Interview with Ana Salazar, cantaora and bailaora:

"Edith Piaf taught me to pour
out my heart when I sing"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, October 2003
Translation: Gary Cook

She's in no doubt that she's already seen as a misfit. With her song and dance tribute to Parisian Edith Piaf, it seems that Ana Salazar has taken a stride away from all that is orthodox. To begin with, being as much a dancer as you are a vocalist is an unusual combination. And rather than tying herself to the flamenco term cantaora she prefers to be referred to more loosely as a "cantante". She tells us straight out that she's "all about blending styles". But flamenco is an undeniably central element in her mixtures. She's been marked by her past, growing up in her home town of Cadiz listening to Adela la Chaqueta and Camarón, stepping out on stage for the first time alongside Manuela Carrasco, and having worked with Eva Yerbabuena, with Rafael Amargo, or with Antonio Canales. And then there's the Brazilian music, jazz, classical music… and the chanson française. After she took part in 'Chanson flamenca', her affair with the 'little sparrow of Paris' blossomed until, under the direction of Guillermo McGill, her idea was crystallized on 'Ana Salazar sings Edith Piaf'. This was the lady she says taught her to "pour her heart out when she sings".

Ana Salazar

The city: Cádiz; the venue: the 'Tacita de plata'. Ana Salazar was just ten years old when she started dancing. Six years later, freshly graduated in Spanish Classical Dance, there she was up on stage with Manuela Carrasco. And she's only too aware of her good fortune. Eva Yerbabuena, Rafael Amargo, Antonio el Pipa and Andrés Marín all had her working with them after that. And recently, as a bailaora and cantaora in the production 'Chanson flamenca', she danced alongside Antonio Canales. But before she was asked to take part in this fusion project, there was a decisive break from work.

"While I was working in Russia I broke a leg and I had to earn a crust, so when after three months flamenco guitarist José Luis Montón called me, I started singing. It was at El Círculo de las Bellas Artes here in Madrid, the opening night and they didn't have a cantaor, so I went and sang with my leg in plaster." And that was how the dual career began. Before the accident, she "sang in the shower, at weddings and at home," to entertain her mother. She even made a recording in 1999 entitled 'Flamenco move', on the French label Auvidis. "It's something I did, but really I did it more as a hobby. Back then I never imagined that one day I'd think seriously about cante flamenco. I did it because I felt like it, but not as a professional step forward." Enough talk about an album of which she's none too proud. "Look at my face - this is the artist's opinion of her recording début, get a photo for the record." She pulls a face and laughs.

	"Edith Piaf always did seem really flamenco to me!"

On, then, to the next page in her career. A door opened to her professionally with 'Chanson flamenca' (Karonte, 2001), a flamenco tribute to French standards featuring Ramón el Portugués, Guadiana and Montse Cortés, among others. "I thought I'd never work as a singer again, but Pedro Ojesto called me to do a song, 'Les feuilles mortes' by Yves Montand - better known as Autumn Leaves. I was living in Seville at that time and I came to Madrid. And then in the show they offered me 'Más azul que tus ojos' - a version of Charles Aznavour's 'Plus bleu que tes yeux' which on the album was recorded by Manuel de María. And I sang it and danced to it. And that's how the idea to make the Edith Piaf album came about. They saw the possibility right away". The love affair between Ana Salazar and Edith Piaf had only just begun. "I'd listened to her before, but at the live presentation of 'Chanson flamenca' was when I really fell in love. Antonio Canales, Juan de Juan, Pol Vaquero and I danced to a mix they made of Manolo Caracol and Edith Piaf. Straight away I started to read about her and listen to her music. And Edith Piaf always did seem really flamenco to me!"

Ana Salazar (Photos: Daniel Muñoz)

That flamenco, she goes on to explain, is present in "the her feelings and the way she lived". To shed more light on the relationship, she compares her with Camarón: "What a life. They're really similar." And the heady heights they reached... "I can't say I was afraid to make the disc, but I did do it with a lot of respect. In Spain she's well-known, but in Paris… she's the little sparrow of Paris! And I'm twenty-five, and I've been brought up on flamenco that has nothing to do with this. And people are going to say "who's this kid?" That's why I treated the project with the utmost respect." And her attitude was to be open to learning. Both artistically and professionally, she acknowledges a great debt to Edith Piaf. And more than from her technique, from her way of life. "I've really tuned in to her way of feeling, her soul, the way she pours her heart out when she sings."

	"When a fusion works, there has to be a natural, gradual process"

The singer and dancer's tribute to Edith Piaf is a meeting of flamenco and 'chanson française'. But do these two combine well together? Ana Salazar responds to the question of whether the fusion is right or wrong by observing that "when a fusion works, there has to be a natural, gradual process. Of course sometimes the fusion is strained, artificial. Sometimes people just grab flamenco and any other type of music, put them in the hat and abracadabra, they get mixed up." But that isn't what happened here. "This disc has been made with a great deal of patience. We changed a lot of things a lot of times. And little by little it started to come out right. We didn't have everything worked out from the start - far from it."

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