Pepe León ‘El Ecijano’, flamenco cantaor. Interview

“Flamenco has to open up,
but not from cante; from music”

Silvia Calado. Madrid-Seville, November 2006

Coincidences happen. A veteran cantaor with an album in the works. A guitarist committed to traditional flamenco. A chance meeting at a remote summer festival. Et voilà! With the help of Pedro Sierra, Pepe León 'El Ecijano' records the album ‘5 Generaciones’. Though they’d never worked together before, they hit it off right away. And virtually on that very stage, they agreed to meet at the guitarist’s recording studio. Since the cantaor had already composed a lot of songs which he’d already done live, in a matter of “three or four weeks we’d recorded the vocals”. The ball then went over to the court of the guitarist, whose turn it was to add the music, no less. But the instructions were clear: “Flamenco, flamenco”.

Pepe León 'El Ecijano' (Photo: Jorge Sánchez Fontaneda)

As on the three previous records by the astigitano cantaor – that is the right name for the inhabitants of the Sevillian town of Écija-, he was seeking the flamencura he says he can’t find on most of the albums that are now released. And he decided on seguiriyas, bulerías por soleá, tanguillos and alegrías de Cádiz, fandangos de Huelva, the caña... But with the added incentive that they are his own compositions. Pepe León says it isn’t hard for him to write “traditional flamenco lyrics”.

He modestly describes his own as “ordinary”. He’s left the most special ones to experts in verse. He’s borrowed ‘Llanto por la muerte de Ignacio Sánchez Mejías’ from Federico García Lorca, to turn it into a cante por seguiriyas. “Me and a lot of my colleagues love the result, especially Fosforito”, the cantaor explains in this phone interview. He’s also resorted to Sevillian poet Rafael de León – member of the copla trio Quintero, León y Quiroga - though, “since his verses were very refined, I’ve changed them a bit to adapt them to the petenera, who they say was a whore who was loved and hated at the same time”.

Though it must be remembered that in the matter of composing, Pepe León has achievements to his credit such as the bulerías de Cádiz sounding on the first album by Niña Pastori, a song he’d already recorded on an album Paco Ortega produced for him. “Of course, she was a much bigger hit than me”, he adds jokingly. Perhaps in connection with the Cádiz-born artist, the queen of flamenco pop, are the tangos on El Ecijano’s new album: “They’re a little more modern and they’re sung by my daughter, who I wanted to give a chance to”. And the fact is that this record stresses the family side of things.

With the title ‘5 Generaciones’, the cantaor has delved into his flamenco ancestry: “My people have always sung. My mother, who’s over eighty years old now, tells me that my grandfather also used to sing. And it’s gone on to my kids now. There haven’t been a lot of professionals, but we do know that in the thirties there was a contest in Écija where my uncle Chico Barcelón beat Antonio Mairena himself. I include a photo on the album in which you can see my uncle being handed the trophy by the owner of the Teatro Cabrera”, the artist explains.

And dating back to those times are the sources which El Ecijano has drawn upon. “As I’m told, at that time the ones who were “in” were Manuel Vallejo, who was phenomenal, La Niña de los Peines, Tomás Pavón... And that school of the purest flamenco was that of my uncle, my mother and the one I’ve listened to”. He isn’t going to be the one to break that legacy passed down from generation to generation. From his point of view, “you have to open up in flamenco, but not from cante; from music. What’s really being added is new music and a more modern way of recording”.

That’s where Pedro Sierra comes in. As El Ecijano comments, “he’s a first-rate guitarist, one of the leading ones on today’s scene. And he’s taken care of all the music, since I don’t know about music, but I do know what I like. For example, he sticks in music in the petenera which has nothing to do with the typical stuff. The tanguillos are traditional tanguillos de Cádiz, but Pedro has done a completely different creation on the guitar. And he’s right on track”.

And while ‘5 Generaciones’ gets on its feet, the cantaor goes on his way. He recognizes that, “without help, it’s hard to make an honest living from flamenco for thirty years. Though it’s hard to stay in any profession for that long”. He weighs things up as more than positive: “I’m really happy with my career, I’ve won a lot of prizes in the contest stage, I’ve got a flamenco group with my children – my daughter’s a bailaora and my son’s a guitarist -, my voice is holding up, I don’t have any problems with my throat and I have enough work”.

	"The theater’s easy; you show up there with eight or ten cantes, you’re well-accompanied, your lights, your sound... The hard thing is to pull things off well at a peña"

Above all, he frequents peñas and festivals, among the hardest stages for a flamenco artist. El Ecijano points out that “the peñas are the most demanding, though a cantaor has the chance there to open his heart. If you’ve been a little inattentive at the beginning (he laughs), there’s always room for you to catch your second wind and go and score big points. At the festivals, however, you have to give it your all in three or four cantes because another colleague is coming up next”. Nothing compared to the large venues. As the cantaor comments, “the theater’s easy; you show up there with eight or ten cantes, you’re well-accompanied, your lights, your sound... The hard thing is to pull things off well at a peña, without a mike or anything. If they call you back the next year, it’s a real merit”.

And what’s his viewpoint on today’s cante scene? El Ecijano answers that “little flamenco’s done; a lot of rumbas and tangos are done. The top artists shouldn’t like money so much; they could make a fine living as flamenco cantaores. They could record cantes I’ve done, since young people would certainly like it and they’d see that flamenco is much more than tangos and rumbas, that minimum part they’re given”.