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Could this record figure in a flamenco catalogue?
I don't know. People approach it from the wrong angle at the commercial level
because you go to a specialized store and where do they put your record? That
doesn't matter to me and in fact, the music that I do is very visual for me. I'd
like to make music for the cinema because I think that one of the matters pending
for Spanish cinema is the musical aspect, the importance of music in the film.
What would interest me from that is that the image and the music are in the same
artistic plane. That's where I think the whole work which a film is can become
more effective.
And the other way around, how is flamenco enriched by classical music or
jazz?
Flamenco is a sponge. Flamenco people are now starting not to be brought up
in the street. And this is all starting to cook now. Gerardo has learned like
everyone, as best he could. Flamenco is a music of survival; that's why the art
in itself is intelligent, since it can absorb any influence and make it its own.
And that happens with all the great musicians. For example, you listen to Hancock
playing Bach and it's Hancock; or you listen to a Metheny solo and you know it's
Metheny, whether you like it or not, because it has its own personality. And that's
what happens with flamenco; it absorbs everything and makes it its own. In my
view that's the most intelligent position, the most artistic one deep down.
What difficulties have you come across while getting to know flamenco?
Flamenco in itself is such an absolutely established art that you have to delve
inside it and understand it. I'm not a flamenco artist nor will I ever be one;
I'll die without being a flamenco artist, but I'm beginning to understand what
happens. Why does a bailaor close? How does he close? What signal does the cante
make? How does a guitarist follow it? I'm learning that the way flamenco is learned,
from inside. I'm lucky to play an instrument they don't usually play, the contrabass.
There's the great Javier Colina, who has done a great deal to introduce this instrument,
and on the electric bass side there's Benavent, Manolo Nieto... And I'm trying
to learn from all of them; they're the reference, the living reference (he changes
his tone), and to contribute what comes out of me.
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"You lose all the technicality, everything that could cool
it down, so it's pure art, it's pure warmth"
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What similarities and differences are there between classical music, jazz
and flamenco?
The variable might be the degree of improvisation. In classical music everything's
written. In flamenco there's a lot of improvisation, but it's a kind of communicative
improvisation. You follow the same course but instead of getting off here, we
get off a little further down. Jazz is more improvised than flamenco, though musicians
like Gerardo Núñez do their own thing when they do solos in a bulería,
for example. In flamenco, if I have to accompany cante and I don't know what they're
going to sing, it's enough to know the forms. I really find it remarkable how
cantaors, when referring to notes, say let's go here or let's go there; instead
of saying the key they say no, not there. In cante this also has a lot to do with
the meaning of the lyrics and I find that incredible because you lose all the
technicality, everything that could cool it down, so it's pure art, it's pure
warmth... They're telling you an adjective for what they want. And that's part
of the magic of flamenco; that it's very emotional, very descriptive. They don't
say F minor, but "lift the tune a notch" I don't know what. That's tremendous.
Gerardo Nuñez Trío and Carmen Linares
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