"You have to know flamenco to give feeling,
character and verve to a musical score"

Silvia Calado Olivo/Fernando González-Caballos

The child had in his hands a toy. The child, brought up on flamenco since long before he was born, played with music. And, playing and playing, he became a pianist... a flamenco pianist. There was no escape from that adjective. Pepa Montes, a flamenco dancing bailaora, for a mother. Ricardo Miño, a guitarist for a father. His teachers. Pedro Ricardo Miño is sure, at just over twenty years old, that there's no escape from the flamenco route, but he refuses to close doorways to other worlds. And he crosses boundaries riding over the ivory keys, well aware that a non-conformist soul such as his still has a long way to travel...

The first appearances of Pedro Ricardo Miño's piano on stage were in the company of his father's guitar. How do the two instruments work together?

They're very different, one is nothing like the other, but there's a very strong bond... that the two of us are very much flamenco performers, so we understand each other well. Flamenco is the foundation, once that's established you can play a piano or a home-made drum...

But there are musical differences, they're two different types of flamenco sound... What are the peculiarities of each?

That you can take the guitar anywhere and with the piano you're shafted... The piano isn't an instrument that belongs to flamenco, the piano comes from classical music. And that's where individual talent comes in: I've liked the piano since I was a boy. And at home there was nothing but flamenco. I couldn't play rock and roll. I'm classically trained, though, I'm just about to finish my degree in piano at Seville Conservatoire. My father was the one who pushed me to learn solfa. According to him that was the only way to learn to communicate with musicians who weren't flamenco musicians, because music is an international language.

Pedro Ricardo Miño and Chick Corea

You said it yourself, the piano is a classical instrument. But one that can be adapted to flamenco.

They're two types of music with two different inclinations, with two different ways of feeling. Maybe I understand flamenco better because I'm from Andalusia, from Seville and from Triana, know what I mean? And here the sunshine is something else, and you spend all day eating tapas, and I think they're factors you need to feel flamenco, just as to feel classical music you have to go to Austria, to Germany, to feel the cold.

It was hard to escape from flamenco, but maybe the guitar was closer at hand...

Well, because of my father, there have always been a lot of musicians coming to our home, and he bought me one of those little electronic organs. He saw I liked it, and since I wasn't old enough to go to the Conservatoire I started private classes. When I finally realised it, playing around, playing around, playing around (a long pause)... I think I'm still playing around. When I finally realised it I was already in deep.

In a world that's often cruel to purists, have you ever had to put up with comments that the piano doesn't belong?

No, I haven't been made to feel that, and anyone who would say that isn't familiar with this world. There have been and are a handful of great flamenco piano geniuses. I recommend they buy their entire discographies, listen to them all, and then come back and we can talk. There are artists like Arturo Pavón, who accompanied Caracol, José Romero... and I don't have time for anyone who says that isn't flamenco.

Do you compose your own songs?

All my work... everything I play in my recitals are pieces I composed myself using a flamenco musical structure, except for two themes which are tributes to two great guitarists, Mario Escuredo and el Niño Ricardo. That's where the relationship comes from. As pianists we have to base ourselves on the guitar to make flamenco music.

According to some songwriters, flamenco requires a different musical notation because there are sounds that can't be translated into a score...

Not at all. In music everything's been done, everything, absolutely everything, I think it's the same as in life. But that's not the point. Music can be written as it is, but you need to give that music feeling. If a Japanese takes a musical score of a piece in the soleá flamenco style, I think if he'd never heard flamenco in his life, he'd be able to read it but it'd sound very mathematical. You'd have to be familiar with the world of flamenco to give that score your feeling and your own style, otherwise it would sound like flamenco but with no elegance, no verve, nothing.

Who have your greatest influences been?

