<< Previous

Would you tell flamenco fans, then, to look out for new releases on the website?

Yeah, sure. After releasing these ten tracks, I have another twenty tracks just about ready to go. I'm not going to put them all on there in one go, but we'll add tracks periodically. I have a lot of material, but I need time. And the people I work with are helping me a lot.

Jorge Pardo and Carles Benavent

Besides, they're first-rate artists. In this first batch of songs there are collaborations with Niño Josele, Juan Diego, Diego Amador, Tino di Geraldo...

The production work is 100% home-grown. And I go and work with these artists like I used to swap stickers at school. I'll swap your Raúl sticker for a Beckham. And that's how I work. The artists I'm working with are also receptive to this way of working. But evidently this also slows down the pace. If I could get my hands on a lump sum for production work... I say that in case there's some patron out there listening to this. (He laughs).

We could put in a link to a bank account number...

No, but I mean joking aside, we could think about a system of shares in the production or, in the case of traditional albums, of pre-sold copies. It would be something to consider.

Apart from the virtual project, there are also tangible projects. The most auspicious being to take part in Chick Corea's new Touchstone band, together with Rubem Dantas and Carles Benavent.

Jorge Pardo at Blue Note's at backstage

We've made two albums with Chick Corea . One recorded live on one of the European tours, and another in the studio in L.A. The live recording is being sold at concerts, but in fact it's a double album and they're going to make it his most commercial project, they're going to sell it using a recording company. And they're looking for a good deal at a multinational for the studio album, because they've invested a lot in the production, the project involves a good number of musicians, apart from the group Chick has right now, there are musicians like Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta and Hubert Laws, that are making the production more attractive to the big companies. They're looking for a better deal. And that's what's delaying the release of the album, although it seems imminent now.

There are two other projects. You know about my work with the trio, alongside Carles Benavent and Tino di Geraldo. Well now we have our new album finished, ‘Sin precedentes’. It seems like in the end it'll be released on the Fundación Autor label. We've made a pretty good deal, in which we're in charge of the production ourselves. I mean it's self-produced, with just one more partner involved, Carlos Martos of Sonoland studios. And it seems like it's going to be imminent. With this same trio we've got ourselves onto the DVD ‘Flamencos del siglo XXI’, which is already on sale. We were also involved in the production work. It's entertaining to watch, the sound is good, it's well-produced and is a way of familiarizing yourself with several approaches to contemporary flamenco. And with D’3 there'll be news very soon. At the end of September we're going to Tarifa again to record, because we liked that studio... with Tangier opposite you, you look out over the whole of the Straits of Gibraltar. And we'll spend four or five days there recording another D’3 program. And we'll be in different company, because up until now we were with Satchmo, but there's been a split and we're going to belong to the Quadrant branch. In fact, we already have a date at El Vendrell's Auditorio Pau Casals to record a live DVD. Those are the latest things in the pipeline as far as my discography's concerned. I'm very satisfied.

And going back to Chick Corea, that awakens a good deal of curiosity among audiences. What's your professional opinion of the tour?

In my opinion it's been positive in every respect. The work with Chick is interesting, he's a good leader. And he said it himself, he doesn't hide the fact that the music he's making contains our heritage, bears our hallmarks. Commercially speaking, it seems like the group is on the up. Because to the jazz scene, when we're presented by Chick Corea, the group seems new even though we've been together twenty or thirty years. It makes you mad, but at the same time you have to be grateful. Since everybody sees the project as something fresh, it seems like the group is destined for long life. This year we still have a few tours to do, one in autumn and another in winter, of Europe and the U.S. Many of the concerts are in Spain, at least fourteen in November.

It'll be satisfying to be seen as a prophet in your own land, won't it?

On the one hand, I think why should Chick have to come to my country to present my music so that I get hired and am accepted by my critics, by my country's newspapers... But, on the other hand, since that's the way of the world and you can't throw yourself to the dogs, you accept the positive side of it. Something that does hurt when I hear it is that Paco de Lucía's group is playing with Chick Corea. As a basic explanation, I don't mind. But when people say that in your country, where they know you and they've listened to you a thousand times, or where you can find out who Carles Benavent or Jorge Pardo or Rubem Dantas are... that gets on my nerves.

So what about next year?

Well later in February, more or less, Chick has plans (he should say that himself, but I'll tell you in advance) to expand the group in the sense that he plans to bring in different guest artists. These artists will be drawn both from the flamenco scene - there may be a few surprises - and from the jazz scene, to play certain special events.

How well do you think flamenco stands up on the jazz scene?

You come to the conclusion that jazz is a trade mark. And us local artists don't actually play jazz. We play Spanish music from this century with influences of all kinds: from jazz, from Arabia, from Brazil, from Jimi Hendrix... The only way of selling our music abroad, even in our own country, is to call it ‘jazzwhatever’. That's the only way to get signed up for any jazz festival. If not, it would be practically unviable. How many flamenco festivals are there in Europe? Four. The jazz festivals are a refuge for so many musicians like us from other countries... Anouar Braheim, for example - no way is that jazz but he's at all the European festivals. Paco de Lucía himself, does he play jazz? No, he plays flamenco. Jazz right now is a label to sell music, whatever music you like. But when you use the label flamenco, the same thing doesn't happen. What attracts people to flamenco is a certain bohemian, a certain romantic notion, but it doesn't sell. To sound cool in interviews it's fine, but go ahead and advertise the ‘Enrique Iglesias flamenco festival’ - you won't get fifteen thousand people turning up!

<< Previous

revista@flamenco-world.com