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Pedro Ojesto's hands (Photo: pedroojesto.com)

A fusion model

Regarding that project, he who was its producer recalls that “it was an important step for flamenco because it opened the door to other adaptations following that model. It took us nearly two years to prepare the music for that album and it's all usually done much faster; they take the cliché and repeat it. We gave birth to a concept of fusion; we plunged deeply into French music so that it wouldn't lose its poetry and content, which is a lot, and respecting flamenco, we tried to enlarge it a little bit. There aren't many high-level albums along those lines”.

	"‘Chanson Flamenca’ was an important step for flamenco because it opened the door to other adaptations following that model"

And it has had continuity with the album by Ana Salazar ‘Canta a Edith Piaf’. He relates that the Cádiz-born cantaora and bailaora “used to take part in my group before ‘Chanson’. And now you see the result. They've gone mad over her and it's a much easier format to do than with a company. Ana is a star who sings and dances very well, she has a really good image, she's fantastic”. In ‘Quiero’ she provides a touch, “that pitch so fresh she has, since I wanted some choruses with lyrics and I needed a voice. She was perfect”.

Despite the special collaborations, the heart of the album is the trio. “I've aimed for my personal style to be that of a trio on this album, the musicians and I... then, the guests. We worked on that well before recording. We function in a very democratic way. In principle, I proposed it and it was about developing my music and I want their contribution in a free way and for them to make it their own, for them to get involved, to be a part of my style”.

Flamenco piano?

Pedro Ojesto's style is channeled through a piano, an instrument whose role in flamenco is still being defined. “I agree with Diego Amador when he says there is no such thing as flamenco piano. There's guitar and there's Diego Amador. I like musicians more than the instrument and the style”. And he judges that “what I like most about flamenco isn't the pianists, it's the guitarists. When a pianist limits the piano to imitating the guitar it's not what I like the most, I don't like the piano not to be developed as what it is. The pianist has to be aware of his instrument. The pianists I like the most aren't flamencos”.

He believes there is still a long way to go: “Within a few years we'll be able to talk about flamenco piano. We're suffering the crises, the changes in skin from all this openness”. He confesses that “there are moments of euphoria when you achieve high benchmarks with the piano and then times of complex because what has weight is the guitar, the one with the weight is Paco de Lucía, who is the boss, maestro and greatest innovator in flamenco. Forget piano!” The dilemma is that “you contribute to flamenco a piano sound that doesn't come from flamenco, then you think that flamenco can come out on top. The result is the preoccupation of feeling inside to be able to be selective myself”.

	Pedro Ojesto

He also defends those who started the way for flamenco piano, musicians such as Arturo Pavón and Pepe Romero: “You have to defend them because they're the first ones. The old pianists have a flavor to begin with when one wants to evoke piano tradition”. Moreover, he considers it important not to feel alone. “On beginning the live show of ‘Chanson’ there was, as a display of tradition, some slides of Edith Piaf and Manolo Caracol, who was with Arturo Pavón on the piano. It was a joy for me, since I thought that I'm not the guilty party here; another man is to blame who has an incredible flavor. That is flamenco. They made it significant”. What's the problem? “That today's pianists don't like to play like Pavón used to play. We like Chick Corea, Keith Jarret, jazz pianists. And they're giants playing the piano. What we want is to translate this from flamenco, that's what we seek, it's our way”.

Be it as it may, it at least draws one's attention that more albums by flamenco pianists than guitarists were released last year. “I don't know what it responds to. It might have been a coincidence, that the time has come for flamenco to open up”. Going deeper into this subject, he splits the pianists who play flamenco into two groups: “Those that are on their way, who are flamencos and have accessed the piano from inside; and those who, from the piano, have accessed flamenco. That's my case”. He affirms that “we're all on the highway, some on their way and others coming back. What I've observed is that more flamencos playing the piano have come out than pianists playing flamenco”. He recalls that he started “playing jazz at the same time as Chano Domínguez twenty-some years ago. Though he was from Cádiz and he carried it deep inside, he played jazz”. And he thinks that “now might be the time for flamencos who have accessed playing the piano such as Juan Cortés, Pedro Ricardo Miño, Diego Amador”.

	"I didn't get straight into jazz either, but through jazz fusion. Once inside, I began to search, just like I've done with flamenco"

About the experience at the School of New Musics, which he founded in 1994 and for which he is director and instructor, he comments that “there are young gypsy students who want to play the piano, but they have a great contradiction. Their parents take them there to learn to play the piano to play salsa and ‘tumbaos’ in worship. It makes me panic to think that this generation that should take the step forward to play flamenco on the piano is going to find a huge stumbling block in their families. Through tangos it's OK, but they're not backed to play a seguiriya or a soleá or alegrías”. There is also the case of “some who even want to learn jazz, but it's really hard for them to get into the jazz beat, to leave behind the latin beat and get into swing. I know gypsies have been talking about jazz for years, but swing is another culture for them. Those of us who have spoken several languages know so. Swing has a different rhythmic articulation, and if you're not backed by you environment, it's impossible. You have to have at least four colleagues to play with and listen to records with”.

Even so, he is optimistic and sees that “there's a way-in which is latin jazz”. He refers to his experience: “I didn't get straight into jazz either, but through jazz fusion. I didn't go straight to Charlie Parker, but to Chick Corea. Once inside, I began to search, just like I've done with flamenco. I didn't get into it through Sabicas or Caracol, but through Camarón with Carles Benavent. Right now I like the old stuff better. All the fusions from that era of Camarón and Paco de Lucía are now history. And all we have left is the nostalgia. When I listen to them I'm touched by how pretty it is and out of pure nostalgia”.

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