Londro, flamenco cantaor. Interview
“They say the foundation
of flamenco cante is laid and if you get away from it, it’s
as if you were twisting the building”
Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 2010
Translation: Joseph Kopec
Flamenco cante keeps on revealing
secrets. Little by little, the ones at the back are taking
a step forward. And Londro
has just done so. After gaining experience in a thousand
battles, he begins to vindicate his name. He débuts
with ‘Luna de enero’, an album with a repertoire
which might disappoint those seeking the basic Jerez triad,
but not those who seek personality in an artist. He is from
Jerez, but neither his origin nor his career limits him.
Marianas, serranas, peteneras, caracoles… are some
of those “free” cantes which he has recorded
side by side with guitarist Santiago Lara, the disc’s
producer. And although his guitar is heard the most, it
isn’t the only one. Paco Cepero plays for him in the
soleá, a special song, a moment, the only live song:
“I told him to play, that I’d sing for him”.
How did you decide to take the
step forward and record your first album?
The idea came up with Santiago
Lara, when we were working and he suggested it to me.
The next step was to ask myself what I wanted to record
and what I didn’t want to record.
Was knowing what you didn’t
want to record important?
Of course, it was a matter of recording
what I felt most at ease with.
From then on, was the next step
to compile the repertoire?
Yes. The repertoire was built up with stuff
I had kept from working in companies, cantes which I’ve
always had at the back of my mind and they’re hard
to bring out. Since it’s a disc which I’ve proposed
to record and it doesn’t come from anyone else’s
responsibility, I was able to do what I felt like most.
That’s to say that many things
come from working for baile…
For example, the petenera, the serrana,
the mariana. They’re all ideas you have and you don’t
know if they’re going to turn out well or badly, but
with the help of colleagues like David Lagos and Santiago
Lara, you manage to get them up and running.
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Londro |
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What has Santiago Lara’s
job been on this album?
He’s taken care of all the production.
I decided on what I felt like recording, he agreed with
me and he carried everything out.
And the lyrics? Are they new? Are
they folk?
I felt like doing new lyrics and improvising
with cantes such as the mariana. Since the mariana is a
tiento, accompanying it upwards and taking advantage to
do it as a song. We worked on it and asked David Lagos for
lyrics. All I had to do was ask him one day and that night
he’d already come up with twenty ideas for you. He’s
a machine. And the same with the caracoles. I told him I
felt like doing caracoles and since Chacón
was the first one to bring them out… I told him I
felt like reflecting the person, but not naming him. And
that’s how he composed it for me. I know David and
I knew what he could get out of it.
Are there also any traditional
lyrics?
Some. The mariana and the caracoles are
by David, the serrana is by his uncle Álvaro Aguilar,
the petenera has lyrics of mine and folk lyrics, and the
bulería is part mine and part Luis de Periquín’s.
The fandangos are by Miguel Hernández, from something
Andrés
Marín proposed to me for ‘Asimetrías’.
He gave me the lyrics and told me to look for a style that
went well with them. And I chose a style which my mother
always used to do, by José
Cepero, and another by Bizco Amate. The soleá
has a folk part and the rest are lyrics by Paco
Cepero… I asked him to bring me stuff, so as not
to always do folk, and then at the studio, he kept telling
me, what about these lyrics? And these others? He was great.
Why Paco Cepero? What was the experience
of recording with him like?
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“The
only thing I wanted por soleá was the sound of
Paco de Cepro’s guitar, that old-time sound of
his”
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We’d more or less decided on the
songs, but Santiago thought I had to record a soleá.
I wasn’t in favor of doing the soleá with a
metronome at the studio and I didn’t like the idea
of having to be categorized with the soleá. He asked
me if we should suggest it to Cepero. For me it was brilliant,
since I was going to sit down with him and he was going
to accompany me. The only thing I wanted was the sound of
that man’s guitar, that old-time sound of his. I sat
down opposite him, he asked me how we were going to do it
and I told him to play, and I’d sing for him. The
soleá was entirely recorded live.
