“JUAN EL CANTAOR”<\/p>\n
BY EUGENIO MARTIN<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not from a family with flamenco tradition. Yet, at home we always listened to\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0copla<\/i>\u00a0(Spanish ballads). I remember those huge tube radios which made a devilish sound when the dial was moved to find a broadcasting station. We had one of those at home, in the living room, on a shelf held in place by two brackets. Flamenco or\u00a0copla<\/i>\u00a0played the whole day, except at the time of the news summary, on the hour, which my father liked to listen to, when he was at home. That radio was so up high that I, 10 or 11 years old, had to climb on an old wooden chair to reach the radio\u2019s buttons. When a radio station finished their\u00a0cante<\/i>programming, I\u2019d quickly climb on the chair and I\u2019d look for another flamenco broadcast. In those years, the 1960s, all radio stations had at least one program about this art of ours. There were all sorts of programs: critics, opinions and the obligatory \u201crecords on request\u201d shows, where listeners would write requesting a given artist or song to be played for a friend or family member. Sometimes, from the kitchen my mom would yell, asking if the program of\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0had finished on the radio station, while I was distracted: \u201ckid, change the radio station to another with flamenco, this one is only playing nonsense!\u201d There was one unfathomable enigma for me: If I had been listening to, say,\u00a0La Voz de Guadalquivir<\/i>\u00a0radio, where Valderrama was singing, and then I changed the station to, say,\u00a0Radio Sevilla<\/i>, and Valderrama was singing there too, I couldn\u2019t possibly understand how could the guy move from one radio station to the next so quickly? I hadn\u2019t grasped the concept of records and tapes yet.<\/p>\n
The 60s, 70s and 80s were very positive when it comes to the popularization of flamenco, as there was a veritable legion of critics, journalists and aficionados who would discuss flamenco wherever they were. I can\u2019t possibly recall them all, I\u2019m sure I\u2019d forget some if I tried to name them, yet I must highlight the priceless work of one of them, the master Miguel Alcal. Every day at 1:30 PM he would greet us with his \u201chealth and freedom, my friends\u201d. Miguel was easy to understand, he would speak his mind and I think he always meant what he said. He would praise a deserving artist, but if that same artist messed up one performance, he would say so, too, no matter how renowned or popular the artist was. He would also criticize his colleagues now and then, I remember that he could not stand those would make a good review for money, although he would never give names. His well-paced, pleasant voice was heard every afternoon in our houses.<\/p>\n
Back then, what was played in every radio station were the\u00a0fandangos<\/i>, the\u00a0cantes de ida y Vuelta<\/i>\u00a0and the sentimental recitals by Valderrama, El Pinto, Manolo el Malague\u00f1o, Farina, Caracol, Ni\u00f1o de la Huerta, Pepe Marchena, Antonio Molina, etc. All these\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0and their songs would get stuck in my head. They would also play, although not as much,\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0such as Chocolate, Mairena or Fernanda. What made me pay more attention to these latter ones was meeting a friend of my father called Juan, who everyone knew by the nickname of El Cantaor. I was about 11 or 12 years old and one day I went to the tavern to tell my dad that dinner was ready. He was drinking some wine with El Cantaor. When my dad saw me, he told his friend: \u201cLook, Juan, that\u2019s my son, he also likes\u00a0cante<\/i>\u201d. El Cantaor looked at me with a poker face, he put a hand on his shoulder and asked me: \u201cLet\u2019s see, which\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0do you like?\u201d Me, all shy, answered naming the likes of Marchena, Valderrama, Pinto, Ni\u00f1o de la Huerta, etc., who were the most popular in those days. His face, which had become friendlier, now changed to anger and disbelief. He raised his voice a bit: \u201cIs that what you like? These are not even\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0or anything. What they sing is not even flamenco. Listen now, I\u2019ll show you what flamenco is\u201d. He sang me some verses\u00a0por sole\u00e1<\/i>, to me, who couldn\u2019t even reach the buttons of the radio. That made a big impression on me, particularly for being next to that voice. I was not only listening to\u00a0cante<\/i>, I was also watching it, in the expressions of his face and in his gestures. That was the first time I listened to serious flamenco, right next to me. I believe he sang something else, perhaps\u00a0seguiriyas<\/i>, although I\u2019m not sure. When he finished singing he asked me: \u201cDo you know what\u00a0cante<\/i>s are those?\u201d I shook my head. He said: \u201cThese are\u00a0soleares<\/i>, which, together with\u00a0seguiriyas<\/i>, are true\u00a0cante<\/i>s, anything else is worthless. Get it?