Flamenco-world.com heads to the recording studio to get an exclusive preview of the latest work from singer Carmen Linares

'Un ramito de locura'... because now
was the right time

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, February, 2002

Some fandangos, to warm up...

mirando p'al firmamento
toa la noche me paso
mirando p'al firmamento
toíto el mundo tiene una estrella
y yo la mía no la encuentro
y yo la mía no la encuentro
me habré quedao sin ella

Carmen Linares has been looking for a new direction in her work, and to her left she is accompanied by the nimble fingers of Gerardo Núñez. "To sing fandangos my voice has to be in tip-top shape, it has to be powerful and fine-tuned," she says.

Carmen Linares and Gerardo Nuñez (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

On a cold February afternoon the studio is a cauldron of assorted personalities. Those who are really involved in the recording of Carmen Linares's new album - the guitarist Gerardo Núñez, the percussionist Cepillo, the producer José Manuel Gamboa and the technical staff - are joined by three photographers, a journalist and a star-struck youngster who is only on the scene because his father has told him to bring some plane tickets to a certain Gerardo Núñez... his idol Gerardo Núñez!

"I am going to cut it there to give it more emphasis...", whispers Carmen while someone explains that the boy with the tickets has a guitar in his car and wants "to see if you can sign it". To which Gerardo replies: "What! The guitar? No, better a photo or something like that. Don't you have a fine felt-tip pen?" Twitching nervously, the boy manages to reply: "Of course not, I only came to deliver the tickets..."

Carmen: He's stage struck.

Gamboa: Do it with the marker pen for the CDs.

Carmen: Tell your Dad that you should warn people about this sort of thing, this isn't fair... he's dumbfounded.

Cepillo: And when he saw me he completely went to pieces...

They gather round in a circle and Cepillo starts talking. "Did you see the interview they did the other day with Luis el Zambo on TV 2?" Apparently it was really good: "The presenter said to him: Luis, that thing about you singing flamenco? And he replied: "Well, I have worked in the fishmongers all my life and I have sung all my life and never had any plans to record anything until a man whose name I am not going to reveal, Manuel Morao, told me I had to record something because my cante would go down in history. And to tell the truth no one else sings bulerías like I do". And Cepillo started to explain to each person in turn how the interview went... "And when he remembered Luis said to him: Hey! Aren't you going to ask me what a fantastic singer I was?"

Carmen continues humming... And Cepillo shouts to Gerardo: "They're taking more photos of you than of Claudia Schiffer... even more than of the girls in Papá Levante". And he starts to sing "aunque parezca mentira..." And Carmen answers back "I go all red when you look at me".

	José Manuel Gamboa, Carmen and Gerardo (Photo:Daniel Muñoz)

Together at last, the team huddles together for the obligatory photo. They all now seem to understand that we are going to talk about the new record...

Carmen: It is an album with some classic cantes, with soleás, seguiriyas, tarantas, milongas, bulerías, tangos, romeras, martinetes... What happened is that we gave them ... (Gamboa interrupts playing bulerías on the guitar). Gerardo has added some special harmonies on the guitar and the cantes are also done with...

Gamboa (now he has let go of the guitar): What we tried to avoid was doing more of the same, but at the same time without losing any of the fundamentals of what we stand for.

What is that special characteristic?

Gamboa: The difference lies in artist who has her own way of expressing herself and then there is a different concept to anything that she has recorded up to now, because of the work that Gerardo has done with the harmonies.

In the middle of all this the boy returns with the guitar and everyone starts to sign it.

Carmen: I don't know if the tickets are paid for, but then again looking at what you've now got...(And she returns to the interview) Gerardo has done a fantastic job with the harmonies, the cante is accompanied in a completely different way. There is great work from Gerardo's trio...

Gerardo: The trio is made up of Pablo Martín Caminero, on double bass; and Cepillo, on percussion. And we have played together for some years now ("with the Great Cepillo", they point out) and as a result we have got a good understanding and we all think the same way. When you play with people you get on with and who are also great musicians, then things start to happen... And that gives the trio some special characteristics. Apart from the fact that it is very rare to see a trio made up of a flamenco guitar, a double bass and percussion. There is nothing to support us, but we have managed to pull the sound together and we lend to Carmen our personal experiences, all our musical imagination and the way we see the cante. We are all big fans of the cante, but we want to interpret it in a new way, adding our own imagination when it comes to accompanying her cante.

Is this imagination also inspired by other types of music, or only by flamenco?

Gerardo: It comes from all sorts of sources. From classical music... Pablo adds his knowledge and experience from the world of classical strings. He is a double bass player that has received classical training in Vienna and that certainly shows. Present day musicians are influenced from many sources, wherever we find something then we try and use it.

Carmen: In any case there are some things on the record that we thought of doing one way and then afterwards they turned out to be completely different.

Gamboa: There are some original interpretations of all the styles from a milonga to a bulería, a taranta, a soleá, and a seguiriya... Each is completely different and the result of a great willingness from everyone to work and do their best.

Carmen: There is a lot of mutual admiration, each of us respects the work of the others. All suggestions are looked at and discussed. The work done by José Manuel is very important, he is a person that you trust, apart from the fact that he brings the sandwiches and beers... The fact that you trust in his judgment is very important because sometimes artists are too hesitant and he gives you lots of ideas. In fact, there are tracks which have come out of here that have been his idea. Although we suffer and worry a great deal (over the schedules) it is all part of the work.

Gamboa: And with the help of Juan Miguel Cobos, the technician with whom both Gerardo and Carmen do their live work.

Carmen: He understands us very well.

Gerardo: Perhaps what I have also added to this recording has to do with the fact that as flamenco guitarists we have the idea that, as my teacher said, we should wait until the cante ends and then answer it. That is what we have always been told.

