Son de la Frontera, flamenco group. Interview

“Without researching its past,
flamenco has no future”

Silvia Calado, November 2006

From Holland to Madrid, from Madrid to Mexico, from Mexico to the United States... Son de la Frontera keeps on touring the world over. And from the hotel rooms and dressing rooms of those last cardinal points come the responses to this cross-border interview. Raúl Rodríguez - Cuban tres - and Paco de Amparo - flamenco guitar -, write about their new album, ‘Cal’ (meaning “lime”), via e-mail. They confirm the group’s offer, their plunge into the legacy of Diego del Gastor, the defense of deep-roots flamenco and their own creation. As lime plasters layer upon layer, Son de la Frontera “becomes aware of our artistic foundation all our own, to be able to build an interesting style for the future”.

What is ‘Cal’? How would you briefly explain to fans what’s on this album?

Paco de Amparo: ‘Cal’ is the continuity of a project which started off with a lot of excitement and respect, first taking a full-fledged look at the music and creation of our idol, Diego del Gastor. But besides that, in a certain way on this new album, we aim to show our own unique identity and have each of us be able to identify with it at the personal and musical levels, and as a group.

Raúl Rodríguez: We’ve tried to delve even deeper on this record, not linger halfway and continue the double exploration, in the collective and the individual, which is the work in Son de la Frontera. The titles refers to the memory of lime, that liquid stone which purifies and embellishes at the same time, which was witness to and part of the most flamenco homes and streets, those of the beginning of the history of our culture: from the mountains of Morón came a great deal of the lime which whitewashed Andalusia from the 18th to the 20th centuries, the times when the cantes, bailes and toques crystallized, the mothers of today’s music.

We think that in a certain way, the process of elaborating lime can resemble the process of creating flamenco: collecting the hard stone from the quarry, placing it skillfully in the furnace and leaving it over a slow fire, with warmth and love, letting it melt into that pure liquid earth which burns and renews at the same time. To whitewash, like in flamenco, you paint over paint, layer upon layer. That might be why you have to be very respectful of what comes before; it’s the way of transmission and respect that oral communication has. Moreover, the lime routes managed to be perfect transmitters of flamenco music in those early times, when cante, toque and baile used to travel within people, not in a recorded format; neither on CD nor mp3... Craftsmanship which we also share with Mediterranean and Caribbean cultures. It’s in the line of the concept of our work to become aware of our artistic foundation all our own in order to be able to build an interesting style for the future: Knowing how to walk backwards in order to know how to walk forward.

Raúl Rodríguez and Paco de Amparo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

What difference is there from the first album, ‘Son de la Frontera’?

P.A.: One of the differences is the musical content itself. There’s more music created by us, trying to contribute our little bit to flamenco with respect. More cante has also been stuck in and styles have been recorded which people have forgotten a little nowadays, such as the malagueña, taranto and sevillanas. It has a different sound, though it goes along the same lines: with this, we aim to look inside ourselves a little more and grow as musicians, creating a fresh, personal sound.

R.R.: There aren’t any changes in the approach or the group; it follows the road begun with the first one. The difference lies more in the growth we’ve been able to have as a group in these years of work, in the greater experience and the joy of seeing how the music between us continues to grow and expand.

How do you knock Diego del Gastor’s legacy up a notch? Have you made any discoveries upon exploring his music once again?

R.R.: Really, the most interesting thing might be trying to get to know it in depth and respect it for what it is: a classic. Once again discovering the genius held within his original composing and its variations and, taking them to the dialogue between the Cuban tres and the guitar, which is our personal contribution. And combining it with cante, baile and compás, surprising ourselves once again from within his music and trying to grow beginning there. The deeper down you go, the more you get to know the beauty his music had: I think that’s the true discovery.

	"The deeper down you go, the more you get to know the beauty Diego del Gastor’s music had"

Cantiñas by Pinini, malagueñas by El Mellizo, taranto by Manuel Torre... How important is old-time cante to your music?

R.R.: Classic cante is the base; it contains the memory and is the fundamental transmitter of flamenco culture. Moi de Morón is a cantaor with privileged emotion for these cantes, like the malagueña by El Mellizo, or the cantiñas and boleros por bulerías which the great Fernanda de Utrera used to sing, may she rest in peace, and who accompanied the great Diego del Gastor so many times. They’re cantes which are brothers to these toques. In the instrumental taranto, I do an adaptation for the tres of the classic taranto cante by Manuel Torre (‘Ay, mi muchacho...’), with some turns from the version which my mother, Martirio, recorded with Rafael Riqueni and Pata Negra in 1989. I was at the studio that day, at the age of 13, and that’s the cante and ambience I can best remember.

Who was that other Mellizo you do the sevillanas version of?

P.A.: Personally, I wasn’t lucky enough to meet him, but from what I know through my grandmother (who was his sister) and my mother, Antonio Amaya Flores, Diego del Gastor’s brother, was a simple, humble, spontaneous, very creative person, capable of getting music out of a guitar which sometimes only had four strings. He was very pleasant and had what we here in Andalusia call a lot of charm. He had a really peculiar personality; he was a bohemian artist and a pure gypsy. Unfortunately, we lack people of that nature in our flamenco world today.

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