Pedro Ricardo Miño, pianist. Interview

"I don't want to hear a piano sounding like a guitar"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, February 2004
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Years of study, recitals and dreams are behind 'Piano con duende', Pedro Ricardo Miño's début album. Once 'snatched up' by Paco Ortega, as the first 'star' of his new label, his album finally sees the light. The Sevillian pianist has had time to think out his creations over the years, so he is presenting eleven compositions already rolled off and 'tested' live. One of them, 'Río Miño', even comes backed by a "rebound" platinum record, on being included in the smash-hits compilation 'Flamenco Chill'. Defender of the classics, a purity understood as "music that comes across" and what is categorized, he vindicates his interest "in the roots, which are our heritage".

'Piano con duende' premieres the new label of producer, singer and composer Paco Ortega, the Star Snatcher...

The album has been recorded for some time now. Paco Ortega was waiting for the right time to launch it. I'm very happy because he's known me since I was a boy. He's seen my evolution and he's offered me all the means he could, including good collaborations. So we really enjoyed ourselves recording. We have Fernando Terremoto, Diego Carrasco, Tomasito, Tino di Geraldo, my parents (Ricardo Miño and Pepa Montes), Angela Bautista, Miguel Nieto... We had a great working environment. And moreover, it's mixed by Pepe Loeches. What more could you ask for?

Many of the songs have already been done live...

I had to record everything I had in hand, the entire repertoire I'd been creating. And that's why they have a special touch. Where I enjoy myself the most is on stage. There are those who focus their work more on the album; I focus it more on the live performance. Where we flamencos break is with the audience. There are recognized flamenco artists and nothing happens with their record. We flamencos are lucky not to be the product of a record. In other types of music, anyone can record. That's the wealth of flamenco, being such a live art form.

You wrote the score to adapt 'Ímpetu', by Mario Escudero. Do you have any problems putting flamenco down on paper?

	"The feeling can't be written in flamenco or in any other kind of music"

Everything can be put down on paper, but afterwards, you have to know how to read it. You can always write the melody, the concept, the rhythm... but not the feeling. The feeling can't be written in flamenco or in any other kind of music. If you give it to someone who doesn't know flamenco, it's going to sound like a robot. I studied at the conservatory, I have a degree in piano studies, and I know that flamenco is the way it is because of its very evolution, its way of coming across. Now, with the sheet music, it's all easier. It's true that some like Arturo Pavón and maestro Matos wrote it down in their time... But now everything's more accessible, everything's simpler and even more natural.

There are pianists in flamenco who believe that the guitar is the core and even, like Diego Amador, that "flamenco piano doesn't exist"...

When I listen to guitar, I want it to sound like a guitar because it has its technique, just like the piano. I don't want to hear a piano sounding like a guitar. You have to base yourself on flamenco. The guitar is where we can learn from the most, but the concept is the same. You learn from flamenco and from cante. There are those who are more used to the guitar; it's a formula. My maestro is my father, who's a guitarist. Of course it's related to the way the guitarist builds, but the good thing is that the piano doesn't imitate anything. And in general, it's about doing things with dignity, coming across so that people enjoy themselves, so that the audience decides. And now that the label flamenco piano is used so much, I invite people to listen to the discography of Arturo Pavón and Pepe Romero. I can't say I'm a gypsy or black. I certainly can't play jazz.

However, there are those who think that those pianists don't sound like flamenco...

I have my own views. It's outrageous that anyone would question that it sounds like flamenco.

next >>