Josemi Carmona, flamenco guitarist. Interview

“The two of us go hand in hand in ‘Sumando’,
without a fuss, without virtuosities”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, March 2006

Carles Benavent and Josemi Carmona add up music. Bass player and guitarist have joined the strings of their instruments to elaborate a ‘two step’ which feels like a revelation for instrumental flamenco. Admiration, sensitivity, understanding, climate... are shared equally on an album on which both musicians want to play at confusing. While Carles Benavent continues his tour with Chick Corea around the United States, Josemi Carmona calls on Madrid to play the role of host and reveals the behind-the-scenes secrets of this album which, at the same time it inaugurates a new stage in the guitarist’s career following the break-up of Ketama, foretells a future collaboration which will soon be enjoyed live.

Josemi Carmona (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

What prompted you to do the album together?

Josemi Carmona: Above all, the mutual admiration we hold for each other. We’ve always coincided on records, but at different times. For example, I stuck in a guitar on the album by Remedios Amaya and then I remember Carles sticking in the bass. Afterwards I remember him telling me that he’d loved the flourishes, how what I’d done was so nice. And further along in Mojácar at Tito’s, a bar where the Trio goes a lot to play and where I’ll also play this year, he told me: come on, man, let’s do that record together. But I thought it was going to be one of those things you talk about at night and it never goes beyond that. And about a month later he called me up and told me: come on Josemi, things have calmed down for me, shall we get started or what? And the truth is it really pumped me up incredibly because I’m a lifelong admirer of Carles.

The album has been worked on in a peculiar way, something like homemade and long-distance...

J.C.: The first track, Carles was at my house one day and he whistled it to me; he left a reference with a mandola to me whistled in ‘Protools’. And I did the track’s arrangement beginning with that. And that’s the way we’ve worked on it. I’d give him a couple of guitars, he’d take them and contribute his stuff. Then in the final stretch of the record, there were two songs we did together, which were ‘Sencillito’, which is a track of mine but that we play together, and ‘Lupeando’, which is nearly an improvisation we did nearly live.

The record company presents it as “a step towards great flamenco music of the future”. What does this album contribute to flamenco music? Is it breaking any new ground?

J.C.: That’s a phrase by the record company; it’d be really pretentious on our part. We haven’t tried to do anything exceptional. We’ve tried to have a good time, which we’ve achieved, and enjoy the music and the admiration we hold for each other. We had an approach from the beginning, which was not to call a lot of people. Carles told me it was our matter, since right away percussionists, guitarists, cantaores started calling us... who wanted to collaborate, without charging anything. And it’s been hard for us to stick it out. El Cigala sang solo. He was with my technician at his studio, listened to the bulería and sang over it. Let them do what they want; if they want to, put it in, and if not, that’s all.

That’s hard to resist, isn’t?

J.C.: Impossible. I die for El Cigala.

	Josemi Carmona in concert (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Nor should it be forgotten that Chick Corea also collaborates. What does Chick Corea’s music mean to you and to flamenco?

J.C.: Oh, Chick Corea. That’s a gift. He’s a reference to me. 'Touchstone', the album he did with Paco de Lucía, is a reference. For Carles Benavent and Chick Corea to be in a song with me seems unbelievable to me. I see myself... like I’m cool. Ha ha ha ha.

Are you two going to repeat the experience?

J.C.: I think it’s a way to work so that every two or three albums, we pick back up the idea of doing a record together.

Is ‘Sumando’ now ready for the live show?

J.C.: Yeah, we already have a couple of presentations: on May 4th in Barcelona at Palau de la Música, within the Guitar Festival, and on May 17th at Calle 54, a concert which is going to be re-broadcast on television by Channel 2. And we’re about to close the jazz festivals in San Sebastián and Vitoria, GreenSpace in Valencia... For the time being, in the group we have Bandolero on box drum, Piraña on drums and Carlos Carmona on guitar. We need a cantaor.

Can the concept fit into the international jazz circuit?

	"I think ‘Sumando’ is little flamenco for flamenco and little jazz for jazz"

J.C.: I think it’s little flamenco for flamenco and little jazz for jazz. But oh well, we haven’t done it as a business, but as an experience we liked sharing.

How would you present the album to music enthusiasts?

J.C.: I think the people who know us will imagine that the musical feeling of Carles and mine goes along the same lines. He told me he’d like for it to be confused who’s one and who’s the other. For nobody to be the star. And I think that’s the nice thing about the album; it’s not one guy’s track and he’s there shining, but rather the two of us go hand in hand, without a fuss, without much virtuosity either.

That’s reflected in the album’s tone; it’s like...

J.C.: Mellow. Yeah, it’s not about demonstrating the virtuosity, for example, of the guitarists, which is what we study so many hours for. In my case, my road to playing the guitar doesn’t lead in that direction. I’m not a virtuoso as far as technique; my music is more about showing sensations.

Carles Benavent (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Moreover, each of you plays other instruments besides your main weapons: bass and flamenco guitar. How did you go about fitting in those other flavors?

J.C.: They’re instruments we have at home. I have an acoustic guitar, mandola, I have things to program, Carles has the ‘Ebow’... And since they’re on hand, and this record is like an experiment, you start sticking things in, you start trying things. I like it because it lacks all album pressure: when it’s going to come out, what tracks you’ve chosen... We’ve been working here for two years, without any pressure whatsoever. We’ve taken it more as a game and a divertissement than as an album. It’s completely liberated.

Josemi, you’ve just come out of your Ketama stage. What challenges lie ahead for you?

J.C.: The decision to make this album was before the end of Ketama; the thing is that it’s been a really long relationship. Now I intend to do a solo album, which I’m already negotiating with the record company to begin in summer. I’m really happy. I’m also doing my father’s album, which is what I like the most of what I’ve been doing lately. It’s about sharing everything with my maestro; I’m having a great time of it. And the truth is that I’m happy with how things have worked out for me. I didn’t think that so soon after the end of Ketama, I’d find a road I’d feel good on following twenty years with a ‘partner’. That’s why ‘Sumando’ has been really good for me; because I haven’t had to rack my brains about the end of a stage in my life... or about the start of the following one. I want to go on working with musicians I’m excited to play with.