JOSEMI CARMONA, FLAMENCO GUITARIST. INTERVIEW
“A rest says more than many notes”
Silvia Calado. Madrid, May 2011
Translation: Joseph Kopec
Josemi Carmona distances himself from the roads which flamenco guitar already travels and traces out one of his own. On the album ‘Las pequeñas cosas’, the Madrilenian musician synthesizes the types of music which have sounded throughout his career, from his flamenco starting point in the Habichuela family to his experience in the group Ketama, with collaboration work with pop, latin and jazz music in between. All of it coexists on this unclassifiable disc, on which Paco de Lucía plays just as easily as French rapper Oxmo sings... on which Dave Holland just as easily plays a fandango de Huelva as the guitar does a version of a passage from Puccini’s ‘Tosca’. But above all else, the music which characterizes the album is what isn’t heard: the silence.
Josemi Carmona |
|
|
| |
|
‘Las pequeñas cosas’ is hard to classify. How would you define it?
I ask myself, too: what can I call what I’ve made? I think it’s a summary of the kinds of music I like and I’ve played with a lot of people since the era of Ketama, with Toumani Djabate, with pop artists like Miguel Bosé, with jazz players… That’s the way this album is, but I don’t rule out making a disc a little more flamenco in the future, since it’s clear that it’s my music.
Is flamenco guitar the starting point of the songs?
Always. I’m a guitarist and this is a flamenco guitar album by a musician who does other types of music. The first song I composed was Paco de Lucía’s bulería. I do it with the guitar; it takes me hours and hours until things start to come out. I help myself with Pro-Tools, with bases and rhythms, and I play until I find some melodies. I didn’t make a disc with falsetas, which is what might be missed. It’s more with kinds of music than falsetas. I don’t think it’s bad, but rather a way to distance myself. There are people who play the guitar really great and who do some wonderful falsetas.
It might be more in the category of instrumental music…
Yes, but that of guitarist is higher than that of instrumental music, because the level that’s there is incredible. I really like ambiences, climates, rests. I think silence is very important in music. Many times, a rest says more than many notes. If you hush up at the right time, you might get an “olé” in that silence.
What was the collaboration with Paco de Lucía like? What does it mean to you?
| |
|
“Paco de Lucía keeps on teaching that something incredibly great can be done with guitar”
|
He’s the leader of the herd, the granddaddy of flamenco guitar; please excuse me, Sabicas, Montoya, Niño Ricardo… This man has undoubtedly revolutionized guitar in the 20th century. He’s my idol, the most complete guitarist who has ever lived and he’s a genius. We’ve been lucky enough to live in his same era and share things with him. The collaboration arose because Piraña was at my house with some percussion for ‘Tangroove’ and then he went to the rehearsal for Paco’s tour. After the rehearsal, the maestro called me up and told me he’d like me to go there for him to listen to the song. And I went there with my hard disk and I was really embarrassed because he’s really imposing. It was a rush for me because it was without asking him; it came from his heart.
What does Paco de Lucía continue to teach today’s musicians?
I think he keeps on teaching that something incredibly great can be done with guitar. He has like 26 guitar albums, he’s played every style, he can get together with any musician in the world of any age, he fills stadiums with a wooden guitar... What can’t he teach us? He seems to be at quite a happy moment, like less looking inward. I think he’s really shy and he feels stressed by the role he has to play. Lately he’s been trying to cause us to get together. On the day of Enrique’s funeral we were at Antonio’s house until really late, talking about his father, recalling stories… I think that when he passes away, young people are going to really miss him.
What happened with Enrique Morente must have been a blow for all of you.
I dream about Enrique every other day. I have him in my head and in my heart. It seems like a bad dream. In fact, my father has been ill since then. The last thing I talked to him about was the assignment of a couple of songs for Estrella’s album. What he did was to bring Ketama back together and we didn’t hesitate a second. He was a maestro in life, a wise man.