My father has always been my teacher. In fact you could say my home rather than my father, because at home that's what's going on all day. (He breaks into song, reciting a flamenco copla) "Qué amargas son mis comías flamenco por la noche, por la mañana y al mediodía" ("How bitter my meals flamenco morning, noon and night"). Since I was a little boy. And like I said I had a classical training because they have to show you how to move your fingers - if not I'd play with my fingers like this... you've got to get into it, haven't you? It opens your mind... But my teacher was my father, my mother and those great geniuses like Arturo Pavón, José Romero, Felipe Campuzano...

I've met a few, but the one I remember most fondly is Pepe Romero. I don't think he ever got the recognition he deserved, neither as a pianist nor as a researcher and writer. Even today few people know his work, though. And of course Arturo Pavón. Speaking of them is like speaking of Ramón Montoya and el Niño Ricardo on guitar. Anyone who wants to learn to play flamenco piano has no choice but to get their teeth into the work of these geniuses. Pepe Romero has always followed the style of traditional guitar, while Arturo followed more closely the singing style of traditional flamenco cante, that's how he could create a whole musical universe with just two notes. That's the foundation, or at least, that's my opinion. But I also like Chick Corea a lot, he's a legend. I'm very open musically, and I like all musical genres.

You're a very classical artist, though...

Classical in the sense of pure flamenco, you mean? And, well, technically, yes I am.

	"The richness of flamenco is in its variety"

Based on my twenty odd years of experience I think I'm quite a purist. It's not that I think pure is better - there'll be time for combining styles. I've been told a house must be built from the foundations up, not from the roof down. I want tokeep a strong flamenco style, pure, that people understand, without being too commercial. But who knows what'll happen, I might record an album and lose it right there. But I really like the style I play and that's what I live for.

And what do you think of fusion?

There's some really good work out there, which is why you have to be really careful. If you screw up you should be shot. Groups like El Barrio or Mantequita Colorá produce good fusion, it's a good way of introducing flamenco to an uninitiated audience. If you play a seguiriya to a kid who's never heard flamenco in his life he'll put up with it for fifteen minutes. I'm on the side of those who believe there's a place for many flavours of flamenco, pure flamenco, less pure flamenco, flamenco fusion, flamenco jazz, the same as in classical music, there are a lot of styles, baroque, renaissance... The richness of flamenco is in its variety.

Do you think the rise of Chano Domínguez or Dorantes could be seen as a revival of flamenco piano in the last few years?

"In Spain music doesn't cut the ice, here what sells is the lyrics"

Sure. It's clear there are musicians who are doing great things and people are getting into it. That's because flamenco piano has a certain attraction. And it's about time, because in Spain music doesn't cut the ice like in other countries. Maybe you could go to Germany and everyone knows how to play the violin, everyone knows how to play the piano, they're people who go to concerts... but in Spain music doesn't cut the ice. Here what sells is the lyrics. That's why I think all these new styles are healthy for flamenco, maybe not for pure flamenco, but they are healthy for flamenco.

How do you see the future of flamenco?

Well I'm excited, I hope it's going to break through once and for all. I'm not talking about what I do, but I hope it becomes much more accessible to everybody. I wish the people who manage the money and power would take a look at our culture, at the importance of our music, the only type that sells outside Spain. Flamenco musicians are pushing our country's culture and we don't get credit for that in Spain.

And after living and breathing flamenco, you must have had a chance to see the bright side and the dark side of this world...

From the moment you wake up in the morning you're thinking about it, thinking of flamenco warbling. I'm always turning it over in my mind myself, I get wrapped up in the same problem. Maybe I'll be sitting down and a melody springs to mind... That's the greatest satisfaction you could feel, apart from the applause of an audience who acknowledge the three months of study that you've put into a performance... those are the good things. The bad things? Not being able to do what you want.

Why?

(He adopts a serious tone) because of certain circumstances. I mean I'm very non-conformist and I'm always aspiring to something better, you know? What's important is to do what you want in life.

Suddenly Pepa Montes appears, at that precise moment neither artiste nor bailaora, but mother. "Come on, finish off - they're closing the theatre on us."