INTERVIEW. DORANTES, FLAMENCO PIANIST. ABOUT ‘CONVIVENCIAS’
“It isn’t hard to
understand
one another through music”
Silvia Calado. Madrid, September 2nd, 2009
El Lebrijano has made a prediction:
“Dorantes
is starting to do things which will go really far”.
The veteran cantaor is the guest star in ‘Convivencias’,
a show directed by the pianist in which flamenco, classical
music and jazz musicians dialogue with one another to the
sound of the scores from his album ‘Sur’. For
one month, the show faces off with the “in”
musicals whose bills glitter at the theaters of the Gran
Vía in Madrid. But its weapons seem invincible: first-rate
musicians, dialogue, variety, understanding… that
is to say, true cohabitation.
Dorantes (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
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How does ‘Convivencias’
come about?
Two years ago I had a meeting with Javier
Yera, the conductor of the symphony, to talk about the possibility
of being able to do something together. It just so happened
that I got an assignment from Etnosur to do a show with
an orchestra in which there would be flamenco figures and
the base would be my music orchestrated. I got down to work
and ‘Convivencias’ was born. We did it this
summer and it was a hit; there were 15,000 people and they
responded really well. Javier was left wanting more and
he commented to me the possibility of doing it in Madrid.
Moreover, Yera saw the chance to open
up even further the repertoire of the Orquesta Filarmónica
de Andalucía (Andalusia Philharmonic Orchestra).
“An orchestra is always in the field of classical
music, but since it’s a private project, we have to
fend for ourselves. We’ve worked with songs by Serrat,
Argentinean tango, Spanish pop… and seeing that a
repertoire like that really catches the audience’s
eye, we thought of the idea of working with flamenco”.
And specifically, with the personal flamenco of Dorantes:
“He composes for piano and upon arranging it for orchestra,
the instrument really grows”.
Was the preparatory work for the
project complicated?
It was really nice. Together with my brother
Pedro Peña, who is a guitarist as a consultant, we
shut ourselves in and saw how to focus it and how all the
musicians could cohabit up on stage for it all to be fluent
and natural. It was hard for us to find the formula, but
the result was brilliant. The truth is that the set-up phase
was more complicated than the later work with the musicians.
And the thing is that, as Jorge
Pardo pointed out at the press conference, “things
seem harder conceived than done”. Even though there
are going to be many musicians and many types of music on
stage. The saxophonist will be together with his two trio
partners, bass player Carles Benavent and percussionist
Tino di Geraldo. In his view, “it isn’t new
for a handful of musicians related to flamenco to get together,
but it is new for us to do so around the figure of Dorantes.
The drive of his music and his personal drive surprise me.
To go beyond small venues, reach large theaters and gather
a lineup like this, you need courage, drive and talent”,
he stresses.
So the scores had to be arranged
for orchestra…
The arrangements of some of the compositions
had already been done by Tomás Gubitsh, and I’d
done others myself which were revised. We made use of all
that material.
Are they scores from your albums?
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Dorantes (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
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Yeah, it all comes about from the director
of Etnosur listening to my album ‘Sur’ and loving
the orchestration. I proposed to him to compose a new work,
but what he wanted was ‘Sur’. There are also
pieces by Ricardo Moreno, ‘En el soto’ by El
Lebrijano, the gypsy hymn ‘Gelem gelem’…
But in the first part of the concert I do take advantage
to stick in different things from my next album. There are
new scores at the beginning…
Is there finally a next album?
I’m recording it, I’m working
on it. I’ve set up a studio at home, we’ll see
if… That’s the way I am; I can’t help
it. I’ve been sticking in percussion over the past
few days, I already have all the vocals recorded…
Today, precisely, Miguel
Poveda is coming to my house to stick his voice in some
alegrías.
Regarding that “cohabitation”
on stage, how do you interact, for example, with the trio
of Benavent, Pardo and Di Geraldo?
We play a bulería together…
I’d already played with them other times. And it’s
perfect, there’s a lot of mutual feeling, we understand
one another, we play, we dialogue, we enjoy ourselves. There
are parts which are set, but we improvise the others. The
truth is it works.
And isn’t it too much to
bring together classical, flamenco, piano, jazz…?
There’s a bit of everything, but
there’s no mix. It’s simply a matter of musicians
from different disciplines making music. And I don’t
think it’s hard to understand one another through
music; on the contrary… it’s easier.
Moreover, two very different voices
appear: those of El Lebrijano and Alba Molina.
Imagine, Lebrijano,
with everything he means. There’s even an instant
when he’s with the orchestra… incredible stuff.
And then there’s Alba, who is young and has a different
vision. And those colors, those different ideas, is what
I was looking for together with Pedro. And we did it…
I hope.
Lebrijano’s collaboration is
clear. Not only is he his uncle, or his “auntie”,
as he says jokingly, but also his greatest admirer. In the
presentation to the media in Madrid, the cantaor lavished
him with praise not just for his talent, but also his humility.
“That’s why - he explained - if a great artist
like he is asks for my collaboration to make flamenco greater,
he can always count on me. And if need be, he could ask
me to take care of the lighting”. Alba’s comes
out of a coincidence. The daughter of Lole and Manuel relates
that she went to a concert of his in Seville “and
I was completely pervaded by what he’d let loose.
Late that night, I sent him an SMS telling him to let me
sing with him some time, even if it were in a dream. And
the occasion suddenly sprang up; I’m mesmerized”.
Another ingredient to highlight
is the baile of Pastora
Galván, who has been collaborating in your concert
‘Piano abierto’, as we saw at the 2009
Ciutat Vella Flamenco Festival.
Pastora’s contribution is wonderful.
I’ve passed her three movements I composed for the
string quartet which are called ‘Relieve’. It’s
something really strange; one imitates like a factory engine,
another is a seguiriya but also really strange… And
she’s done lovely choreography.
There have been previous projects
in flamenco with an orchestra. What makes this one different?
The difference is that there’s really
cohabitation here. There are many moments of improvisation
even with the orchestra, since we’ve left spaces the
way Mozart used to do in the past, the canon, for improvisation.
It also stems from piano instead of guitar, and it’s
different both in the concept of rhythm and in the way of
treating the orchestra… now it’s a matter of
listening to it.
And there will be many occasions to
do so, since from September 9th to 30th, 2009 ‘Convivencias’
has about twenty scheduled performances at the Teatro Coliseum
in Madrid. As El Lebrijano philosophizes, “we’re
going to fill this city with art; and as cultures and people
cohabit in art, we hope to reach human understanding through
music”. What better invitation could there be.
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