Carmen: The cante is a conversation!

Gerardo: Exactly. You know that the same melody, the same note can be built up in a thousand different ways. We have been working in the direction of making the guitar accompany the cante, and not waiting until it has finished before answering it. We have also been thinking that during the period when the singer is singing too many things happen to allow us to wait until it finishes before answering it. We have tried to harmonize it because there are a lot of different things that can de done to enrich the accompaniment for the singer, and we have tried to do them on this album.... But you have to learn all the cantes perfectly (he says to Carmen).

Carmen: If one day I change it you will soon know about it...

Gamboa: Anyone can understand it even if they know nothing about music. (he demonstrates with 'A la mare de mi alma', he plays a chord... 'lo que la camelo yooo', he plays another chord). Each fragment of the cante has a chord, one that has been changed or that fades away, and never a traditional one nor with one with the usual habits you have picked up... Why do you always have to do it like that?

Gerardo: For example the tarantos, the tarantas, the cantes of Levante, always used to end with some spectacular strumming and then they stopped. But can't they finish in another way? We have added our own individual touch to some cantes, which, although they may be classics, have now been updated,

Are the words traditional or are there some changes? How have you chosen them?

Carmen: The milonga is a poem by Borges, 'La milonga del forastero' and there is another poem by José Ángel Valente. There are also some words by José Luis Ortiz Nuevo and the rest are the traditional lyrics. That's about it isn't it?
Gamboa: And Pepe's ...

Carmen: Oh, he'll kill me if I don't mention it. Some tangos by Pepe de Lucía.

Gamboa: And the surprise...

Carmen: The surprise... Should we let on?

A sharp voice cuts in: "In which case it won't be a surprise". And taking note she says: "A very special surprise, which has something to do with our producer".

Is the fact that you worked with Manolo Sanlúcar got anything to do with the type of melodies you produced?

Carmen: It's different. Those by Manolo were poems by Lorca for which he wrote a special song. He gave me the melodies ... it was his creation. But this no, this is inspired by ... well, the Borges poem is inspired by a plaintive milonga and I adapted the words. Gerardo did all the harmonization. The other one was all Manolo's work. He adapted the music, but not for this one. This one comes from a traditional cante and then I adapted the words with that music...

Gamboa: It's a piece of team work.

Whose record will it be?

Carmen: Well, Gerardo Núñez will be highlighted of course.

Gamboa: it's Carmen's record, but it is a joint work. There are also songs by other writers like Juan Carlos Romero, with words from Ortiz Nuevo. But then Carmen sings it in her style and Gerardo plays it in his. She isn't reproducing a score. Later we'll see if it is a success or not.

Gerardo Nuñez and Carmen (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

But have you any worries?

Gamboa: No, of course not. Here we are all very brave. If not, nothing would ever get done.

Carmen: Yes, if we aren't brave....

Gamboa: There is nothing that stops anyone from saying anything. We have never tried to show off, on the contrary. I don't know if it is going to shock people or not ... because what they are hearing is flamenco. What is the case is that flamenco has always been characterized by being music based on a certain style in which harmonies have never featured... They were first introduced with the guitar work of Paco de Lucía, Manolo Sanlúcar, Serranito... But in the cante things haven't changed much, they have started to harmonize recently, but only a little. It is nothing like the normal accompaniment, and yet it is normal and isn't something that should grate. I think it sounds very natural. And that's where the trick lies.

Carmen: The first thing is that we have produced something that we all like. We haven't tried too hard to elaborate. When, for example, we sat down to do the soleá, Gerardo listened to the cante we had prepared and as it is a very good cante, he took control and noting was forced.

Gamboa: There are cantes that have been recorded here that have never been recorded before.

Carmen: We have always tried to both give and take.

It has been a long time since your last record...

Carmen: Since the 'Antología'.

Gamboa: In '96.

And it is strange because although you have been very busy, you haven't recorded anything of your own.

Gamboa: It was precisely for that reason that she was prevented from doing another record. There have been a whole host of proposals as there were so many shows to record. The problem though was that a record isn't like a show and not everyone could be there... in the end we opted to do something original because the material was there.

And what is the name of the creation?

Carmen: 'Un ramito de locura' (' A little piece of madness')... because now was the right time

Gamboa: The name has an explanation. We also had as an alternative, 'Armonía'. Because harmony is really what is new about the record. But also "a little piece of madness" because the great pieces of art have always been created in moments of madness.

Carmen: I should be on the cover looking mad...

Gamboa: Then be careful not to be mistaken for María la Nerviosa.

And back to work, with two months of recording already behind them and with April 5 2002 looming - the date on which the presentation of the new work is scheduled at the Opera house in Madrid. But just as everyone is in position, Antonio Carmona, who is recording the new Ketama album that is scheduled for release on April 8 on the floor above, appears at the door. Chatting away, looking at old photos and making wise cracks...And Carmen starts to say that Lolita said the other day on television that her record was selling, but not like hot cakes. And Antonio said things were so bad that they were only selling half of what they should. "I am going to play the single, which is now ready. And we will see if I am selected for, or thrown out of, the academy". Conscious as they all are that here and now what is grabbing the headlines is karaoke that has been made fashionable by the television show 'Operación Triunfo'.

Antonio Carmona say goodbye, so does the boy with the tickets and as do we. Now as night falls the team which is trying to bring add a little insanity to their harmonies, gets back to work. From the Eastlake studio some of the first sounds from the new Carmen Linares album are beginning to spring to life... Cepillo is behind the background music.

-Hey, Cepillo! Weren't you going to tell me what a brilliant musician you are?
-Oh I forgot to ask that.