Interview with Chaboli, co-producer of 'Homenaje a Jeros' (A Tribute to 'Jeros'):

Paying homage to the poet from the suburbs

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, April 2002

The Spanish music scene owed something to Juan Antonio Jiménez Muñoz, 'Jeros'. Ever since the alma mater of the group 'Los Chichos', a trio who supplied the soundtrack to the underprivileged suburban Spain of the seventies and eighties, died in 1995 there have been expectations for a tribute album. And it was his son, Julio Jiménez Borja, alias Chaboli, who has finally taken the reins of the project, with the help of guitarist and songwriter José Miguel Carmona, member of the group Ketama. The result of a painstaking cosmetic treatment of original masters of his voice, 'Homenaje a Jeros' includes contributions by flamenco artists like Niña Pastori, Pepe Habichuela, Montse Cortés or Farruquito, artists with a flamenco streak like Alejandro Sanz or Lolita, and non-flamenco artists like Jarabe de Palo. Chaboli tells the story of a disc whose release marks a tearful moment, filling him with emotions and gratitude, giving him the strength to close his eyes, free himself from emotional bonds, and judge Jeros as a man who "was able to express all the emotions of everyday life in songs that are now anthems".

Chaboli (Foto: Daniel Muñoz)

The idea of paying homage to Jeros wasn't something Julio Jiménez Borja, Chaboli decided to do on the spur of the moment. The son of the member of Los Chichos has been "fighting for a long time to make a tribute album to my father" who died seven years ago. Several hurdles lay in the way of the project. On the one hand the man who also produces Niña Pastori remarks that, "there were people who said they were already taking care of it right from the start, but they were all wrapped up in their own stuff - one on tour, another producing, and they'd let it slip from their minds." And on the other hand, an understandable personal dilemma: "I wasn't able to listen to my father's voice... it may sound silly but it's just something about us flamenco artists. I wasn't strong enough to make this disc."

With time, the "favourite son" (which is what his nickname means in Romany) managed to muster up the strength he needed. The decisive moment came when 'Los Chichos' were given an award for sales of fifteen million discs: "I started getting myself ready because I knew that people would be listening to my father's voice." There was also the fact that Niña Pastori, his current partner, recorded, a version of 'Yo vivo navegando' (I spend my life sailing) on her last album 'Cañaílla', in the credits for which Chaboli and María affirm that "If there is a heaven, Juan Antonio Jiménez, Jeros, will be there". And maybe too the fact that the 1999 'Los Chichos' compilation 'Ni más ni menos' (Nothing more nothing less) sold 250,000 copies. He had to pull himself together, and that's just what he did. In the end it dawned on him: "Pretty soon I realised that it was me who had to make the record."

And he got José Miguel Carmona to lend him a hand because "there are a lot of great musicians out there, but I consider him a musician not only perfect for this project, but talented enough to play with Michael Jackson or any great artist." Chaboli openly admits that Carmona "is someone I admire both personally and professionally, he's just as much at home playing a soleá as he is any other type of music in the world". The friendship that bonds them assures mutual respect. As Jeros's son puts it "Josemi was crazy about the idea". And they got straight down to work.

The task at hand promised to be arduous: "My father's got 198 songs, ninety per cent of which were hits." But there was to be only one record... " and we were both pulling our hair out trying to decide which material to use". The wisdom of Solomon provided the solution: "Make ourselves a tape each, take it home and come back in a week each with our own selection." José Miguel Carmona's list included eighty tracks, Chaboli's seventy or so. And since it was "a little chaotic", the choice was made almost at random, "in a pretty haphazard fashion." Now, looking back, Chaboli acknowledges that "they could have been different tunes, but In think in the end we got the result we were looking for." And the result is a qualitatively enriched Jeros, thanks to advances in production techniques - less synthesised, cleaned up and, curiously, influenced by the musicians who he himself influenced... a whiff of Ketama is unmistakable.

And the list of collaborators on the project could have been different too, the laws of chaos just dictated who. "We didn't choose them. As people got wind that we were in the studio already, countless artists started dropping in on us, flamenco and non-flamenco." In the end those who recorded their voices alongside that of Jeros were Alejandro Sanz, Jarabe de Palo and Lolita; the female 'cantaoras' Niña Pastori, Montse Cortés and Marina Heredia; the male 'cantaores' Duquende, Pepe Luis Carmona and José Soto; and the current line-up of the Chichos: the brothers Julio and Emilio González plus Emilio's son, Emilio González Junior. Then there's Pepe Habichuela whose guitar supplies the 'toque' and Farruquito dances. Chaboli is still overawed that this Who's who of artists offered to take part in the project: "I've been lucky enough to record with the best, I don't know why they called me. I've been rubbing shoulders with some of Spain's greatest, internationally recognised artists."

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