Diego Amador likes to speak straight without beating about the bush. He knows he's from Pata Negra and can't let his own background down. Which is why, at just 28, the youngest member of the legendary group headed by Rafael and Raimundo can afford to give his opinion in the most direct way without fear of being singled out. Diego's work "El aire de lo puro" has just been released, a record in which this gypsy from the Tres Mil Viviendas neighborhood of Seville reveals himself to be a genius. But he not only has a way with music, but with words as well, especially when speaking about that which hurts the most: flamenco.

Diego, the title of your new record is a challenge. You speak of 'aire' and of purity...

Of course, I refer to those things because there are things like seguiriya, soleá, taranto, rondeña, but there are also other much more modern things which, in spite of everything, never stray from flamenco.

Up til now you were mostly known as artistic collaborator, but on your own the resulting music is different.

The thing is, I play for people I like, such as Tomate or El Grilo, and I always have to do their bidding. The good ideas I keep to myself.

Diego Amador

You developed in a very vanguardist ambience, in the epicenter of the new flamenco, yet you like to talk about purity, isn't that so?

I believe purity exists and it's all we have left. I agree completely with the oldtimers who protest because someone has to put things in order here, because us young folk go too far sometimes. I don't deny that I started out playing flamenco, but then I heard other things and I was on the verge of moving out. But in the long or the short run you realize that music is a path and if you have to do flamenco, it should be flamenco and nothing else.

Do you care for the word 'fusion'?

I don't believe in that and on this record I haven't done any fusion. When I'm playing flamenco I do it with as much purity as possible, and when I'm playing jazz, it's the same. But I wouldn't think of mixing both things in a single piece because I believe that each has its bases and these are lost when you fuse the elements.

On this recording you have some very flamenco pieces and others that are very commercial...

Of course. I did a soleá of Juan Talega with string orchestration where I added mandola and mandoline, but I also have some other more commerical things because I think that even though I'm flamenco there are different people who want to hear other things.

What do you owe Pata Negra?

If it hadn't been for my brothers, I would probably never have heard other kinds of music. Thanks to them I went out and played drums when I was seven years old and had the experience that I now have at only 28. But now it's me who gives them the records.

Who are your idols?

Three especially: Camarón, Jaco Pastorius, and Miles Davis. Then there's also Juan Talega, El Borrico, Mairena, Vallejo... I'll never stop listening to them because they are at the root of this.

Does it bother you that people who don't know the history go around calling themselves innovators?

Flamenco is in a confused state these days with all this about the young groups. Sometimes I go to a place for a drink and come home with my ears shattered. There's a lot of pretense. It's good to make flamenco known to everyone, but we can't confuse this with 'being flamenco'. In order to talk about flamenco you have to wash your mouth out with soap.

What's your prescription for how to do flamenco and not just be flamenco?

You always have to have a basis, study gives you self-confidence. I feel pleased with myself when I learn new things in flamenco, when I study, and not everyone can say the same thing. Now the jazz people go and study at Berkeley and they play real well, but they're missing what they're missing: heart. You have to have suffered bad things, the street life.

Your specialty is the piano, but the guitar is also clearly a strong point, isn't that so?

Paco de Lucía, like Camarón, is the mirror where I see myself reflected. There aren't words to describe Paco. Anyone who doesn't listen to Paco is an idiot and excuse me for saying so...they haven't got any musical culture or anything else. The thing is when I talk about him I get worked up. I've worn down the grooves of Camarón's and Paco's records from playing them so much.