Interview with the guitarist Nono García:

"Flamenco is a form of localism,
which is what you need to be universal"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, June 2003
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Translation: Norman Paul Kliman

A barber's shop in Barbate (Cádiz) doubled as a workplace and a night school, with the local singers as teachers the barber as the headmaster. The guitar of Nono García matured in several different contexts: he joined a Franciscan youth organization, he taught music at a university in Malaga, and, in the midst of philosophy classes in the University of Granada, the folk singer Carlos Cano met him and contracted him. He lived the musical scene of the "movida" night life in Madrid, he worked for eight years in Brussels, and, on his return to the capital of Spain, he made his second recording, weaving his concept of "pine music" into an errant path with his guitar. The actor Gabino Diego lent a hand with the production of 'Atún y Chocolate,' the new recording of Nono García that shows us that flamenco can be a language understood by bilingual musicians.

Nono García

How would you classify flamenco and compare it to other kinds of music?

I've always been involved with flamenco, but I've done a lot of different things in my career. I've accompanied folk singers; I've played with jazz groups, with Brazilian musicians; ethnic music in Brussels with musicians from Hungary, Africa, from all kinds of places. I also studied in the jazz section of the Conservatory of Brussels. I've always tried to learn from the musicians I've worked with, and I've tried to keep an open mind, to learn anything they could show me. But flamenco's in my bones.

Is communication always possible?

Sure. Music is a language without words, and it's easier to get things across than it is speaking. Communication is a natural process.

Did the concept of 'pine music' come from that process of communication?

When I worked with Chano Domínguez and Tito Alcedo, I realized that we belong to a generation of musicians who all live near the pines. The pine musician is bilingual and works with two different codes: flamenco and a different kind of code. When you look at it that way, fusion is a natural process. It something that just happens.

How is the idea of 'pine music' present in 'Atún y Chocolate'?

In this project, we worked with foreign musicians in an open way of looking at other kinds of music from the perspective of flamenco. It's a way of adapting the language of flamenco to a language that other musicians can understand. Flamenco is usually a hermetically sealed world, but I've had the good fortune to have worked with other kinds of musicians and languages. Atún y Chocolate" is a kind of world music, but it's not an intentional thing. It just developed that way, like something that grows out of the earth, like a pine or a mushroom, or a fish that grows. It's become fashionable, but we pine musicians are beyond fashion. And if you think about it, the pine nut is a phallic symbol. It represents the inner flame… It's also hard on the outside but soft on the inside, and it tastes great, too.

All becomes clear with the live performance. Nono García stages 'Atún y Chocolate' in a multicultural context, surrounded by musicians and instruments from here and there: Antonio Serrano on the harmonica, Pato Muñoz on the bass, Guillermo McGill on percussion, Eva Durán on vocals, and Nanda Khumar on the tablas. To use a particularly well-fitting metaphor, the music flows from them like a wellspring out to the sea, where it tastes of salt and smells of pine. 'Tanguillos del abanico' or 'Mi chiquilla' are two examples of open communication and understanding, like a seamless patchwork.

That's a bit like flamenco itself, in that it's so narrowly focused, but, at the same time, it's so versatile.

Flamenco has a spiritual quality; it joins people. It inspires a strong sense of family and friendship, like the spiritual communion of those that participate in it. It's also an extroverted kind of music. It gets inside and makes you vibrate, and that combines with the introverted nature of such a complicated kind of music.

	"El flamenco es una forma de ser localista... que es la condición para ser universal"

The recording focuses on basic styles. Which of them make you feel the most comfortable?

I've got a lot of respect for flamenco because I like the singing, but, when I'm playing, it's easier to play the fiesta styles, because I'm playing in a group. And playing with other musicians is the way to learn. Flamenco is a base; it's like seeing the world with the eyes of a kid that grew up on the beach. It's a form of localism, which is what you need to be universal. I'd also like to do some more accessible things, and get away from the artistic baggage associated with my southern-Spanish background.

next >>

revista@flamenco-world.com