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Estrella
Morente
by Fátima Yráyzoz
(March, 2001)
"Mi
cante y un poema" [My song and a poem], the young Morente's first record
on the market.
"I
can't fall back on the Morente name, I'm aware there are many people with high
hopes, and plenty of others just waiting to pounce". In this completely straightforward
way, and without mincing words, this young woman from Granada answered the question
of why there is so much expectation about her first record.
The
case of Estrella is one of those which creates a legend. Even before making any
recording, there were already many people who spoke about her and were impatiently
waiting. She is from Granada, a flamenco woman through and through, daughter of
the singer Enrique Morente and the dancer Aurora Carbonell, her uncles Antonio
Carbonell and José Carbonell are singer and guitarist respectively. "Flamenco
comes to me from every direction, my mother was a singer and dancer, my grandparents,
my uncles, they're all involved in this art."
I'm
surprised not only by her beauty, but by her style as well. When she comes out
on stage she turns into an outsized artist. Her aplomb and elegance have left
critics, fans, and audiences in awe, the oles were unceasing and expressions such
as "It's a if she's been occupying that place all her life!" were heard
throughout the audience. It's because Estrella has her own style, and a full year
before making her first record she was already receiving kudos in Madrid, at the
Colegio de Médicos, and a few months later in the Teatro Lara. And as she
herself confesses, she's amazed: "I saw the best artists of the moment sitting
in the audience, and afterwards they came to see me in the dressing-room and I
just couldn't believe it".
Estrella,
when we spoke for the first time you mentioned that you were going to dedicate
your first record to Pastora Pavón, La Niña de los Peines, and in
"Mi cante y un poema" actually I only see a few sevillanas composed
by you and dedicated to her.
Well,
although Pastora's presence permeates the record, the reason is very simple and
it's because of all this hype which surrounds her personality lately, tributes,
retrospectives, festivals! So I said, not me. Her spirit is there but I couldn't
put the title of 'tribute to'. I tend to go for originality and personality. And
the sevillanas were a result of verses that I had, and putting them to the music
of sevillanas we saw that it combined well.
One
thing is true, your delivery often sounds like la Niña de los Peines. Can
you handle the comparison?
I
wouldn't like to be compared because for me she's a very important figure and
anyway, it's my voice they say is like Pastora's, not my singing. I follow her
line, but I don't want to sound like her, well, I'd like to sound like her but
not imitate her, I just follow.
What's
perfectly clear on this record is that you've opted for traditional, popular verses.
Yes,
that's true, although it was my father who did the actual selection, but this
was not necessarily an issue, we just did what seemed right and for me these are
my cantes. You can do whatever you want but personally, what I've been doing all
my life is very dear to me. These are the cantes I've been listening to all my
life, they're my cantes girl....
What
makes you so sure of yourself on stage?
When
I sing, I give it everything, with my hair, my hands, my hips and my soul, my
whole body. Obviously, depending on what I'm singing. If you sing seguiriya or
malagueñas.... Look, for example, the malagueña of Chacón,
that one that says "Que tienes por mi persona", you can't sing it like
"qué tendrá Marbella, qué tendrá la costa"
[what a great place Marbella is]! I don't know if you get what I mean! What I'm
trying to say is that the depth of these songs requires that they be internalized,
I interpret and get inside the appropriate role. To sing 'cante grande' you have
to believe you're 'grande', great, because if you don't convince yourself that
you are, but you simply feel the songs are great, it all turns into junk. Then
afterwards I go back to being the silly girl that I am!
What
about that taranta you sang when you were eight, with your uncle Montoyita and
with Sabicas?
Yes
it's true. My father was recording the record "De Madrid a Nueva York"
and I got into the studio, well, they called me: "come on, sing a little"
and half shrieking I sang a Taranta; but I've kept it for the next record.
In
"Mi cante y un Poema" you sing with Manolo Sanlúcar, the Habichuelas,
Ketama. It's a lovely tour from Granada to Cádiz, and I think that's how
the recording was.
Look,
I'm in love with that city, we spend summers in Sanlúcar, and that's how
the friendship with Manolo came about, which is why it was easy to get him to
work with us and do three pieces in his studio. Not only that, but when my mother
hears the granaína she cries, even before I start singing, because she's
crazy about Manolo's playing. We were in Tarifa, and from there to Cádiz,
a city I was dreaming about...walking through the streets of the Viña neighborhood...
That place that my father had told me so much about, where years ago he had heard
Aurelio. During those days I was able to wander around the streets and I immensely
enjoyed recording in the Caleta with my friend Alfredo Lagos, an exceptional guitarist
from Jerez, you'll see! We did the bulería and my sevillanas with that
phenomenon of a guitarist. And that's when my father said, instead of going to
a studio, like everyone else, why don't we just take the instruments to the cueva
del Curro in Albaicín? In the cave with the Habichuelas we recorded strictly
'live'. Afterwards, we took it to a studio for mixing. We did some very subtle
arrangements so the richness wouldn't be lost. What a joy!
You're
not one to hold back and I suppose you've have your ups and downs with your father.
Most
of the time in the beginning we were always disagreeing, but of course he was
always right and I ended up packing away my contrariness in my pocket. I think
there's really only one right way, and in view of my youth and lack of experience
I accepted his advice. He's been in charge from the beginning. There's something
on the record that's very important, regardless of the quality of the Morente
soul. He managed a kind of artistic release through me.
You
believe in the cliché that in order to sing profoundly you have to have
suffered, I say this because at twenty years old you haven't had many hard times.
Well,
yes and no. I think that in order to sing something you have to feel it, and if
you have no idea about love or hard times....fortunately I've never had to go
hungry, but I've had other kinds of pain. We all cry, don't we? Which is why I
say you have to have had life experiences. I believe I have something to offer
and to give.
And
for an instant you can see what 'la Morente' is made of when she flatly states:
"If
anyone thinks I just was handed everything on a platter in my house, they're wrong...no
way. It so happens I packed my bag and went listening to cantes all over Spain!"
Fátima
Yráyzoz
Translation: Estela Zatania
revista@flamenco-world.com
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