When you reach an age like that of José Antonio Carmona Carmona (Granada, October 1944), known in the art world as Pepe Habichuela, the accolades come thick and fast, the phone never stops ringing, reminding everyone who he is: a leading figure in contemporary flamenco guitar. A luxury sidekick to the great Enrique Morente, a pioneer of so many techniques for today’s guitar playing, for both the left and right hands, from his natural ability to change the key from E minor to E major without breaking a sweat, to those strums that border on perfection, his trademark, and a touch that, in his hands, makes even the most battered guitar sound like a Ramírez, Esteso, or Santos Hernández.
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“Those of us who have been lucky enough to live close to Uncle Pepe have received great lessons in flamenco, art, and life, together with Enrique in that house on Camino del Monte that was a balcony overlooking his Alhambra. And today we are bursting with joy at all the recognition given to our dear friend.”
One of Pepe’s many contributions to contemporary guitar playing is to have revived the old way of playing the seguiriya, giving it back the spirit it had lost, as it had been played slower and slower over the decades. The old-fashioned style that young people call modern can be heard in his now immortal Amanecer, which he also adapted to singing in Morente’s Vaporcito. When I asked him why he played the seguiriya so fast, as I was used to hearing it played slowly, almost freely, he told me that he had rescued (and updated) the old tempo of the style. Since then, it has been my favorite style of playing. Be sure to listen to it and enjoy the natural skill of the great Pepe.
Those of us who have been lucky enough to live near Uncle Pepe have received great lessons in flamenco, art, and life, together with Enrique in that house on Camino del Monte that was a balcony overlooking his Alhambra, and today we are bursting with joy at all the recognition our dear friend is receiving, and may there be many more, simply because he deserves it and because it’s a case of Now or Never.