\u201d That remained in my head as if branded with hot iron. That night my dad and me ate cold chickpeas. This all happened in a town called Nerva, in Huelva, in the\u00a0Cuenca Minera<\/i>\u00a0district, where towns such as Zalamea la Real, Rio Tinto, Campillos, Berrocal or Campofr\u00edo are also located, nestled on the Aracena range. Nerva is a land of painters, a place where many great \u201ccanvas painters\u201d are from. They seem to sprout spontaneously from the land just like one of the most savoury delicacies anyone could taste: the gurumelos (a highly prized mushroom species). One of my teachers was a painter, just like his brother, and his uncle too\u2026 The two most renowned painters from Nerva were Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Labrador and the ubiquitous Daniel V\u00e1zquez D\u00edaz, the painter of bullfighters. The\u00a0Cuenca Minera<\/i>\u00a0is located next to the And\u00e9valo district, land of\u00a0fandangos<\/i>. In all its towns people sing the\u00a0fandango serrano<\/i>, and many towns give their name to a specific style of fandango, such as Alosno, Cabezas Rubias, Cala\u00f1as, Paymogo, San Bartolom\u00e9 de la Torre, Santa B\u00e1rbara de la Casa or Valverde del Camino (which is also famous for their country boots, the most highly prized in all Spain). The And\u00e9valo district also borders the province of Badajoz in one side, and Portugal in the other.<\/p>\n
From that time, I started listening more and more to\u00a0cantaores<\/i>\u00a0(Gypsies or not) who would sing\u00a0cante<\/i>s more serious than “La Romer\u00eda Lore\u00f1a<\/i>“, “El Emigrante<\/i>” or “Los cuatro muleros<\/i>” which I had been listening up to then. Something inside me chose and elected what, from then on, filled me with truth. I enjoyed listening to those radio programs where, besides listening to music, people talked about\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0cantaores<\/i>, mentioning biographical information which I would write with sincere interest: dates and places of birth and death, the\u00a0cante<\/i>s where each artist had excelled at, stories, life experiences, etc. All these notes must be tucked somewhere, although now we have this giant book called the Internet, were we can read everything, including lies. Years later I started buying books, whenever I could, and each piece of information, each story and anecdote, hooked me more and more on\u00a0cante<\/i>. I came across a wonderful book, “Memoria del Flamenco<\/i>” by F\u00e9lix Grande. Two volumes of the second edition. I bought it in Barcelona and I remember it cost me more than 400 pesetas, equivalent to a little more than 2 euros, at today\u2019s exchange rate. Nowadays this edition is priceless, for me it\u2019s the bible of flamenco, particularly Gypsy flamenco. It\u2019s a book that delves into the anthropology of\u00a0cante<\/i>, the circumstances that made it flourish in Andalusia and nowhere else, the arrival of the Gypsies in Spain, the government enactments against them, etc. This book allowed me to understand many things, making them clear. Or so I think.<\/p>\n
In those years and before, there were numerous flamenco programs on TV\u2019s UHF (now Channel 2). One of them, the most educational of all, was \u201cRito y Geograf\u00eda del Cante Flamenco<\/i>\u201d, which was broadcasted until 1973 and then was re-run seasonally. It was when watching one of these episodes, one about the people of Jerez, featuring from Manuel and Juan Morao to El Chozas, El Guapo, T\u00eda Pepa la Chicharrona, T\u00eda Malena o T\u00eda Juana la del Pipa, when I first came close to experience that so-much-talked-about and impossible to describe feeling:\u00a0duende<\/i>. The artists were sitting in a circle, around several small tables with bottles and glasses of cheap wine on them. T\u00edo Gregorio el Borrico sang\u00a0por buler\u00edas<\/i>, then T\u00eda Malena gave a little turn, dancing, and sat back. Suddenly, as if pushed by some invisible spring, T\u00eda Juana jumped from her chair and started to dance with unbelievable grace and flexibility, considering how stocky she was. I was enthralled watching her dance, but it wasn\u2019t until she made a simple movement with her shoulders that I experienced a feeling unknown to me until then. I have no words to explain it. I felt something coming up from my guts and stomach to my throat, choking me, and I sensed a death-like shiver all over my body, as every hair in my body stood on end. Then my eyes filled with emotion and a tear as big as a chickpea from Paradas ran down my cheek. I wanted to say \u201cOl\u00e9!\u201d, but nothing came out of my mouth. What was that?\u00a0Duende<\/i>? Certainly. I experience something similar a few times later, singing\u00a0por sole\u00e1<\/i>. Perhaps I was just predisposed to feel something like that, being so far from my land and yearning so much for it. In any event, whatever I felt was so real, as real as the fact that right now, more than forty years later, I\u2019m remembering it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Translated by P. Young<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “JUAN EL CANTAOR” BY EUGENIO MARTIN I\u2019m not from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-signature"],"yoast_head":"\n