DORANTES. SPECIAL FEATURE

“My trademark is freedom”

Pianist Dorantes starts to get his third album ready following ‘Sur’ and ‘Orobroy’

S.C. Seville, October 2004

Dorantes has come across a place of inspiration in the mountains. He will spend some time in the middle of nature gathering inspiration before moving on to the recording studio. Coming out of it will be the third album of the Lebrija-born pianist's record career which, as he affirms, will be more intimate, more withdrawn than ‘Sur’ and ‘Orobroy’. That could already be seen at the concert he recently offered at Seville's Maestranza Theater, where he advanced some new compositions.

	Dorantes

Besides withdrawal, Dorantes' upcoming album will be marked by having no strings attached: “My trademark is freedom”. The Lebrija-born pianist doesn't like to be labeled. “Music is like modeling clay that lets itself be shaped. I know that I'm flamenco, and without harming my roots, I seek freedom. We already have to follow too many rules to live in society”. And the thing is, that attitude runs in the family, where names stand out such as that of El Lebrijano - his uncle - and Pedro Peña - his father -. “We Peñas are very attached to the roots, but we're restless; we like to go beyond that. It must be because we take flamenco for granted (although you never get to know everything), and we like to listen to other types of music and move on”.

Nowadays Dorantes' stereo is piping out a lot of “Frank Zappa, in his last stage of composing. And I also listen to Stravinsky, Bela Bartok - his six movements for quartet -, Indian music, a bit of everything”. The pianist judges that “a musician has to listen, not to copy... but to open up”. All you have to do is take a look at the group of artists who accompanied him in his latest performance in Seville, figuring among which were the Celliberia cello quartet and Hindu tabla maestro Keshab Canti Showdhury, without forgetting the flamenco voice of Lole Montoya, who, by the way, did her own version of a song by Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez.

Flamenco piano

Dorantes belongs to a generation of pianists with flamenco roots that also includes Diego Amador and Pedro Ricardo Miño, among others. He therefore believes that “the evolution of flamenco piano is doing just fine, since a lot of colleagues are moving forward. Little by little, it's finding its place”. Some of these musicians, like him, have received academic musical training, something not very common previously in flamenco, and therefore with no few critics. Dorantes is categorical regarding the matter: “It's nonsense to say that if you know music, the flamenco loses essence. It's like a poet who doesn't know how to write: the result might be brilliant, but his work won't be recorded, and besides, it's obvious that knowing grammar helps; it's good to have resources”.

He's got plenty... so that, besides his own music, nor does he avoid doing it for others. One of his most solid collaborations is with cantaora Esperanza Fernández, “who has asked me to produce the album she's going to record”. Between them, besides family ties, there is artistic understanding: “We're musical partners who get along really well”. If Dorantes collaborated on the album ‘Esperanza Fernández’, Esperanza Fernández collaborated on ‘Sur’ singing the tune ‘Di, di, Ana’. When they performed it together at Seville's Reales Alcázares at the 2002 Bienal, something happened. Dorantes cherishes that concert as the most special one of his career: “I took a stroll around those gardens because I was nervous, it was such a beautiful night... And in the end, it was magic”.

Dorantes

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