{"id":20371,"date":"2020-07-02T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T10:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expoflamenco.com\/archivo\/?p=20371"},"modified":"2020-07-02T12:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T10:40:00","slug":"grandpa-and-flamencos-anarchy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expoflamenco.com\/archivo\/en\/bordonazo-new\/grandpa-and-flamencos-anarchy\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandpa and flamenco\u2019s anarchy"},"content":{"rendered":"

-Grandpa, one of the things that amazes me the most in today\u2019s flamenco is its anarchy. Every one seems to be doing their own thing, there is no cohesion. I don\u2019t mean to say that we need to write down rules and regulations for flamenco, but a bit of consistency wouldn\u2019t hurt, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

-This art has always been anarchic, Manolo, although it might seem exceedingly conservative. If you research its origins, you\u2019ll see it by yourself. For example, El Planeta, the first important personality in Andalusian cante, would complain that the legendary El Fillo wasn\u2019t pure enough. Yet, El Fillo would complain that great Silverio wasn\u2019t pure enough. I could go on an on with many other examples, but you get the idea.<\/p>\n

-Isn\u2019t that part of the greatness a uniqueness of flamenco, grandpa?<\/strong><\/p>\n

-Of course, kid. If it weren\u2019t anarchic, flamenco wouldn\u2019t be so rich and varied, with so many different styles and artistic trends. Freedom, Manolo. Life in Triana was different than life in Santiago, and life in San Miguel was different than life in Jerez. C\u00e1diz was also different than Puerto de Santa Mar\u00eda and Puerto Real, even as these cities were basically next to each other. Both La Mejorana and Antonia la Coquinera had great success in Seville in the same period because each of them had their own, unique style, even as they were virtually neighbors. Also, the baile of El Raspao (from C\u00e1diz) was quite different from the baile of Miracielos (from Seville), although they were contemporaries.<\/p>\n

-So why is that people talk about the primeval or classic standards of flamenco? <\/strong><\/p>\n

-You said it: \u201cstandards\u201d, not \u201cstandard\u201d. Flamenco wasn\u2019t created in a meeting of experts, with gypsy and non-gypsy representatives from all provinces. It was a slow, geographically diverse process. I tell you something, Manolo: when Ni\u00f1o de Cabra performed at the Caf\u00e9 del Burrero, at the end of the XIX century (he had come to Seville to sell a load of garlic from Rute, in M\u00e1laga) everyone said he was copying Chac\u00f3n. How could that be, if Chac\u00f3n hadn\u2019t yet recorded anything, at that time, and Ni\u00f1o de Cabra apparently had never heard of Chac\u00f3n? So that\u2019s rubbish. It\u2019s more likely that both of them had learned from the same source: popular cante. Chac\u00f3n of course didn\u2019t create cante flamenco. It had been created already, although it\u2019s true that he gave it a good polish.<\/p>\n

-So grandpa, is cante flamenco an art of innovators or not? <\/strong><\/p>\n

-Nooo! Although there were composers, of course. Chac\u00f3n himself, when asked by Galer\u00edn(1) if one certain malague\u00f1a was his own creation, replied: \u201cyes, both the lyrics and music are mine.\u201d It was true. Chac\u00f3n was a musician because he had all the requisites: a well tuned, well measured voice; a good knowledge of music, etc. But he had learned from previous masters, such as Salvaorillo, Paco la Luz, Silverio, Juan Breva, Curro Durse, El Mellizo\u2026<\/p>\n

-Also, Paca Aguilera followed the style of La Trini(2), right? <\/strong><\/p>\n

-That\u2019s baloney, you just believe everything people tell you, don\u2019t you? I think it\u2019s funny that people say that, because Paca Aguilera died twenty years before La Trini. So how would it be possible that Aguilera carried on Trinidad Navarro\u2019s legacy? It doesn\u2019t make sense. They say the same of La Andonda, and it doesn\u2019t make sense either, because they died just a few years apart. The problem, Manolo, is that people write stuff and state things without doing a proper research.<\/p>\n

-What about Ni\u00f1o de Elche, grandpa?<\/strong><\/p>\n

-Who?<\/p>\n

-Ni\u00f1o de Elche.<\/strong><\/p>\n

-No idea who was that, kid. Was he from the time of the \u00d3pera Flamenca?<\/p>\n

-No, he\u2019s from our days. People say he\u2019s the new revolutionary of cante.<\/strong><\/p>\n

-So, does he sing backwards or something?<\/p>\n

-I don\u2019t know him either, grandpa. I read somewhere he makes weird sounds with his voice, things like that. <\/strong><\/p>\n

-No idea. You know that I haven\u2019t been following contemporary cante too closely, lately. El Peluso used to do that a century ago: he would sing imitating the sounds of trains, animals and even the first coffee machines. He would do it just for fun. I mean, that\u2019s nothing new.<\/p>\n

-You\u2019re hard to trap, grandpa. <\/strong><\/p>\n

-Actually, your grandma trapped me, but to this day I don\u2019t know how she did it.<\/p>\n

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