Ana Salazar, flamenco singer and bailaora.
Interview
“I fight for flamenco my
way”
Silvia Calado. Madrid, October 2007
Translation: Joseph Kopec
She dances por seguiriyas. She
sings to Adela la Chaqueta. She turns ‘chansons’
into bulerías. And she doesn’t aim to be
flamenco. Ana
Salazar starts off from the jondo, but her style has
become more and more universal. That’s what she
shows on her third album, ‘Claros del alma’,
which she considers her “first personal album”.
It includes versions from here and there: from Mercedes
Sosa to Lola Flores, with - bien sûr - Edith Piaf
in between. There are also scores by guitarist José
Luis Montón, including a tribute to Adela la Chaqueta.
And there are two of her own songs, which the Cádiz-born
singer and bailaora has created together with percussionist
Guillermo McGill, producer and musical director of a record
which sounds a little like a lullaby.
Ana Salazar (Photo
Daniel Muñoz)
Since the release of ‘Ana
Salazar canta a Edith Piaf’, besides performing
the album live, you’ve taken part in projects as
diverse as the musical ‘Tarantos’. How have
you evolved?
I think this is my first personal album.
‘Ana Salazar canta a Edith Piaf’ was a wonderful
assignment, which left me full of gifts. Within those
gifts, there were good things and not-so-good things.
And the latter are the ones that made me learn a lot.
It’s been a period of a lot of emotional conflict
and inner movement in general. The calm always comes after
the storm, and with the calm, came ‘Claros del alma’.
Did you feel the need to make
an album more of your own?
Over the last four years, I’ve
enjoyed good music. I’ve taken it easy. Though I’ve
worked a lot, until now I haven’t been tied up with
an album. And I didn’t complicate my life to make
it. Songs have appeared in this period, although many
of them were already there previously because they’ve
been in my life. They all have a reason. Others have appeared
much more recently. And in general, I think the album
reflects where I’m at personally and professionally.
What was the phase of selecting
songs, musicians and the recording like?
As there was enough time, it’s
a record made at home with the most absolute calm. It
was created when my son was being created, which is something
that makes it really peculiar, wonderful and unique. I
chose a group I liked, which makes the album really peculiar.
It has flamenco guitar, electric guitar, drums, bass and
contrabass. There are versions of Mercedes Sosa, Lola
Flores, Luz Casal, there’s a song by Pavel Urquiza,
two songs by José
Luis Montón, two songs of my own... And what
happens on the album is what’s happened throughout
my life, with the feeling a little more skin-deep due
to the state I was in.
Ana Salazar (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
Is there a reason why you chose
those songs, those versions?
The song by Mercedes Sosa, for example,
I heard sung by Chavela Vargas. It’s called ‘Las
simples cosas’. You always go back to the same places
where you loved life. And then what happens is when you
go back, the things you loved aren’t there any more.
But you think they were there. I’ve been here in
Madrid for eight years. At first, there was a time when
I didn’t know whether to stay or go back to Cádiz.
I bought my return ticket, I packed my bags. And that
night I went to the Fnac, bought a record by Chavela Vargas,
listened to that song... And I didn’t leave. It’s
stuck to me forever because afterwards a lot of things
have happened in my life: I recorded the Piaf album, I
found love, I have a wonderful son, I live in the mountains
and I’m happy, I have friends, I have a lot of things
here.
You carry on with Edith Piaf.
And opening the album...
Yeah, I carry on with Piaf because I
still love Piaf. We keep on doing the show, I keep on
listening to her, we keep on doing versions. And I already
had the song ‘Más azul que tus ojos’
in the live show and on ‘Chanson flamenca’.
It’s my most sincere tribute to her.
And there’s also a version
of ‘Pena, penita, pena’ by Lola Flores...
We can’t forget the copla; we can’t
leave it aside. We have to fight for it our way, everyone’s
way nowadays. It’s one of the best things there
is in Spain, all those lyrics... In this case, ‘Pena,
penita, pena’ was the first copla I’d ever
heard. And since I admire Lola Flores a lot too, I thought
it had to be there.
Ana Salazar (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
But in the form, it has nothing
to do with a usual copla.
I respect everybody, but I also have
to respect myself, my way of thinking. My grief doesn’t
have that rage or that anger. My grief is calmer.
What element of flamenco is there
on this album?
