Miguel Ángel Cortés, flamenco guitarist. Interview

“There are no falsetas now, there’s music”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, May 2006

Flamenco guitar wants to speak a new language. Miguel Ángel Cortés is a member of that generation of tocaores who are taking a step forward in flamenco music. The album ‘Bordón de trapo’ is an example of that change, which according to the Granada-born artist, lies not just in conceiving a different sense of rhythm but also in understanding the difference between performing a falseta... and making music. For over a year now, he’s been working on that concept, guided by Gerardo Núñez, producer of this record which is embellished by the voices of three key cantaores in his artistic career: Carmen Linares, Esperanza Fernández and Arcángel.

(Tran, tran, traaaaan... He starts off the interview with a few of the chords to be heard in a little while in his accompaniment of cantaora Sonia Miranda at Festival Flamenco por Tarantos de Madrid ...)

	Miguel Ángel Cortés (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

“This album has been made at one of the most sensitive moments in my life”. That’s how the text begins with which you introduce your new record ‘Bordón de trapo’ to the listener...

It sounds like a cliché to say that with loved ones, some leave and others come. It’s already been seven years since my father passed away, who was really bound to my brother and me in the guitar world. He supported us a lot. And six months ago my son Cayetano was born... and it’s shaken up the sensitivity in my life.

What was the recording process like of this, the second album in your career?

I’m really happy with how we worked on this record. When an album’s made, the process is like delivering a baby; it’s always hard, whether it’s the first, second or third. Gerardo Núñez was the one who gave me the idea of doing it. I bumped into him in Seville and he asked me to join a tour of his project La Nueva Escuela de la Guitarra Flamenca (The New School of Flamenco Guitar). We became really good friends and one night having some beers after a concert, he told me: “Hey, don’t you record?” And I told him that a few years ago I recorded an album in Málaga, but that I wanted to do a bigger production. He offered me his studio and I took him at his word... And something more, since I told him I’d record if he got into the mess, if he produced it for me, since he’s great. We shook hands on it and here we are. The truth is that he’s been really nice to me. He’s offered me his studio and his house. I ate and slept there throughout the entire recording like one of the family. We’ve been with colleagues like Cepillo, who pampered the work. The truth is that it was a long recording; it took us nearly a year, since we had galas in between; we had to stop and take it back up periodically.

What concept does this record revolve around?

I’m really happy with it because I didn’t seek out that mirage of the little tunes and easy money of sticking in some refrains through tangos and through bulerías. The three people going with me, Carmen Linares, Esperanza Fernández and Arcángel, who are cantaores of great magnitude, have only done touches in the styles they’re most identified with. For Carmen, for example, to sing me a macho through seguiriyas, which she sings really well that way. For Esperanza to sing through bulerías. Arcángel, along the same lines... It isn’t usual for a guitar album to be laid out like that. But everything’s really simple, with the guitar in the lead and just clapping and percussion. I didn’t stick in any violins or flutes or any other instruments. It’s really elaborated. It’s not that I’m better or worse than anyone else, but normally on guitar albums a few cantaores are picked to sing some really catchy refrains and it’s always the same style.

And there are no magic formulas for success, are there?

	"The emotion doesn’t lie in quick technique; I aim to play with heart and good taste"

I was surprised by the example of Estrella Morente. It seemed as if everyone had to do a commercial record with tangos and bulerías for it to sell and make it big. The truth is it didn’t surprise me; it surprised people. Estrella had to come along and sing through soleá, seguiriyas, tarantas, granaínas... to sell more records than anyone else. That’s art. And doing really simple tangos with a djembe and really well done guitars by Juan Habichuela. That’s what I seek, but my way. My way of playing and my thing is to pick up the guitar and strike a couple of strings with a lot of feeling and a lot of heart and to find a place for myself. I master a rather broad technique; it’s not limited, but I don’t go seeking that quick staccato to excite people, either. The emotion doesn’t lie in quick technique; I aim to play with heart and good taste.

What was Gerardo Núñez’s contribution as a producer?

Miguel Ángel Cortés (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Gerardo gave me a great deal of leeway as far as the cante songs, the collaborations. We decided that the cante tunes had to do with the guitar; that’s why they’re touches, they’re not entire cantes, so that the guitar has the lead, just the way I felt it. He’s a really intelligent person and he said that artists I’ve been working with and accompanying for so many years weren’t going to be understood better by anyone else than me, and that’s what they want. He was there behind the glass prodding me along in the guitar songs. He even arranged some of the songs for me: what I thought was a passage became a refrain in the tangos; he turned what sounded like a refrain into a passage... he turned things around. We sought a certain sound. Thank God we had the economic means to have mixed at a large studio, but we wanted everything to be done at the same place where it all was recorded, from the first take. It was finished there. We had a really great time as colleagues and the truth is that really good sound has come out of it. Everyone records with the large-diaphragm Neumann that appears in the photos, but we recorded with the microphone I’m going to use tonight on stage, which is a Neumann but with a small diaphragm and with two open ones. It’s gotten lovely sound out of the guitar. The truth is I’m really, really happy about it. Then, I learned a lot from him, being there with them at the house. After dinner, the two of us stayed up and had a beer, and I learned more talking to him than what he contributed to me on the album. I’ve learned a great deal from him; more than what you could imagine.

Collaborations between flamenco guitarists are few and far between, aren’t they?

Yeah, it seems like everyone wants to keep their distance. Gerardo is the only one who, with the name he has and how he plays, has given room to other guitarists like Jesús de Rosario, José Manuel León, me... That’s been proven in projects such as ‘La Nueva Escuela de la Guitarra Flamenca’. And it isn’t about being less of an artist or less of a figure because you help people. I think it’s all in the mind. It’s about thinking that even though you’re a great artist, you’re also a normal person and why can’t you help others. And he talked about this subject in a natural way. Besides, he’s one of the guitar stars who’s really an avid guitar fan; studious and hard-working. He knows a lot. He’s a really interesting guy.

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