Interview with Jesús Méndez, flamenco cantaor
“Cante isn’t one
plus one equals two”
Silvia Calado. Madrid-Jerez, January 2009
Translation: Joseph Kopec
Just when some people were beginning
to suspect a certain lack of renewal in Jerez’s cante,
a voice called out to prove them wrong. Jesús Méndez
was nearly still a teenager when Gerardo Núñez
brought him out on stage to surprise us with an old, powerful
and very Jerez-style echo. He laid such stakes on the young
cantaor from the Méndez family that he offered to
produce his début album for him. And the record has
just come out with the title ‘Jerez sin fronteras’.
On this album, the cantaor stresses the two sides of his
native land: “Jerez is a city open to the world in
every sense, but in flamenco we’ve never been affected
by crazes; we’ve respected true cante”.
Jesús Méndez
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
If Jesús Méndez is asked
to present ‘Jerez sin fronteras’, he does so
with few but straightforward words: “It’s a
traditional flamenco album, because there’s just one
flamenco, and this is a flamenco record, happy and very
Jerez-style”. And the latter is already clearly expressed
by the title itself of this début album. The cantaor,
who replies in this interview half by e-mail and half by
telephone, was sure that he would include the word ‘Jerez’.
Most of the cantes and references belong to his land, from
the soleá por bulerías to Agujetas, with Los
Moneos in between, and of course, his home, that of Los
Méndez. While he was at it, he wanted to highlight
the idea that his native land of flamenco “has never
known any bounds”. In his view, his “is a city
open to the world in every sense”. But in matters
of the jondo, it has its peculiarities: “In flamenco
we’ve never been affected by crazes; we’ve always
respected true cante”.
And that duality is already represented
by La
Paquera de Jerez, whom he is a relative and follower
of. He proves so in the album’s repertoire, which
includes two dedications to the maestra: on the one hand,
the opening zambra ‘Soleá de mis pesares’
with accompaniment by guitarist Diego del Morao; and on
the other hand, the bulerías ‘Si te llamas
Dolores’ played by none other than Moraíto.
That’s the way it had to be. “La Paquera is
the main reference in my cante style, the mirror I’ve
always looked at myself in”, he explains. And he says
why: “Besides her strength, she had a special way
of drawing out the different parts, the metrics weren’t
tight, but rather sailed along with the cante... they were
always unpredictable”. Which leads him to judge that
“flamenco has to be prepared, but above all you have
to get it across, because cante isn’t one plus one
equals two”.
That philosophy runs in his family. If
he started listening to Francisca Méndez’s
zambra at home when he was a little boy, the same thing
happened to him with the bulerías. “My uncles,
my people, my father... have always sung those lyrics at
parties”, he recalls. And that way of getting across
makes this first recording so special to him: “I can
really identify with this album, because I haven’t
learned the cantes on it by listening to records, but rather
listening directly to my family at home”.
But there are other contributions, too.
The cantiñas ‘Tres días después’
and the soleá ‘Qué corta es la vida’
are written by Rafael Lorente, “an aficionado from
Jerez who has written for cantaores as important as El Torta.
He found out that I was at the studio, and knowing my tastes,
he offered me these lyrics in case I wanted to record them”.
Also to be pointed out is the piece composed by David
Lagos, the toná ‘Que no se pierdan
los cantes’. As Jesús explains, “the
thing is, he composes really well; his lyrics are judgments”.
But what stands out the most is another aspect: “David
is a colleague and a friend of mine; I learn a lot from
him and he’s always been with me through thick and
thin”. But that feeling includes the rest of the collaborators
on the album: “I’ve had that devotion from all
of them”.
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“Flamenco
has to be prepared, but above all you have to get
it across” |
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Since it is an album with a sober style,
the colleagues he is referring to are guitarists. And there
are five of them. “They’re all great guitarists;
I’m really proud that musicians with these names have
gotten involved in this project”, he affirms. He says
that Diego
del Morao, who takes care of the musical adaptation
and interpretation of the zambra and the seguiriya, “is
a monster at the studio; sometimes he knows more than the
technician”. And he stresses that “he’s
been great support and has done lovely harmonizing of the
song... and very flamenco”. Another colleague of his
generation is Santiago Lara, guitarist in the soleá
‘Qué corta es la vida’, “who has
provided that way of his of harmonizing with the bass string;
that way of getting things across is brilliant”. And
the threesome of young tocaores is rounded off by José
Manuel León. “Check out those cantiñas.
He went to Gerardo’s studio to record them... and
what two falsetas he did”, the cantaor comments.
And then there are the two veterans, both
equally significant to Jesús Méndez’s
career as an artist. It turns out that Moraíto Chico,
who plays the soleá por bulerías and the bulerías,
“is a flamenco icon and my idol since I was little,
the artist I was dying to meet. That’s why finding
myself working with him now is a great satisfaction”,
he admits. And then closing the album is the toque of Gerardo
Núñez, his artistic sponsor. “There’s
the maestro, there’s his long experience... and how
his thumb sounds”. But there’s something else:
“He’s the guilty party of this album being out
on the market”.
The proposal for Jesús Méndez
to record came from his mentor. And, as the Jerez-born cantaor
explains, “I got down to work from that day on”.
Without mincing his words, he says that “Gerardo
Núñez, in my career as well as
on this project, has been there a hundred percent. He’s
given me a lot of advice about this flamenco world; he’s
helped me in every sense. Both he and bailaora Carmen Cortés,
his wife. I think they’re exemplary people”.
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“Gerardo
Núñez, in my career as well as on this
project, has been there a hundred percent” |
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But his role has not been interventionist
at all. “I chose the repertoire. Gerardo gave me a
free hand in that sense”, he points out. He adds that
in general, “they’re the cantes which I have
most under control for the time being; as they say, I’m
still learning”. And he didn’t have time restrictions,
either: “We’ve recorded it in two years, more
or less. It’s been the work’s fault... thank
God”. The effort is worthwhile, as he is of the opinion
that “artists have to record”. The album is
a necessary weapon “for you to start to make a little
place for yourself in this world”.
He knows very well that it isn’t
easy. That’s why it is joyful to listen to another
generation coming on strong: the even younger voices than
his which are heard in the final bulería. They are
the children of the group Soniquete, from the Peña
Terremoto de Jerez. “What satisfies me the most is
that here in Jerez, the children don’t do little songs
or anything like that. At the age of eleven, a boy sings
you the Frijones soleá, even if he doesn’t
know what it is, but he’s grown up listening to it”.
As it happened to him. And now he is a full-fledged cantaor
who, with his first album out on the market, “is going
to try and move forward and perform it”. Although
that doesn’t stop him from continuing, as he has done
so far, to share his cante with other artists’ projects.
Just at Festival de Jerez 2009, he is going to work in the
tribute which Moraíto will pay to La Paquera, which
Miguel Poveda also takes part in, and is going to sing for
the baile of Andrés Peña and Pilar Ogalla
in the premiere of ‘Cádiz de la Frontera’.
But, of course, he wants “to start focusing little
by little on my solo career, which is what I’m getting
ready for... and a cantaor’s dream”.
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