David Holland’s collaboration is interesting…
| |
|
“Dave Holland says I’ve been the bridge which has helped him understand my father’s flamenco”
|
It was in the period of the ‘Hands’ tour when I commented with him if he felt like it. The communication has been quite good. He says I’ve been the bridge which has helped him understand my father’s flamenco. It’s an honor for him to say so because he’s one of the greats. We’re now doing a tour of Europe. And he really feels like continuing.
And was it the way for you to approach jazz music here?
Yes, although I think there are other jazz moments on the album besides in that song. It’s a kind of music which appeals to me and I make it with a lot of respect, since it’s really great music. Mine is Spanish jazz. I think Spanish jazz is the jazz which we flamencos make, please excuse me, the great jazz players there are in Spain. There’s Spanish jazz which tends towards flamenco.
Josemi Carmona |
There are two interesting versions: ‘Tosca’ and ‘Gran Torino’.
I played with Perico Sambeat two years ago at the San Sebastián Jazz Festival. The next day, Jamie Cullum was there and I like his stuff. I listened to his song ‘Gran Torino’, I recorded a little bit with my cell phone and I went home to do it. Afterwards, I saw the film. I love it. And my version is an ode to the respect for our elders. Since he (Clint Eastwood) did the life of Charlie Parker, I think he’s made the best films in his career. He’s 80 and makes a film per year and each is better and more different, leaving your heart… I think throughout life you receive a fistful of sensations and you can describe them even better when you’re older.
And ‘Tosca’?
Some people proposed for me to do a vision of opera from flamenco guitar. At first I was reluctant because opera had never caught my attention. I thought it was dense. But I’ve discovered that if instead of singing it, you play it, it isn’t so. ‘Tosca’, ‘Las pequeñas cosas’ and ‘Tres almas’ are three short guitar songs which are like preludes to solo guitar.
The album is sprinkled with really varied vocal collaborations…
Manuel Carrasco’s song talks about love in general, between parents and children, between friends. I like how Jorge Drexler makes music and how he plays the guitar. He called me up for a song on his album ‘Amar la trama’ and I swapped it with him for the collaboration on mine. It was like bartering. Alex Cuba came because the record company put us in contact with each other. Later I found out that he’s Nelly Furtado’s composer, that he has Grammies… The timbre of his voice and his swing appealed to me. He really liked the song, he called me up on Skype all enthused, saying how nice and how simple. Oxmo’s song was through the record company. I did research on that man because I don’t know French, but he has the trademark of being the most poetic of the French rappers. He plunged into the song with a lot of zeal and by the comments he made to me, I knew that it had reached him: that it smacked of wood to him and that he liked the silence.
And there’s also a really uniform tone, like a single climate…
Yes, despite the many types of music that are played. I think that instead of me approaching Drexler’s music, Paco’s or Oxmo’s, the album’s common point is that the songs are made by me. They approach me and that’s the unifying point, regardless of the song being a rap or a bulería.
Do you miss doing the vocal part yourself?
| |
|
“I’d love to sing, but I don’t know. Sometimes I try to with the guitar”
|
Sometimes I do, really. I’d love to sing, but I don’t know. Sometimes I try to with the guitar. I might do few notes because it’s as if it were the melody of a voice, instead of a falseta which is already harmonized. I try to do cante with the guitar. I love cante, like all guitarists do.
Do you think it’s necessary to doubt and take risks in order to seek that trademark of your own?
Yes. We musicians in flamenco really look at one another. We don’t play for the rest; the one we have beside us, the guitarist who’s your colleague, is important to us. And it’s good that he’s important to us, but the scope has to be broadened.
And is it awkward to forge your own way, being an ‘Habichuela’?
Yes, it’s a little scary. I see my father’s toque and it’s personal, it’s different from others. You can like it or not, but it’s him. And I’d like to go in that direction. The nicest thing about music is its personality.
More information, audio, orders
