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-Do you think there's a lack of freedom in flamenco when creating?
-I think we still have a lot of biases and a lot of complexes. And it's something
we must rid ourselves of. I certainly have already done so. For example, when
we were on the Remedios
Amaya album working hard on every detail of that Estremadura cheering and
clapping as so pure, suddenly I said: "Turu turai, that's it!". And
they told me no. I insisted and that's how it stayed. In the end you realize that
makes it possible to reach two hundred thousand people who buy it and who at the
same time can afford to listen to pure cheering and clapping. I think it's the
right way. Camarón
had done so with 'Rosa María' and with 'Rintintin', which was then a dog
that appeared on television, without any complexes. And he had us all flipping
out. I think that when you really do it... He could have recorded 'La vaca lechera'
and you would have loved it to death, but by conviction, because that's doing
things from within.
Manuel Ruiz 'Queco'
-You mean that you have to join the business side with the artistic...
-In the end I've figured out that art goes one way and business goes another.
And we must know how to combine both parts to be able to go on. I don't understand
how young people can sing flamenco the same as twenty years ago. They don't do
anything for me. We have exceptions such as Estrella
Morente, who's going to be a future flamenco great. And it's because she has
the roots perfectly absorbed, from La Niña de los Peines to Tomás
Pavón, with Chacón and all the oldies in between. And she's done
the same as is done in Ferrán Adriá's kitchen: I make the chickpea
stew, but I'm going to separate the ingredients and I'm going to give you the
garbanzos in some foam, something else over here and it's the same, but presented
in a different, personal way. Nowadays young people don't stop and understand
the old, they just copy. No, how it used to be done has to be studied, absorbed
and presented in a personal way. And I like that about Estrella. She might not
be at her best moment yet, but she's on her way and that now makes me hopeful.
We flamencos don't have the hope now of seeing people who can contribute interesting
things in the future. We know there are people like Potito who do incredible things,
but they need to search deep down into things. I think people have to come up.
-The guitar and baile scenes seem different, don't they?
-Of course. Why have the guitar and baile become universal? Why can they go
to Broadway? Why do Paco
de Lucía, Joaquín Cortés and Antonio Canales do world
tours and a cantaor can't do them? Well, it's very simple. They've evolved towards
other worlds. Paco de Lucía has absorbed all that information which has
reached him from outside in his own way, just like Vicente Amigo. And you talk
to them and they know all the oldies; they grew up with them. As they know perfectly
well what the essence is, they know what they can contribute. And that's what's
missing in the voices. And also in the texts... The purity leaves a lot to be
desired when you're singing (old lyrics like) puñalitos te peguen.
We must begin to be pure and sing about daily experiences and what we suffer now.
I understand when La
Niña de los Peines used to sing those kinds of lyrics, but if we're
going to stay with (old lyrics like) ramitos de hierbabuena, we're not
contributing anything literarily.
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"We must begin to be pure and sing about daily experiences
and what we suffer now"
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The name Vicente Amigo appears constantly in his conversation. He forms a creative
entente based on friendship and knowledge. "Each has made his contribution
within that intense friendship. I've tried to give him what I've learned in the
record world; while he's someone who's always been immersed in music. I've learned
a ton of things from my buddy, musical and personal. And to me he's a phenomenon,
since he's still humble, he's still from his hometown, from Guadalcanal. It's
cool that no matter how many times you go around the world, you don't lose your
core".
The circle closes
Despite having spent over a decade generating hits for others, "I didn't
close that road as a performer and singer". And he refers to the symbolism
on the cover of 'Tengo' to explain: "The photograph is mine and it makes
a lot of sense. The music road is there, the horseshoe symbolizes the search for
luck, but there's a part that still has to be completed which is what I'm trying
to do now, to close that circle, to make my dreams come true". He admits
that the clincher was the single that gives the album its title, since "it
was a song I didn't feel like listening to at all in any other performer's voice.
Like Gollum in 'The Lord of the Rings': "My Treasure". I've been producing
until very recently and I had several projects. I was going to give Niña
Pastori songs now for her new album, 'María',
but I decided not to, that this was the song I'd been waiting for to be able
to take this step. I was also going to take a two-year leave to study cinema in
Cuba, which enthralls me, but the song came out and cut my plan in two. And I
knew that it was time".
Manuel Ruiz 'Queco'
The fact that 'Tengo' consists of songs already performed by other artists
has its reason. "Since I wrote them for myself, I thought that if I'd continued
my career as a performer, they'd have been in my repertoire. Now the author sings
them. If not, I'd have sung an entirely new album, which is what I'm working on
now". There's an inescapable question: Do you still feel them as yours despite
them now being so identified with others? And he responds that "I feel they're
mine, but as soon as I give them or project them for other artists, I want them
to make them theirs because if not, I understand that they're not going to reach
people. Undoubtedly, I can't take away Pastora Soler's success with 'Dámelo
ya'; she's done that and she'll sing it all her life, even though it's mine. The
most beautiful thing in the world is sharing it. They're like children who come
home for Christmas every now and then".
