Interview with Ginesa Ortega, cantaora

"I would like to reflect an image of freedom
in flamenco cante"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, January 2003
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

Ginesa Ortega shut herself up in her listening room with over two hundred records. From that musical melting pot, she started to choose songs that "could be filtered through flamenco". Dulce Pontes, Fito Páez, Billie Holiday, Serrat, Bob Marley… and, along with them, fresh flamenco composed by Juañares. The connection was in the soul... in the soul and in "the sea". 'Por los espejos del agua' reflects a cantaora concerned with her present and respectful of her roots who likes to feel musically free.

Analysis of the new album by Ginesa Ortega begins with the title. Why is it called 'Por los espejos del agua' ('In the Mirrors of the Water')?

On the one hand, there's a song I dedicate to my little girl, por alegrías -well, it's like a song with cantiñas metrics - because she looks at her reflection anywhere she can. I have a photo of her where she is in front of the seashore doing her hair, thus the inspiration: "In the mirrors of the water my little girl does her hair". Later we started to realize that the songs we were choosing were by authors or performers who had been born or lived by the sea. Beyond that point, something as vital as water couldn't be missing from the title.

Ginesa Ortega

It contains the concept of reflection. How would you describe the flamenco cante you're trying to project?

I think the image I project is that of a person who is restless, musically and personally speaking. I always say that I think in soleá, I think in seguiriyas and I think in tarantas, but that doesn't stop me from knowing that I'm in the world. And the world nowadays gives us the chance to connect to the Internet, as well as to listen to different styles of music which, unfortunately or luckily for them, figures such as Juan Talega or Joselero didn't have the chance to discover. And in short, flamenco is supposed to be music and music is supposed to be between the music and the musicians; we shouldn't limit ourselves at all. The image of flamenco cante that I'd like to reflect is one of freedom.

In fact, the album is quite an eclectic offer; you borrow from here and there... Why did you choose those authors?

First, we listened to around two hundred songs... a job I had never done until now. I loved it. Walking across the room where I listen to music and having an infinity of records with different styles - Hindu, Sephardic, Moroccan, jazz - it was like entering a kind of paradise. Finally, filtering it through flamenco, we started to realize that there were styles which couldn't be adapted because either they lost their essence, or I didn't know how to do them just right. Songs like 'Canción de mar' by Dulce Pontes and 'Desde el alma', performed by Fito Páez, charmed me from the very beginning; I sifted them through flamenco right away. Those remained after filtering them through flamenco precisely because of their beauty. And I love the Billie Holiday song. Every time I listen to her I say she could have been born in a neighborhood like Triana. She'd sing so well por soleá! Billie Holiday is the most flamenco American woman of all time.

What do you think those songs need to have to be able to flamencoize them? What is the connection?

I think it's soul. The soul, for example, that Billie Holiday gets across when doing 'I'm a fool to want you'. At times, it wasn't so much that I went looking for the song, as the song came looking for me. From the live version by Fito Páez with piano and little more, the song 'Desde el alma' goes very well with flamenco. Well, it is already known that both jazz and blues combine well when performing flamenco. In the song by Dulce Pontes, the grandeur and beauty of that voice so clear and so clean, with the more cracked flamenco voice, in this case mine, made a contrast that I liked. The version was so transparent and on the other hand, it didn't lose its flamenco essence, which is what was sought.

	Ginesa Ortega

There's a flirtation with reggae...

With the song 'Vive y sueña tu libertad' ('Live and dream of your freedom') we weren't at all trying to offend the artist's people or his staunch followers. I have great respect, and if I didn't I would be very foolish, as much for Bob Marley as for everyone. There's currently a problem: women in the 21st century are still being excluded socially and abused both physically and psychologically. That's the message. I didn't follow the adaptation word for word, since the abuse of women came up. May everyone become aware and do their part within their possibilities. The song is Bob Marley's, logically, and the only thing I sign is the adaptation, but it's not even registered with the authors' society. There wasn't a profit motive; far from it.

You have more flamenco songs, but light, fresh styles. Did you consciously remove more solemn flamenco?

Juañares gave me two songs: 'Manchada de amor', which goes por bulerías, and 'En un laíto', which are tangos. I asked him for them as a favor, and he gave them to me with no strings attached. I think straightforward cante had no place on this album; however, the bulerías are treated with the same devotion and affection as a serious song. In 'Puerta abierta' the guitarist Alfredo Lagos came and a phenomenal ambience was created; just the style the song called for. I'm going to go back to the Billie Holiday song because it's the one I like the most... An ambience was created there like in a dark nightclub in the fifties. And I imagined that I was black... Yes, ambiences were created intentionally. It turned out that way because the people who were at the studio intended it to.

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