Interview with Niño Josele, guitarist:

"The way to find inspiration is through working"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, January 2003
Translation: Gary Cook

A casual observer might put his musical prowess down to duende - some magical gift. But to Niño Josele there's no such thing. "Music is work, work and more work." And he works with the flamenco guitar, with one foot in contemporary classical music and the other wherever it's needed. Lenny Kravitz needs him to lend a helping hand? OK, no problem. And Alicia Keys too? He'll be right there. So long as his fingers aren't busy supplying a few falsetas for Joan Manuel Serrat or Elton John. The guitarist from Almería divides his time between two areas. The mainstay of his work right now is playing accompaniment for cante, whether it's alongside Diego el Cigala, or with veteran vocalists such as Enrique Morente or Pepe de Lucía, a facet of his work based on dialogue. And soon to come will be Niño Josele the solo guitarist... The tocaor is taking time out to prepare his forthcoming album, a tribute to the most rhythmic side of Paco de Lucía, entitled simply 'Niño Josele'.

Niño Josele (Foto: Daniel Muñoz)

Niño Josele and Diego el Cigala have established a solid, regular working partnership, and their disc recorded at Madrid's Teatro Real (BMG, 2002) bears testament to this. The guitarist from Almería explains that "accompanying Diego is a challenge for any guitarist. When he sings he's very much influenced by his current mood. He never performs lyrics the same way twice - he switches them around, he changes what he's doing mid-lyric, finishes up early." Taking on the risk of playing for him means "you can't relax for a second, you can never take for granted that you know what's coming." And the key is there in those dark eyes: "When he's singing, to look for clues I always look him straight in the eye. It's a way of exploiting our familiarity - as his gaze says it all, you can see exactly what he's trying to express there. If his soul unleashes a woeful "Ay!" I have to be there to reciprocate his wail. You have to be on the same wavelength as him at every moment."

And he uses the same methods to accompany time-honored cantaores such as Enrique Morente, who he accompanies in the 'Africa-Cuba-Cadiz' project, or Pepe de Lucía. He confirms that "each of them has his place and his territory, and both of them are masters of their territory." Niño Josele identifies himself with Pepe de Lucía's revolution, which is "the flamenco that I've grown up on: the great recordings Camarón made with Pepe, the legendary composer, together with his brother Paco... Algeciras has left a great legacy to flamenco in the Lucía family. For me the greatest." And then there's Enrique Morente "who to me is a flamenco revolutionary." He considers the singer from Granada "a man who you have a lot to learn from, because he knows the different styles of cantes so, so well." Furthermore he considers it an honor to play with someone "who's been accompanied by all the great guitarists, from Niño Ricardo right through to Sabicas, and that's something I should be proud of. For me it's an honor to have that man sit by my side, or for him to say he likes something at least. I try and accompany him the best I can."

"To enrich flamenco with other genres doesn't harm flamenco; on the contrary it turns it into something more robust"

Niño Josele shares Morente's revolutionary spirit. "I like musical revolution too, right now I'm mixed up in dodecaphonism, Schoenberg, atonality... I really like contemporary classical music - it's just another world." The question is how does a flamenco guitarist - used to working within a framework of neatly defined structures - fit into this field? According to Niño Josele it's all down to the fact that "flamenco is music". He accepts the differences in full knowledge that "there are always great discoveries to be made in classical music, you'll never get to know it fully. But flamenco is something you can let right into your soul." That's why he believes that "flamenco could learn a thing or two from the grandness of classical music, to give it character and forms of expression. If we go down that avenue, the way forward lies wide open before us. Atonality is an open door, where you can play around, build up moods, tell stories. In fact, in flamenco we know what a soleá is, or a seguiriya, but rhythmically we could draw on Indian rhythms, for example, stuff that isn't part of flamenco." And he takes this plunge into contemporary music hand-in-hand with Javier Limón, "who's really smart when it comes to making music." Used to tackling this kind of work, he's come to the conclusion that "it's a great idea to enrich flamenco with other genres. That doesn't harm flamenco; on the contrary it turns it into something more robust."

	"There's no doubt that Paco de Lucía's light years ahead of all other guitar musicians"

Something of this toying with genres can be found on the disc he's currently putting the finishing touches to. He defines the album as "flamenco with contemporary music, and with the accent on vocals - you can even hum along to the melodies, that's what music's all about." This release, the follow-up to the now deleted 'Calle Ancha' (Media7, 1998), takes its overall 'feel' from a specific Paco de Lucía album: 'Sólo quiero caminar' (Universal, 1981). The legendary guitarist from Algeciras is his main source of inspiration: "There's no doubt that he's light years ahead of all other guitar musicians. He's an unbelievable musician, not just a guitarist. And he's an extraordinary person, he makes a profound impression on you - it's clear he's one of the greats. I wouldn't be brave enough to play guitar in front of that man. 'Allow me to clean your strings, master.' " But he does dare, though, to draw inspiration from his work. "I like all his work, but this is an album that heavily influenced me - it's a lot of fun, there are no free numbers, it's all rhythmical. And on my new album I've tried to capture that idea that everything's rhythmical, there's just one freer palo, in the form of a soleá sung by the great Enrique (Morente). A soleá with a very flamenco undertone, but very innovative when it comes to the chords it's based around, something that was fully intended." The rhythmical part revolves around bulerías: "I've tried to make it a truly authentic bulería, in three-four time as it used to be way back, like Carmen Amaya used to do them. It's a bulería al golpe, a bulería for a cantaor more than for a bailaor. The legendary Guadiana performs the vocals, and the lyric is one he wrote for my grandfather, which adds a nice personal touch. Then I have another very different bulería, a kind of tune for three guitars. The guitars come in, then go out... it's much the same as what a violin, a viola, a double bass and a cello might do."

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