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Fernando González-Caballos Martínez
June, 2001
The artistic duo
of Antonio Agujetas and Alberto San Miguel has just put out "Asi lo siento",
a project produced by the Peña Flamenca Los Cernícalos with the
sponsorship of the Diputación de Cádiz, the municipal government
of Jerez, and the González Byass vineyards. With an extensive excursion
through the various flamenco forms, Antonio reveals his encyclopedic knowledge
as well as his yearning to experiment.
Antonio
Agujetas is a singer with lineage who doesn't like to be compared with anyone
else. In his voice, where one can hear the unmistakable and personal echo of one
of the greatest singing dynasties in flamenco, is the raw sound of Tío
Manuel and Manuel Agujetas. After more than twelve years in prison, Antonio has
decided to exchange the bars of his jail cell for the guitar strings of his friend
Alberto San Miguel, in an effort to make his mark in the difficult world of flamenco.
Where and how
was Antonio Agujetas raised?
I grew up in Jerez
with my mother, although due to certain circumstances I got involved in a bad
scene when I was a kid and had to spend twelve years of my life in jail.
And that's where
you won the Concurso Nacional Penitenciario (national cante competition for penal
institutions)...
Exactly, in 1997
I managed to get the Premio Nacional de Cante para Presos which lead to the making
of the record Dos gritos
de libertad. It was a beautiful experience, singing the way I had heard my
family sing all my life, especially por seguiriyas and martinetes, although in
that record I sang a whole bunch of forms.
Nevertheless,
your cante repertoire is much more complete now. What brought about that change?
Ever since I met
Alberto and started working with him, he became my right-hand man. Thanks to his
help I've begun to sing a series of forms that I never before sang, like malagueñas,
granaínas, cartageneras, and tarantos. In fact, right now we're setting
bamberas. In a certain sense, Alberto is helping me to discover just what my strengths
are.
In the 'romance'
there are parts that remind one of Rafael El Negro.
Of course! You
see my father heard el Negro del Puerto sing the Romance
de Bernardo Alcarpio, and I heard it from him, so it's only logical that it
recall him in some way.
Your way of
naming the songs on this fourth record is very striking. Why is that?
That
was Alberto San Miguel's idea, although I liked it a lot. In doing so we have
simply tried to add a little freshness to the classic lyrics and forms, so that
everything isn't always the same.
Alberto also
takes credit for the lyrics of the alegrías and fandangos. Does he complain
about the guitarist?
Well not really.
It was just a few lines, but they were very good. The alegrías is completely
his, but the fandangos are co-authored with Pedro Carabante, though it was Alberto
who told me which style the verses were better suited for, and how to improve
them. He's my right-hand man and I'll never get tired of saying it, because he's
really helped me more than anyone else ever since I got out of jail.
Going against
the grain, this work has nothing at all commercial about it.
No no no... this
is a recording for good, solid cante-lovers. The commercial numbers go out of
fashion and then no one remembers them. Our aim was to make something serious
that good connoisseurs of cante could enjoy today, tomorrow, and always, because
that's how I feel it.
Just like the
title itself says...
There you go dude
(laughter). And you just hit the nail on the head, because that was our idea,
to bring to the record everything that I've been through in my life, in the most
sincere way possible.
In one month's
time you'll be singing at the Espárrago in Jerez. What do you expect to
find there?
I think it's going
to be very important because there will be many young people and it will be a
good opportunity to bring pure cante to an audience that is accustomed to commercialism.
We'll see what happens...
Fernando González-Caballos
Martínez
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