ULTRA HIGH FLAMENCO. INTERVIEW ABOUT ‘BIPOLAR’
“In UHF there’s
no fusion,
but rather connection”
Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 2011
Neither cante nor baile. And although
it isn’t the easiest option, Ultra
High Flamenco continues to firmly lay stakes on being
an instrumental... flamenco group. A second album confirms
it. ‘Bipolar’ knocks the group’s sound
up a notch, with scores totally conceived for the quartet.
Guitar, contrabass, violin and percussion blend together
in eight songs riding on soleá por bulerías,
tanguillos, rumbas… and also on a time signature of
seven which is called ‘OFNI’ (‘UFLO’),
that is, “unidentified flamenco object”. On
the eve of the premiere at Festival
de Jerez 2011, José Quevedo ‘Bolita’,
Pablo Martín, Alexis Lefèvre and Paquito González
got together not to play, but rather to tell Flamenco-world.com
about it.
UHF (Photo Elisa Aguilar) |
What is 'Bipolar'?
Pablo Martín: 'Bipolar'
is the second album and new musical proposal by Ultra High
Flamenco. It consists of eight songs: four have been composed
by José Quevedo, two have been composed by Alexis
Lefèvre and two others have been composed by Pablo
Martín. And it continues to seek the identity of
this group, which has had a four-year career so far.
Are there any innovations regarding
the music compared to the previous disc?
José Quevedo: There
are innovations in the composing; they’re songs much
more conceived for the group. Standing out is 'A Manuel
Torre’, where we recovered the group’s early
days because there are parts of the seguiriya which we used
to play with Joaquín
Grilo in ‘De noche’, where we met one another.
But I think the most novel thing with regards to concept
is ‘OFNI’, which will surely become famous in
flamenco history, for better or for worse, ha ha ha.
What is that “unidentified
flamenco object”?
Paquito González:
It sounds really flamenco to me, but in reality, as Bola
says, it’s neither in 6/8, nor in 3/4, nor in 4/4.
It’s in 7, something which doesn’t exist in
flamenco. As Bobote said when he listened to it: “What
is this? Soleá por seguiriya?”. And I told
him it was an unidentified flamenco object.
P.M.: But each song has
its identity. The album starts with a song by El Bola which
is called ‘Nuestra esfera’, making a reference
to our stuff, our community, our way of seeing music. It’s
a bulería which… I’d never heard anything
like that, where it goes away, returns, a solo… and
always from the flamenco group concept. The second track
is ‘Positango’, a song by Alexis; it goes por
tangos and it’s his musical world taken to our field.
The fourth song, ‘A Manuel Torre’, is a seguiriya
by El Bola. The fifth is ‘Republicanon’, a song
which goes por tangos. ‘Bolando’ - with a ‘b’
- is a soleá por bulerías. Then ‘Tanguirera’
is a tanguillo by Alexis. The album closes with an explosive
rumba which we’d felt like recording for some time
now, which is called ‘La baratita’, a barrel
of energy. And the third song is ‘OFNI’, that
rhythm in 7 which sounds like a bulería but isn’t.
UHF, premiere of 'Bipolar'.
Festival de Jerez 2011
(Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
It demonstrates that flamenco nature
isn’t just in the rhythm…
J.Q.: If you’re
a flamenco, you’re going to pick up an electric guitar
and a seguiriyas falseta will sound flamenco. Nobody’s
going to change that.
P.M.: And the other way
around; a bolero played by El Bola is also going to sound
flamenco.
And flamenco is also the group’s
sound, despite the “uflos” and the bipolarity.
José Quevedo says that “the album’s cover
is very explicit”. Look at it and you understand why
Pablo Martín found it so funny when someone in Jerez
asked him: “Hey, you’re Pablo Lefèvre,
aren’t you?”. And he said he was. The Jerez-born
guitarist explains that, on the one hand, there’s
Paquito and him, who grew up listening to Manuel
Torre… but also to Frank Zappa - he clarifies
- and on the other hand, Alexis and Pablo, “who weren’t
raised in flamenco, but have fallen in love with it and
have understood its style”. So those two worlds meet
in the band: “More open music and deep-roots flamenco”.
The Basque contrabassist confirms it: “The bipolarity
refers to musical terms”. UHF feels that with this
second recording “a qualitative leap has been made
in the group concept, not in sound, but in the band’s
sound”, El Bola declares. And that only reaffirms
that this quartet’s thing “isn’t fusion,
but rather connection”.
UHF (Photo Elisa Aguilar) |
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What was the creative phase like?
P.G.: Each of us worked
on the songs separately at home, then we spent a week at
Alexis’s, which has a studio.
P.M.: And what we did
there was “UHF-ize them”.
J.Q.: Mixing. Before recording,
we spent a couple of days working out details.
P.M.: The work by Paquito
should really be highlighted. Without having the role of
a composer, he’s really had to change his way of playing.
A new set has been made up and he’s had to adapt to
it. We insisted on him playing the cymbal, on the one hand,
like in jazz, and the box drum on the other hand. And he
had to sit down and study. I think it’s an important
point in the development of the group concept and, in particular,
of Paquito, who has plunged into it head over heels.
J.Q.: In the end he’s
going to learn to play and everything, ha ha ha.
P.G.: And are the three
of them ever gluttons for punishment. What I’ve done
is get involved in the songs by them. I help in the rhythmics
quite a bit.
J.Q.: I’m going
to have to give him a harmonica to see if he gets going.
And the recording phase?
P.M.: It was recorded
at CATA Studios in Madrid, with Óscar Herrador.
J.Q.: Those studios are
great. There are all the technical means you could ever
want. We recorded live in four days, also due to market
demand. We would have liked to spend a little more time
on it. But since they’re group songs and we worked
on them and developed them beforehand, in order to achieve
that sound and that closeness between all of us, the ideal
thing was to record live. It works like that and that energy
isn’t lost. Which doesn’t mean that we won’t
make albums later on by tracks.
P.M.: The way things stand
right now, four days is little for a flamenco album; it’s
a lot for a jazz album. And we’re a flamenco group
and we sit down and play and destroy our fingers and mix
it and present it.
You say that laying stakes on instrumental
music is hard, but doesn’t it have a positive side
of opening doors to other musical circuits?
P.M.: This group might
just as easily be in a jazz festival as a world music festival
as a flamenco festival. In that sense, we have a more extensive
scope, the group being less commercial than it could be
with a cantaor or a bailaor. There are advantages and disadvantages.
It’s a field which few groups move around in, those
of great guitarists such as Paco de Lucía and Vicente
Amigo, who also have cante and baile, as well as bands like
Son de la Frontera. There are few genuinely instrumental
proposals. And if UHF becomes a reference, well great, because
there isn’t a big offer.
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