Juan Habichuela, flamenco guitarist. Interview
“I like playing to the beat
the same as freely.
I’ve studied it all”
Silvia Calado. Madrid, June 2007
Translation: Joseph Kopec
As if championing La Alhambra’s
credentials, Juan
Habichuela poses with his guitar before the candidate
to being one of the ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’.
The picture on the cover of his new album ‘Una guitarra
en Granada’ oozes beauty, history, inspiration...
just like his toque. And as he’d already done on
‘Campo del Príncipe’, he puts it at
the service of an exquisite selection of cantaores. Some
are veterans, such as Chano Lobato, Rancapino and Menese,
with unreleased recordings from over a decade ago. And
others, like Marina Heredia and Potito, are young vocalists
whose freshness inspires the Granada-born maestro, who
has had to once again shut himself in and study, to get
his fingers in shape, to compose new “variations”.
And the thing is that this album was no longer in his
plans; he was retired, desiring to return to his marvelous
native land...
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Juan Habichuela (Photo
Daniel Muñoz) |
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Who convinced you to record another
album?
The idea to make this album was my son
Juan’s. I didn’t want to record any more because
I’m retired now, but he saw me with the strength
to do so. He’d tell me I was still in good enough
shape to make an album. I’d tell him I wasn’t
and he’d tell me I was... until he convinced me.
Then I got down to studying, two or three hours every
day, until I got in shape. And we started recording.
How did you decide on the repertoire?
I had several things already recorded
from ten or twelve years ago. I needed another four or
five, so Juan encouraged me to choose young cantaores
to sing whatever they wanted. I recorded with Marina
Heredia, Mari Carmen, Potito and Pepe Luis Carmona.
And that’s how we completed the eight songs there
are on it. It was hard for me, but there’s the album.
Young people are going to be
surprised to hear you say that you spend several hours
a day studying...
Yes, of course. I’m at a ripe old
age, and I had to sit down and study. And so, closed up
in the room, I did the four new songs. And I think they’re
OK. I don’t mess up at all, which is the main thing.
How did you do the recording?
I recorded the new songs in Madrid, except
one which was done in Granada; the tangos by Marina Heredia.
We did it taking our time, without rushing or anything
like that... and studying a lot. I’d get up in the
morning and I’d spend four or five hours studying
what I was going to do. I’d ask the cantaores what
they were going to sing, whether it was soleá,
seguiriyas, taranta... whatever they chose. And then I
devoted myself to bringing out variations on those songs.
But the recording was hard for me...
Juan Habichuela (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
And the selection of cantes and
cantaores?
I don’t care who the cantaor is,
as long as he sings well. I’m also interested now
in them being new. For example, the four who’ve
sung in the new songs, Marina, Potito, Pepe Luis and Mari
Carmen, I heard them and saw they sang well, I saw they
could help make the album and I called them up. When I
proposed for them to sing with me, if they wanted to,
they all told me they’d be delighted to. And that’s
how the album was recorded. I have records made with every
cantaor there is in Spain. There isn’t a single
one I haven’t recorded with from 1950 to the present:
Manolo Caracol, Farina, Juan Valderrama, La Niña
de Antequera... I’m not missing a single one from
last century.
Who have you liked accompanying
most with your guitar?
Everyone who’s sung with guitar
to the beat. But there are a lot of cantaores who get
away from that and all... there are also a great many
cantaores who sing free cantes really well. And there
are cantaores who do cantes to the beat, tangos, bulerías...
really well. However, there are others who don’t
do them so well, but on the other hand, they do the free
cantes, granaínas, tarantas... lovely. That’s
to say, there are two ways to play guitar for accompaniment:
rhythm and non-rhythm.
Do you feel comfortable both
ways?
I love playing granaínas or malagueñas
just the same as playing tangos or bulerías. I’ve
studied it all... to be well-trained.
Juan Habichuela (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
The cantes by Chano Lobato stand
out for their overwhelming energy...
He has kick-ass strength and speed. Have
you seen how he sings por bulerías? He carried
me away like the wind. I laughed when I heard him because
I don’t know how he can sing so lightly. And the
thing is that Chano
Lobato can’t sing slowly, because it doesn’t
suit him. For him, you have to take it pom, pom, pom,
pom (he pounds out the beat speedily with his knuckles).
If he sings slowly, he suffocates. He’s very strong.
