculiar solution: once week a lady went to his house selling free-range eggs from his town, Mairena del Alcor, and she also happened to sell eggs to Pastora. So Antonio asked this lady to put the Golden Key in her egg\u2019s basket and show it to his cousin Pastora. And that\u2019s how do\u00f1a Pastora had in her hands Mairena\u2019s famed award. Perhaps she wondered why the award hadn\u2019t been given to her, who was greater than Mairena, although she was already retired by then. Yet, that\u2019s something we should leave for another day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have only met two great masters who loved talking about cante jondo: Antonio Mairena and Juan Valderrama. Antonio was truly passionate about discussing cante, as for him cante was much more than just a means to earn a living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[256],"tags":[194],"class_list":["post-19409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bordonazo-new","tag-cantaor-en"],"yoast_head":"\n