It’s still in my soul. I don’t
do flamenco, but I do start off from it. I fight for flamenco
my way.
And musically?
| |
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| "Adela
la Chaqueta in the era she was on earth, wasn’t
the way people used to be" |
| |
There’s flamenco guitar by Josete
Ordóñez. And for example, there’s
a really flamenco song, ‘Como Adela por la vida’
by José Luis Montón. Adela
la Chaqueta in the era she was on earth, wasn’t
the way people used to be and less so, being a gypsy.
She used to wear stiletto heels constantly, with really
ground-breaking energy for that period. I found out that
she used to go to the beach and sunbathe... properly.
I know about it through somebody who worked with her for
a long time, I know through relatives who have told me
about her; she spent a lot of time with Alfonso de Gaspar,
who was my uncle. That song is really flamenco. And José
Luis Montón imbues the album with flamenco.
In the background rhythms, you
can hear bulerías, tangos, alegrías...
All the rhythms are flamenco except for
‘Penita, pena’, which is more blues. There
are bulerías, ‘Alucinación’
by Pavel Urquiza is an alegría... And by the way,
I have to thank him for letting me change Havana to Cádiz
in the lyrics.
And it’s in your attitude
too, isn’t it?
I’ve also done some learning in
this time; I’ve taken singing classes and when you
get down to performing a song, you get away from flamenco,
obviously. If you have other knowledge, you contribute
that knowledge to it; you don’t take it away. And
that makes it less flamenco yet. My flamenco is real.
It isn’t that I warble; it’s that I was brought
up there. So that’s under my skin and nobody can
take that away from me, no matter what I do.
But do you still feel like presenting
yourself as a bailaora at the Córdoba Contest?
Ha ha ha ha. No, no, because
your body changes, too. Discovering a different style
and including it under your skin, your style then becomes
universal. And there’s no turning back. Things remain,
you add knowledge to them and contribute to them. Toning
down that contribution would be unrewarding; it would
be showing myself a lack of respect. And I’m talking
about what flamencos consider something flamenco is. The
flamenco form, the flamenco steps. I know which forms
are the ones they say are more flamenco and the steps
which are more flamenco, because I’ve been one of
those flamencos who they’ve said “she dances
so flamenco” about. I’ve had that. Those who
know me know I’m telling the truth. Those who’ve
seen me dance por soleá before know that I’ve
had that. And if they open up a little bit, I have that
because my soul is flamenco. I say that with all the humility
in the world, because you know what you’re doing
and what you are.
Ana Salazar (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
Do you still stick in baile live?
Oh yeah. For example, now in the new
show ‘Claros del alma’ I do a seguiriya, which
is an instrumental song by Guillermo McGill and it’s
not on the album. It’s called ‘Desierto de
un señor’, but I’ve changed its name
to ‘Mi soledad’. And it’s a seguiriya
which is a fusion of flamenco and jazz which Cádiz-born
bailaora Rosario Toledo has put together for me.
In ‘Ana Salazar canta a Edith Piaf’
there were postscripts, a lot of ‘kicks’,
a lot of baile color in general. In this live show, since
I feel more sure of myself on cante, my facet as a singer
and my facet as a bailaora are going to be distinguished
more. I’m going to do an entire piece por seguiriyas
and odd songs.
Why Rosario
Toledo?
I admire her a lot professionally. I
think that she’s really going down the right road,
that she’s always learning good things, firmly and
unhurriedly. And moreover she’s my bosom buddy;
I love her a lot. I’m really happy for her as a
person and for her career.
Does the group on the album coincide
with that of the live show?
We have Guillermo McGill on drums and
percussion, Israel Sandoval on electric guitar, Josep
Pérez on bass, Cuco Pérez on accordion,
Juan Carlos Aracil on flute and Josete Ordóñez
on flamenco guitar.
Guillermo
McGill’s role goes beyond that, since he is
the album’s producer and musical director. What
does he contribute?
I thank him for the day-to-day work,
for putting up with me, for backing me. It’s something
really personal. I haven’t studied music, but this
album has a lot of me, it has a lot of chats with him.
He put in the chords, but I explained to him what I wanted
as far as the performance in each song. And he put up
with me long enough for me to be able to explain to him
everything I wanted there to be on this record. The versions,
the arrangements... are the fruit of his hand and our
two heads.
