Juan Carlos Romero, guitarist. Interview

“It isn't easy to make flamenco progress musically”

Silvia Calado. Seville, October 2004
Translation: Joseph Kopec
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

Following a prolonged period busy with producing, composing and playing for others, the guitar of Juan Carlos Romero returns to the forefront. The Huelva-born musician puts together songs in ‘Romero’ which “show more maturity and more definition in my style”. The album includes tributes - to Paco Toronjo and Niño Miguel-, a sample collection of young voices - Arcángel, Estrella Morente and El Vareta- and, as outside embellishment, a touch of gospel voices. The first, because he is aware of the value of tradition which never felt the dilemma with the avant-garde. The second, because he adores cante and vindicates that dividing lines should not be traced between different ways of understanding it. The third, because he likes to allow himself those licenses. With ‘Romero’ as the pretext, in this interview the guitarist warns of the complexity involved in making flamenco music progress, of the danger of intuition when knowledge is lacking, of the trap of forced creation... defending flamenco's essence uncompromisingly.

	Juan Carlos Romero

What does ‘Romero’ contribute with regards to your début album, ‘Azulejo’?

It's hard to say... Yes, I have the impression of having progressed, of having evolved with regards to the first album. To speak about contribution … I don't dare. I think the time that has passed hasn't been in vain and this record shows more maturity and more definition in my style. I think I've found my space. It's a personal vision of flamenco music, always having the roots and tradition as the starting points, attempting for my music to be able to look ahead and back at the same time.

How did the repertoire come about?

They're compositions that have arisen in this time. Many of them originate from personal experiences, like the Huelva fandangos I dedicate to Paco Toronjo. He died and at that time I was close to him; it affected me personally and those fandangos arose. And there's the song I do for Niño Miguel. There's longer attachment there in time because I was a student of his father's and, indirectly, of his. In my book he's always been a guitarist to watch; I've always admired him a great deal.

And the rest of the songs?

There's no personal motivation; rather they spring up over time, with anxieties, with what one is discovering, out of the need to do things. The fact of creation isn't an undertaking; it's a need. Taken as an undertaking, things come out forced. But if it's a personal need, it comes out fluently.

If in ‘Azulejo’ you had recognized voices such as those of Carmen Linares, Enrique Morente and El Extremeño, collaborating on this album are voices of a new generation: Estrella Morente, Arcángel and El Vareta.

They're cantaores with contrasted artistic quality. And above all, I like to show there isn't that dividing line people want to draw between different ways of singing. I like El Vareta's voice to be there, which is strong, cracked, very flamenco, because my tastes go along those lines. But I like the contrast with voices such as Estrella's. That entire spectrum covered from one voice to the next is equally valid. I vindicate that there's no room for dividing lines, that one is as flamenco as the next.

In guitar, too?

It needn't even be said in guitar! It's been so traditionally. The guitarists with more of an air of that time period were Niño Ricardo and Manolo de Huelva. Afterwards there were other types of guitarists who had other virtues, who I think were very good, such as Ramón Montoya and Sabicas. But there wasn't what there's been lately; a desire to draw a line dividing what is gypsy from what isn't. It all depends on quality and talent; I'm not interested in the rest.

What relationship is there between your guitar and cante?

A close one. I believe the essence of flamenco's spirit is in cante. And I'm a big cante enthusiast; I like it a lot and I think that there, you don't just get the information, but also the mythical. Something reaches you about what road to take, about the most essential, about the forms of flamenco, even about the harmonies … I sense them many times through cante.

Juan Carlos Romero

And with baile, does something similar happen, or is it a different relationship?

Eva Yerbabuena is a woman who I admire a great deal because she's a great artist, she's very sensitive and has something not a lot of people have: understanding of music to turn it into dance. She doesn't dance for the sake of dancing to something; she dances understanding what she's listening to. And I think that distinguishes her from the rest. Songs like ‘Asesinato’ by Lorca, which I did for Enrique Morente, which isn't easy for you to listen to and for you to notice it, she sees right away, she understands them. It draws your attention that she doesn't notice a chorus. And she's put it in her new show, with Miguel Poveda singing it for her. When she starts dancing, she doesn't know how to do it any other way; her automatic pilot comes on. Eva is very good. I'm very satisfied with that collaboration and with the cante ones. How well the three of them sing!

Do you see this as a good moment for cante?

On the one hand, it seems good to me, but on the other hand, it seems too uniform. On the one hand, there are very interesting people, and on the other hand, a group who all sing the same. And we're all living in the same era. How can you describe a period as good or bad if it's all mixed up together? There are interesting voices, good voices. And many of them are being wasted.

Is there also that uniformity in guitar?

	"It's not a good era for creation and that's seen in guitar, too"

Yes. It's not a good era for creation and that's seen in guitar, too. And it's not a question of academicism, but of the obligation everyone feels to create something new, since what we're really doing is changing around the same thing. We've been doing that for a very long time. And creating is a very hard thing to do; it's at the reach of a select few. We all try and it'll come out well for some and not for others. The important thing would be for each person to find his own way, but also for one to know that there's no road to seek out. A guitarist can devote himself to performing quite rightly; he doesn't have to be the author of what he plays. That's assumed in classical music.

And it's even usual in cante, isn't it?

Yes, but in guitar, if you don't play your own flourishes, you're a nobody and I don't understand why. You can be a magnificent performer but not be a composer. In the idiosyncrasy of guitar that seems to be very connected; that has to be that way. And there are people who have gone down in music history performing. You had to tiptoe more into the field of creation... though I'm not sure either. What is being done is a sort of mixture in which you take what you like from each type of music you listen to and a hybrid is made without any specific nature or personality. The flamenco gets blurred between so many things. The flamenco becomes just another element, in the rhythm, in the classical cadence of flamenco. And sometimes it's not just that. It isn't easy to make flamenco progress musically. Since it's a world with very specific keys, you get away from them easily because it's growing now and it's trying to progress. But since we're progressing through intuition and not through knowledge, we're making a lot of false moves and we're doing a lot of gratuitous things.

One example of flamenco music progressing upon an outline is Manolo Sanlúcar...

The thing is there's no other way. Intuition doesn't get you very far. You can use it; it's always been useful in the music world, but for a rough draft, discovery of a cell, a reason. But to develop it, you need knowledge and there comes a time when intuition is a limited instrument for the mess we guitarists are now getting into. From a musical viewpoint, we're undertaking complicated adventures.

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