'Tengo' currently focuses Queco's attention. "I like to be consistent
with what I'm doing. I don't want to lose my way. Besides, I'm going to try and
start from scratch. And that's what I've told my company, my manager and everyone
around me. And if I have to visit the smallest radio stations, I don't mind. I
also try to instill that in the artists I produce and it's hard to get them to
understand". He has no doubts. "I've absorbed it, since I know that
you can be the greatest in the world at a given moment and the next day not sell
a single record and not even have a door to knock on". His capacity to relativize
is infinite... "I can generate a great hit, but it's just nothing more than
an album, ten songs. It's something insignificant. You read about the first lung
transplant and you say, damn, that's important. And we think we're so awesome,
when we're all so insignificant".
And this is said by the author of one of the megahits of recent years: 'Aserejé'
by Las Ketchup. "How was I going to expect it? And less me who, being a flamenco,
have a minority audience". Immediately afterwards, he comes out into the
open: "I knew it was a hit in Spain. Pastora Soler's was the same. In Spain
we haven't sold more than two hundred thousand copies. But in the media, it was
the megahit of the summer. You're not silly and when some listen to it and others
and everyone coincides, you know what it's about". What went beyond his imagination
was that "they would call from Taiwan to translate it into Cantonese, from
Egypt, from England, that it would be number one in twenty-four countries, that
the record would sell ten million copies". And he recalls that "Vicente
called me from Holland on the country's national holiday so that I could hear
the bands marching down the streets of Amsterdam playing tararará ta
tará".
Manuel Ruiz 'Queco'
The famous song has even been echoed by flamencos. Diego
Carrasco is going to include a version on his next album. Queco hasn't heard
it yet but Mario Pacheco, the director of Nuevos Medios, told him that "it's
the best thing on the record". He comments that the 'sui generis' Jerez-born
artist "is a monster, he can do 'La vaca lechera' the way he feels like,
since he has an incredible sense of rhythm. He should try to find his audience,
since he's one of those guys like James Brown or Miles Davis in their wisdom,
who didn't even need to sing or play, just organizing their troupe is enough".
And he adds that "to me there's one who's like him: Tomasito.
I think he's a really great artist, he's so personal... I've seen him at parties
with top flamenco figures and if you let him loose, it's all over. I really believe
in him as an artist. He knows about all the old flamenco; he's purified it and
presents it in a genuine avant-garde way. He's sincere and honest, he does it
out of conviction and that's cool. Tomasito is the Michael Jackson of flamenco".
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"Tomasito is the Michael Jackson of flamenco"
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In fact, Tomasito is part of his plans, is among the artists he plans to prepare
a future album for. There's also La
Susi. The producer explains that "she hasn't been given the place she
deserves, when she is really complete. She's studied the old artists, knows everything
she has to know and is among the few remaining from Camarón's generation;
she's not like the typical new ones who learn the accent and vocal tricks. I've
always loved her and she still has that sensual voice". Joining the flamenco
breeding ground are "different half-flamencoized pop groups and another one
which is more 'rastafari' than anything else". In short, he has in hand "three
or four projects to develop in the next few years. I've formed a work team and
I don't have to be at the studio all the time. The thing is that the factory keeps
producing". The factory he's referring to is set up in the cante corner of
his childhood, "so, many flamencos come in and feel something strange, as
if the elves were there somewhere, you feel really good". The circle closes.
And the thing is that Queco is the kind of person who sets himself goals...
which he ends up reaching. Another of the dreams he wants to make come true is
to make a feature-length film before he turns forty-five. And, in the meantime,
the "atomic" project. He is planning for Córdoba "the Academy
of the Arts and Music, an international center where you can study everything
related to the world of music, including picture, sound, lighting, singing, music,
dancing... I'm going to bring in monsters. From people like Ruffinengo, Alejandro
Sanz's producer, Tino
di Geraldo to teach a drum course, Javier Latorre for dancing, Vicente for
guitar, I myself can show what the record world is like... Finally, freelance
professionals who spend a week sharing a seminar. And that may interest from a
Japanese who wants to study rhythm, to an executive who feels like taking a few
box-drum classes to show off at his parties". And he believes in the suitability
of the former caliphate capital as headquarters, since "it's well communicated,
we've done important things historically and we haven't excelled for centuries,
when in music we're doing so big-time, which is quite difficult... because it's
easier to reach the entire world from Los Angeles. Why can't we do it? Andalusia
is the cradle; we have good orchards, but we lack industry. And why not make it
if we are people there committing our lives to this dream?". Will it do so?
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