Of course, to do a guitar variation at the speed of that
rhythm is really hard. Take us back twelve or fourteen
years... he was strong, he had plenty of energy. Those
cantes are wonderful. How funny, I was with Chano recently
at the tribute at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.
And when I told him I was going to make an album, he asked
me: “Hey, you’re not going to bring out the
locomotive cante, are you?”. Ha ha ha ha.
When I played for him there in Seville por bulerías,
I told him: “You don’t sing so lightly any
more, eh?”.
How do you size up the young
cantaores?
Well, I think they’re really strong,
with a lot of voice and singing really well. There are
a lot who sing wonderfully. Pitingo,
who’s come out recently, sings amazingly well, but
really. One from Huelva, Arcángel,
is unbelievable; I love how that guy sings. Miguel
Poveda sings great. And Marina Heredia sings kick-ass;
she has such strength in her voice... There are a lot.
I don’t remember them all right now, but there are
a lot.
Juan Habichuela and Pitingo
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
Do you give them any advice when
they sing with you?
I can’t give them any advice because
they sing really well. Besides, they sing in tune really
well and they have lovely voices.
And guitarists who want to accompany
cante?
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| "The
thing is to always let the cantaor do his stuff,
go behind him and not bother him" |
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There are guitarists who accompany really
well. I listen to the young people and they know how to
accompany. The thing is to always let the cantaor do his
stuff, go behind him and not bother him with a lot of
things, stop when you have to stop, without sensationalism
of any kind. There are some guitarists who want to stand
out over the cantaor and the cantaor doesn’t like
that. If you come out and start doing a spectacular variation,
the crowd applauds it; that’s obvious. The crowd’s
grateful for that, but the cantaor isn’t.
You’ve been known to say
you feel like a banderillero...
Of course, the accompanist has always
been the cantaor’s servant, the one who’s
waited on the cantaor. The figure there has been and is
the cantaor. Well, then some geniuses come out... Sixty
years ago, I used to listen to Ramón
Montoya, who used to accompany really well. And he
was often applauded the same as the cantaor. You heard
that man play... some lovely things he used to do, such
nice tremolos he used to do... He played the guitar really,
really well. Ramón Montoya was the only one who
became a top guitar figure by accompanying.
Juan Habichuela (Photo Daniel
Muņoz)
Now it’s harder, isn’t
it?
Yeah, now it’s harder. There were
guitarists in that period who were very good. I used to
love Manolo de Huelva, who played amazingly. Sabicas
was another monster, although he was already a soloist,
he stopped playing in order to sing, and went away to
America... But the ones I’ve always liked the most
for singing are Ramón Montoya and Manolo
de Huelva. I used to love them; they used to play
with incredible taste. Without doing any kind of embellishment,
what they used to do pierced your heart, it was so nice
and so flamenco. No sensationalism, no virtuosity, just
accompanying... and doing so with a lot of affection.
That’s the important thing to play flamenco guitar.
Before being a concert performer,
does a guitarist have to know how to accompany cante?
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| "Concert
performers don’t like accompanying for singing
because I don’t know, it’s as if they
lose prestige" |
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No, no. Someone who turns out to be a
concert performer turns out that way. Then in time if
he devotes himself to playing for singing because he knows
the cantes and all that, it’s easier. But concert
performers don’t like accompanying for singing because
I don’t know, it’s as if they lose prestige.
It’s not incompatible. There are a lot of guitarists
who are concert performers and who accompany cante amazingly
well.
Where’s the inspiration
on this album?
There are three or four things I like
especially. There are tangos with something lovely, the
ones Mari Carmen sings. And there are other tangos
by Marina Heredia that I really like, too. Well, also
what Chano does, what Menese does... the thing is I like
them all, I love them. But the women, besides having young
voices, since the toque is so Granada-style... I don’t
know, I carry it inside; I really like accompanying por
tangos. And I do two or three things there por tangos
that I like.
And did you return to Granada?
My grandchildren didn’t let me;
they were going to kill me. But I love Granada; it’s
beautiful. And I want to die in my native land. Every
time I go to Granada I’m delighted because it’s
wonderful, and it’s not because it’s my hometown.
Now they want to make La Alhambra one of the seven wonders
of the world. And we ourselves are going to be the ones
to blame that it isn’t. Do you know why? Because
Córdoba has the Mezquita, because Seville has the
Giralda...
...and perhaps, maestro, the same
thing might happen to us with flamenco.
