Gerardo Nuñez
Madrid 1999

- "Calima" is a flamenco recording that was released in the US before Spain.

Angel Romero produced it; I’ve known him since we were kids. We were both aware that we were working in different areas of the same field: I’m a musician and he works for recording companies. He first worked for a company called Elipsis that put out a flamenco reissue on three CDs. Later he started his own label where we did my last recording, Jucal, and afterwards we got the idea of recording "Calima" there. We’ve got our own label called "El Gallo Azul".

- How many recordings of yours have been released? It’s hard to get all of them.

Five, all together: Flamencos en Nueva York, El Gallo Azul (there’s a German release with both of them), Calima, Jucal and Salomé. Salomé is the music for a dance number by Carmen Cortés. We made a CD that’s normally sold at the concerts. It’s not a guitar recording; the pieces are longer. It’s dance music.

- You’ve nearly always gotten good reviews and guitarists regard you as an excellent musician and a great technician. What kind of comments are the most flattering?

Anything positive is flattering and negative comments are fine, too, as long as they’re not against me, personally. Negative comments don’t bother me.

- Reaching your level of musicianship on the guitar requires a lot of study. How did you first get started as a guitarist? What motivated you?

Just by watching, accompanying singers and dancers. We flamenco guitarists don’t have an academy or a conservatory of flamenco; for us it’s an oral culture. In Jerez a lot of us start out taking classes with a teacher. After a few months you can play for the students of a dance academy. That’s how you learn about rhythm and you gain confidence. Then you can accompany singers and, if you’re good or if it’s really your thing, you can do your own music and play concerts.

- It’s a long learning process, in stages.

Yes, it is. A point in our favor is that flamenco artists start young. I was only 13 and I was playing for Tío Borrico de Jerez and Terremoto. So we get a lot of experience as professionals; you learn while you work.

- Do you see parallels with other music like blues and jazz?

There are always similarities. In Brazil there are kids that start playing guitar at a very early age. They play sambas and have a natural understanding of harmony. Jazz is similar, but their learning is much more academic and there’s nothing like that in flamenco yet.

- You’re a big fan of Latin music.

In Cádiz there’s always been a lot of contact with Latin music. I listen to Brazilian musicians.

- What recordings would you recommend to the guitarists that follow your work?

Well, one problem for today’s guitarists is that they don’t know about older guitarists. We play with a solid understanding of our roots. They should listen to Niño Ricardo, Montoya, Morao, and learn how people used to play. Now guitarists are better, but in the past they used to play with a very special feeling. Now guitar playing is better and more difficult, but there used to be excellent singers, like Niño de Gloria...

- Modern flamenco seems to be lacking good singers.

No, the problem is that these are hard times for creativity. Imitation is easy: You can sing like Camarón, but the hard thing is to find your own language in flamenco.

- What singers do you like nowadays?

One of my favorites is Indio Gitano, and also a recording of my friend, Méndez de Jerez, "Entre dos barrios" (José Méndez y Juan Carmona - Entre dos barrios. "El flamenco de Jerez")

- You mix flamenco with other music in a very natural way.

I’ve never been interested in mixing flamenco with other music, but I’ve been playing with all kinds of musicians since I was a kid, and I’ve learned to communicate with them. You have to learn to bring out what someone’s got inside, but I don’t believe in making a musical cocktail with a little of this and a little of that. The idea is to share.

- You’ve worked with a lot of musicians. Danilo Pérez, Airto Lindsay and John Pattituci are on "Calima". Did you know their music better than they knew yours?

Yeah, they didn’t know that much about flamenco guitar.

- Then would you say that you’re spreading flamenco; bringing them to it?

I think so. They like flamenco because of our sense of rhythm. It’s precise and constant, and it’s a tighter kind of rhythm. They ask me about the "compás"; they want to learn how to measure and to understand the rhythms.

- For the liner notes of the CD you’ve written a comment for each song. Was that hard?

Yeah, it was a requirement for the format, which is very American. When I compose I’m not thinking about a story; that kind of thing comes later. In the liner notes I relate my music to places in the province of Cádiz.

- What’s your favorite number from "Calima"?

The title track, Calima, where we’re all playing. There are excellent musicians on that track, and the composition’s all right, too. I also like "Sevilla" because it’s really a "sevillana". It’s got the "sevillana" rhythm and the harmonies in the music are from the "ida y vuelta" songs.

Interview: Daniel Muñoz, 1999

Translation: Norman Paul Kliman

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