How is the experience of singing
for dancing reflected on this disc?
Experience has been everything to me: compás,
discipline… Singing at the back requires a lot of
discipline and having to think about other concerns, the
same thing doesn’t always work, you can’t always
start from the same premise. You’re asked for stuff
which makes you resort to colleagues, listen to albums...
I’m in favor of that, since otherwise we might not
bother.
In the press conference, you said
this repertoire is a little strange for a cantaor from Jerez,
that it came from working in companies…
It really comes from the restlessness which
we newer artists have… so to speak. We’ve been
at it for a long time, but we still get the ‘revelation
prize’ business. We’ve been a revelation for
fourteen years! Of course we’re always at the back
and the idea never comes up of stepping forward. If you
aren’t given a chance, then you’re a revelation
again, ha ha ha.
Was it rebellious to do cantes
which aren’t usually from Jerez?
It was more restlessness, in truth. Seeking
something new, so to speak, fresher, even if it’s
old-time stuff, turning the cantes into songs. I had the
freedom to record what I felt like and not what anybody
imposed on me.
Is it controversial to do that
in Jerez?
I don’t know what that’s going
to generate for me. I don’t mind people’s opinions.
As a cantaor, in Jerez it’s instilled in you that
the foundation is laid down here and if you get away from
it, it’s as if you were twisting the building a little,
hee hee hee.
And what was that work like of
turning cantes into songs?
As a producer, Santiago intervened in everything.
If I said I wanted to record a mariana, he looked for the
way for me to do that mariana. If I told him I wanted to
do part of the petenera first and then change it to a bulería
por soleá, he took care of it. He’s really
on top of the studio work. And he never told me to sing
this or that, except for the soleá, which was something
special to me, a moment, so I did it live.
Is the rest of the guitar by Santiago
Lara?
He accompanies me on all the rest. He has
a lot of discipline and the ability to transform flamenco
styles and seek other openings in them, other melodies.
It all being traditional inspiration,
are there any references to your sources?
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“It
would be a good thing to rid yourself of the ‘revelation’
label. We’ve been at this for like twenty years”
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The mariana is lost stuff by Bernardo
de los Lobitos, but I wanted to do it with other lyrics
and as a song to perform it live. The serrana is like a
cante of the land, a lost cante. Chocolate used to sing
it and, although it was a small cante, he made it big. And
I also made it a song. In the fandangos, I relied on what
I’d heard my mother do.
Are there any cantaores in your
family?
Not professional, but in my family people
sing por fandangos and a little bit por fiesta. And that’s
what I have instilled in me by my mother. I don’t
come from a flamenco family… but for fiestas, they’re
the most festive people in the world!
And where does the title come from:
‘Luna de enero’ (‘January Moon’)?
It’s the serrana. And the title was
a coincidence. I was born in January and talking to David,
I found out that the moon in January is the whitest one
in the year and that appealed to me.
With the release of the album,
are you taking the step forward on stages?
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“It’s
a really big challenge to grab your personality and
for it to be understood”
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I hope so. Presenting yourself up front
and showing what you always do leads to respect. And it
would be a good thing to rid yourself of the ‘revelation’
label. We’ve been at this for like twenty years. Just
because you happen to work with one company and another
doesn’t mean that you’re left behind. You might
be left behind for spectators, but we’re working,
giving it our all. And you let loose some lyrics and you
can’t believe they aren’t listening to you because
they even examine you. And you can’t ruin the show
a colleague is wagering on. It’s a responsibility.
Is being personal a challenge?
Of course, it’s a really big challenge
to grab your personality and for it to be understood the
way you want to express it. There are a lot of cantaores
and a lot of really good ones, but the important thing is
for you to present your manifesto and say “I’d
like to be like this”. And the thing is that you can’t
express yourself any other way than the way you are. The
book of tastes is always blank; if it were always the same,
we’d be really bored.
