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Does flamenco accept everything?
Yeah, flamenco accepts everything. It’s
clearer and clearer to me. You take a song by Pavarotti
and you can do it. In fact, we wanted to do it. It can
always be done as long as you know how to do it; as long
as it doesn’t sound ‘lolailo’ (like
‘Spanglish’)... And that’s the
good thing about the show; that it doesn’t sound
at all ‘Lolailo’. I didn’t want it to
sound like ‘All My Loving’ by Los Manolos.
It’s easy to fall into that. For example, in ‘Killing
Me Softly’ we wanted to respect the spirit given
to it by Roberta Flack, to create that ambience. The song
by Nirvana has a really dark ambience, really strange
stuff... but really good.
Pitingo at Teatro Calderón
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
The concert is complemented with
audiovisuals...
For example, in ‘No Woman No Cry’,
we’re vindicating the struggle against the maltreatment
of women. And the video is cut with many faces of women
who, little by little, go from weeping to smiling as the
song goes along. It’s turned out really nice. There’s
also a little bit of baile. In the percussion number,
El Simba dances, a gypsy boy who dances really well. But
he comes out with cast shadows. We didn’t want to
weigh it down too much either because it’s distracting;
many times you’re at a concert and you’re
more on the watch for the visual than for what’s
happening. Since the choir’s there, we flamencos
are there, the other instruments... people get into it
incredibly well. Every day the theater ends up on its
feet like four times, a thousand people dancing... really
heavy. Well, and making the theater whistle ‘Don’t
Worry Be Happy’ every day... How great.
Do you think of ‘Soulería’
as a way for flamenco to reach other audiences?
That’s what I’m aiming for.
I haven’t gotten away from flamenco in my entire
life, but I think it’s a way of bringing flamenco
closer to young people. It makes me really happy to see
people my age come and see me. Of course, the other audience
is really good. The other day I was at a peña;
I did my usual flamenco cante recital. But this is another
way of interesting people, whether you like it or not;
they come to see ‘Killing Me Softly’, Bob
Marley, Nirvana... but along the way, they hear the trilla,
the granaína and the fandangos de Huelva. You’re
‘making’ them listen to flamenco cante. And
then they flip out. Because you can’t imagine how
people get in the fandangos de Huelva. And they might
not know they’re listening to fandangos de Huelva.
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Pitingo (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
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‘Soulería’
will be released on DVD, won’t it?
We’ve already recorded the concert;
now it has to be cut well. And the idea, God willing,
is to bring it out in March. And the album will be released,
my second one, in January. That’s what we intend
to do.
And does the album have anything
to do with the show?
It does and it doesn’t. The record
has follies of mine, but also a lot of traditional cante.
It has a soleá by Fernanda
de Utrera; it has a taranta I do with Juan
Habichuela, the taranta by El Frutos which Juanito
Valderrama used to do; some tientos by La
Niña de los Peines... Cante is always respected,
but all of a sudden, there’s a surprise. We went
and recorded with a gospel choir in London... It’ll
give people something to talk about. We suddenly go one
way, then suddenly go the other. There’s also a
trilla, there are fandangos de Marchena, some tangos...
We’ve done fifteen songs! The album’s called
‘Soulería’, too. And the show has to
do with the album, not the album with the show.
Are there any songs from the
show on the album?
The album was already recorded and we
crossed paths. There’s ‘Yesterday’,
‘Killing Me Softly’, a song by Boyz II Men...
And then there’s flamenco, which is just adorned,
the cante as is. Juan Carmona begins the tientos with
a falseta by his father and all of a sudden, the gospel
choir joins in at the end... with drums. Ha ha ha
ha. Now they’re ‘pitinguerías’.
Pitingo (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
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Have you found your personality
in the ‘soulería’?
I won’t get away from that any
more. I’ve been like coming out of my shell little
by little, but sincerely, right now it’s really
clear to me. I keep on studying flamenco, I keep on studying
my stuff. Of course, I’ve been criticized... but
slaughtered; I’ve been raked over the coals. But
now I just laugh. I have to laugh. It’s good for
there to be bad reviews. I’d rather be criticized
the way Camarón and Enrique Morente were criticized.
I’d rather be on that list... And not be on other
lists.
And after fifteen minutes, the interview
has to end. Pitingo has to get back to the stage, where
he’s being called by technicians, assistants, musicians...
A bunch of people of all styles, kinship and colors. And
the cantaor returns to the room laughing at the crowd
that’s been put together: “Blacks, gypsies
and whites. This is like the U.N.! And no Chinese... because
they didn’t fit in”.
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