Miguel Vargas 'Bambino' (1940-1999):
When the music went wild

Estela Zatania

The last time I saw Miguel Vargas Jiménez perform was in the summer of 1993. Little did it matter that his voice was no longer the powerful instrument it had been years before, because the attraction of this unique artist came from something innate and intangible: the sheer force of his artistic persona. He managed to connect with audiences via a driving rhythm and the tremendous magnetism of his serene, elegant presence which almost seemed to be mocking those of us who perhaps take life a little too seriously. Manuel Peña Narváez pins it down perfectly when he describes Bambino's artistic bearing as "perfect harmony amidst madness". Miguel achieved a tension between the backup musicians and the audience, a whirlwind of rhythm and emotion which he meticulously constructed in each song, and then maintained and controlled with absolute authority, to almost unbearable extremes, leaving musicians and audience exhausted. Many people cross off Bambino as just another rumba-singer, but there was more to him.

Where did this personal vision of festive flamenco come from? The mere mention of his birthplace explains a lot: Utrera, a town that knows how to express the most superficial joys, as well as the deepest suffering through its bulerías which it endows with an unmistakable personality. And so it has been with all the giants of cante grande that have emerged from this town of cantaores. From Perrate to Fernanda and Bernarda, they have all known how to elevate the bulería and turn it into something more than just fiesta music.

Miguel was born on February 12th, 1940 into the hard life of Spain's post-civil war era. He spent his adolescence working at his father's barber shop and training to be a football-player. His parents were Manuel Vargas Torres, Chamona, and Francisca Jiménez Ramírez, Frasquita, singer and dancer, and sister of Manuel de Angustias, another great cantaor from this prolific area. His older brother was Diego Chamona, a brilliant festero. The elements were at his disposal and from early on, the singer who would eventually be known as 'Bambino' was already entertaining family and friends at informal gatherings.

His ascent to professional venues was not long in coming. In one of the first editions of the Potaje Gitano de Utrera Miguel interpreted the song 'Bambino Piccolino' which led to his artistic nickname. Shortly afterwards, the bullfighter Gitanillo de Triana presented him at his tablao, the Real Venta de Antequera, and later on in Madrid at El Duende, the tablao owned by his mother-in-law Pastora Imperio. In Utrera they say that Gitanillo de Triana was largely responsible for the formula which brought Bambino so much success, but everything indicates that the singer's artistic personality was his own creation. His way of transforming songs and adapting them to the rhythm of bulería and rumba, the manner in which he would stretch out lines at the most dramatic moments while strolling across the stage like a benevolent monarch contemplating his subjects, was copied in all of Madrid's tablaos competing with Pescaílla's lively rumba catalana that was so popular in cuadros at that time.

This approach earned Bambino superstar status and his fame grew to international proportions. The journalist Antonio Torres comments that "the stories about what came to him in the way of opulence, luxury and abundance, as well as his popularity at every social and economic level of Spain's capital, all fell short of the reality". The dictatorship of the era looked kindly upon the young entertainer and turned a blind eye to certain excesses. Madrid fell under his spell and Salvador Távora among others composed songs for him. He would also take other artists' successes -Machín's and Gardel's boleros, Mexican rancheras or songs from Andalusia's great lyrical singers- and return them to the public with a flamenco sound and a driving rhythm. In another time and place he would have been just another festero, but in the sixties people were hungry for a kind of action that Miguel knew how to deliver. Nevertheless, one of the best-kept secrets in Utrera was that Bambino went all out at private gatherings of friends just as much as in front of a paying audience. Always the center of attention at any fiesta, he made the most of his elegance as a dancer to punctuate songs with original movements and pellizcos.

King of the Rumba

Audiences dubbed Bambino 'King of the Rumba' and his unprecedented success helped pave the way for later groups such as Los Chunguitos, Los Chichos and Las Grecas. But his fame played a pivotal role not only in popularizing the rumba, but also in firmly establishing bulerías as a form which could assimilate all types of popular music in addition to the traditional short styles. Some of the bulerías songs or cuplés most associated with Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera were first adapted to flamenco by Bambino.

He understood the importance of surrounding himself with quality artists who could support and understand him. The list of guitarists who passed through his group constitutes the elite of the pre-Camarón era: Paco Cepero, Paco de Antequera, Juan Maya 'Marote', Habichuela, Paco del Gastor, Manolo Domínguez 'El Rubio' and an adolescent Paco de Lucía. Less well-known but also solid pros are the brothers Pepe and Ramón Priego from Utrera who were decisive in the development of the surprising give-and-take between the guitars and voices that characterized Bambino's style. He also hired first-class percussionists and palmeros, in all, a permanent group of eight to ten people. And all of them hanging on every turn and twist of the melodies in a sublime communication that was the essence of the 'Bambino show'.

His music colored an era, and many of us who lived through it keep songs of his in some corner of our memory: 'La pared', 'La última noche', 'Adoro', 'Bebí de tus labios', his incredibly flamenco version of 'Encuentro' (Me tropecé contigo en primavera...), or his unforgettable way of driving audiences wild with 'El poeta lloró', a song which still stirs emotions at fiestas in Utrera through the interpretation of his faithful admirers.

Utrera. Callejón del Niño Perdido

When Miguel passed away on the fifth of May, 1999, only a few days after ignoring his physician's advice in order to attend the tribute offered him by his beloved hometown, he left us five hundred recorded songs and a somewhat diminished world. Antonio Torres paints a moving portrait of Bambino's last years when he was living in very humble quarters in Utrera: "He lived with all the dignity of a king in exile. There was nothing he liked better than to get up late, around ten or eleven and a while after having coffee, enjoying a breakfast of radishes and red wine in the patio of his house, alone and at peace with himself and his memories".

revista@flamenco-world.com