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From his jazz watchtower in Madrid, guitarist
and multi-instrumentalist Ángel Rubio released a project entitled 'Jazzhondo'
in 1998, featuring twelve original compositions, mixing the sounds of Arabian
litanies, the flamenco cajon, derbukas and traditional Spanish coplas.
Another usual suspect who contributes to the continuous flow between jazz and
flamenco is Uruguayan drummer Guillermo Mc Guill, member of the Chano Domínguez
quintet and regular collaborator with guitarist Rafael Riqueni and cantaor Enrique
Morente. The follow-up to 'Los sueños y el tiempo' (a CD with book dedicated
to the late writer María Zambrano), the drummer launched his second solo
album - 'Cielo' - in 2002. Guillermo, known as the "all-terrain drummer",
admits that it wasn't easy to enrich his jazz with the infinite possibilities
flamenco has to offer: "There might be obvious differences between jazz and
flamenco, but to a certain extent they're gradually disappearing in my style of
playing. I don't mean I sit down and strike up a bulería without
thinking about it, I'm just slipping certain basic elements of flamenco into my
jazz style of playing."
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Left: Esperanza Fernández with Gerardo
Núñez (Photo: Anahí Cármody)
Right: Tino di Geraldo (Photo: Javier Hurtado) |
The historical foundations
If we take a trip back in time, in the seventies there were a few timid experiments
dabbling with mixtures of hitherto alien areas like flamenco and traditional jazz.
The American jazz scene, turned on its head with the arrival of Charlie Parker's
revolutionary musical language, enjoyed a rebirth during the 50s. An example of
this is Miles Davis's Spanish musings in the late 50s and early 60s. 'Flamenco
Sketches' was one of the tracks on 'Kind of Blue' recorded in New York with Cannonball
Adderley, John Coltrane, Paul Chambers and Bill Evans. And in 1960 came 'Sketches
of Spain' (Sony), composed jointly with the changeling Gil Evans, in the spirit
of work by Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Rodrigo or Debussy. 1961 saw the arrival
of another classic release - 'Olé' by John Coltrane, an intuitive, transitional
work, where flamenco is the pretext that gives free rein to a truly dynamic process
of creativity.
But it wasn't until 1967 when the moment came for what the vast majority agree
was the first major contribution in Spain to the world of flamenco jazz. Released
by Pedro Iturralde and featuring Paco de Lucía, the album 'Jazz Flamenco'
(Universal, 1967) exhibits a range of palos flamencos, each style providing a
framework for improvisation. In the 80s, projects such as 'My Spanish Heart' by
Afro-Caribbean Chick Corea, and the three-way collaborations by McLaughlin, Coryell
and Paco de Lucía gave a new boost to the fusion, confusion and flamenco-izing
which had been feeding so-called Nuevo Flamenco for a couple of decades
already. In an interview published in 'Transiberia' in 1992, Paco de Lucía
-a guitarist respected and admired by traditionalists and the vanguard alike-
spoke on the subject of the "purism vs. renovation" debate. He commented
that, "In general, flamenco artists are dogmatic (...). I don't agree with
the purists, they don't let artists sing or play how they want. For me anything
goes if you know how to keep the balance."
Jorge Pardo and Juan Diego (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
And keeping the balance is just what the guitarist did when he launched his
sextet in the late eighties. That elite group of cutting-edge artists: Paco and
Pepe de Lucía, Ramón de Algeciras, Carles Benavent, Rubem Dantas
and Jorge Pardo. Along with the leader, Carles Benavent and Jorge Pardo also veered
off toward the unknown, taking uncommon levels of risk as they did so in their
compositional wanderings, with the unconditional support of the Madrid label Nuevos
Medios. Benavent explored new horizons alongside Joan Albert Amargós and
Chick Corea, while Jorge Pardo did likewise in the company of Potito, Antonio
Carmona and Chano Domínguez. Both writers have produced projects in the
last fifteen years which consolidate a somewhat unnatural alliance of languages:
swing with a twist of flamenco duende. 'Agüita que corre' (Nuevos
Medios, 1995) and 'Aigua' (Nuevos Medios, 2001) by bassist Benavent, and 'A mi
aire' (Nuevos Medios, 1987), 'Las cigarras son quizá sordas' (Nuevos Medios,
1991) and '2332' (Nuevos Medios, 1997) by saxophonist Pardo, are the very heart
and soul of experimentation with a flair for survival. Jorge Pardo dwelled on
the significance of the Paco de Lucía Sextet in a recent interview: "That
group defined a sound that had a profound impact on the history of flamenco and
also on jazz, because that was the moment when the rest of the world learnt what
a bulería was, even in New York."
Flamenco jazz... The issues surrounding the fusion of any type of music nowadays
have to be seen in the context of antonyms: one has to know how to fuse a certain
adherence to tradition with the ability to take musical elements out of their
regional, national or racial contexts. The ancestral frameworks should be there,
but dissolved into waters that can't be so easily labeled and categorized - any
good musical poet should know that the most universal feelings are also the most
deeply felt. Paco de Lucía, oozing popular wisdom, sums it up in his inimitable
style: "It's vital not to lose sight of traditions, because that's where
the essence lies, the message, the foundations. You can build on it in any direction
you like, move away, escape, but you can't ever leave those roots behind, because
at the end of the day that's where the identity, the smell and taste of flamenco
lie."
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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