MORAÍTO CHICO. OBITUARY

Today morao is the color of mourning

Silvia Calado/ Flamenco-world.com, August, 2011
Translation: Joseph Kopec

The phone rang a few minutes before the show began. The Dutch Flamenco Biennial’s director was calling from Amsterdam to Jerez. Moraíto answered Ernestina with a rusty voice which was amplified throughout the jam-packed Bimhuis. He should have been there at that moment to close the festival, but his doctors had advised him against the trip. And in his place was Diego del Morao, his son, his heir. He fully trusted him to live up to the task at hand. He said so on the telephone. And before hanging up, he asked what style he was going to start off with. The applause for his words preceded the rondeña.

Moraíto, Festival Flamenco Mont de Marsan 2007 (Foto Daniel Muñoz)

Even though he wasn’t there, he was really present. A documentary entitled ‘El cante bueno, duele’ (‘Good Cante Hurts’), with which the festival and the television network NTR wanted to bring cante to the Dutch audience, turned into a continuous tribute to Manuel Moreno Junquera… to Morao (Purple). That’s the color the t-shirts of the official merchandising were dyed, sponsored by a winery in Jerez. That’s the color of the bulerías which rang out throughout the festival. And there were many, since the program included a memorial for Fernando Terremoto which was attended by artists such as El Torta, Joaquín Grilo, Miguel Poveda, Tía Curra, Jesús Méndez… and the two Diegos: Diego del Morao and Diego Carrasco. All of whom were linked to him one way or another.

There’s a video on Youtube entitled “El Torta y Moraíto. Pareja de genios” (“El Torta and Moraíto. A Couple of Geniuses”). The two of them together years ago. An entente resulting in the cantaor’s album ‘Colores morenos’ (1994), and which he returned to the guitarist on his first disc ‘Morao y oro’. But he performed side by side more often with cantaores from his city from the very beginning. Juan Morao’s son - the first Moraíto - and Manuel Morao’s nephew performed on ‘Rito y geografía del cante’ at around the age of fourteen. And he played seguiriyas for the then-child cantaor Antonio Malena. How touching it was when at the premiere of ‘Jerez Puro’ at Festival de Jerez 2005, after showing the video, the two (now) men met face to face once again… the cantaor and the guitarist. And what is there to say about the string of cantaores he backed in the great bulería fiesta which opens the film ‘Flamenco’ by Carlos Saura, captained by La Paquera…

With Joaquín Grilo - also in that memorial to Terremoto - he had different dialogues. There was one specifically in which they made sparks fly at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Seville. In the setting of Bienal de Flamenco 2010, as in other past biennials, Moraíto directed his own show about the flamenco from his native land. This time it was called ‘Jerez, la uva y el cante’ (‘Jerez, Grapes and Cante’). And we thus told what happened that night:

Moraíto (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

“What made 'Jerez. La uva y el cante' a show different to so many others about Jerez flamenco coming before it was the fourth act. A black curtain at the back decontextualized the scene. Scarcely a strip of stage. On the left, two pairs of palms. On the right, Moraíto. And coming down the aisle through the audience, Joaquín Grilo. “Are you going to let me dance?!”, he asked him. Immediately afterwards, the guitarist was making his guitar burst into bulerías, the clappers were marking the beat and the bailaor was letting himself dance as if pulled by an outside force. The result: half the theater on its feet”.

And they also dialogued magically in the show ‘Sin frontera’ by Miguel Poveda, with which the successful Catalan cantaor staged the welcome he has received from the bosses of Jerez, among them Luis el Zambo and also Moraíto, who had already collaborated with him at the studio for the album ‘Zaguán’. The tocaor’s tremendous playing was felt in that show which we saw at the Teatro Español in Madrid, the Villamarta in Jerez and the Muziekgbow in Amsterdam. On such occasions, his guitar sounded “wise, memorable”.     

Tía Curra was also in that two-sided tribute. She isn’t a renowned artist, but rather one of those women from the neighborhood of Santiago who used to put even Moraíto himself in his place. She, like Tía Yoya, knows how to leave in the heart what flamenco has of art in the sigh which one of her little spins lasts. They got together in a photo session in front of the neighborhood church for the poster of ‘ADN Jerez’ which was presented at the 2004 Mont de Marsan Flamenco Festival, and you can’t imagine what a stir there was…      

Moraíto in 'Sin frontera' de Miguel Poveda, Festival de Jerez 2008 (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

And if he honored his elders, he also did so with newcomers. He didn’t hesitate to accompany cantaor Antonio Reyes to present his album ‘Viento Sur’ at Festival de Jerez 2009. He highlighted that the disc was “a breath of fresh air within the present currents of flamenco, where there’s too much experimenting”. He also saw that mixture of freshness and classicism in Jesús Méndez, on whose album he offered toque in the soleá por bulerías and the bulerías. The young cantaor, a relative of the great Paquera, couldn’t believe it: “Moraíto is a flamenco icon and has been my idol since I was little”. He did the same with David Lagos, who teamed him up in the soleá on his disc ‘El espejo en que me miro’ with Fernando de la Morena, another idol of the up-and-coming artists:

“I looked for a guitarist who would be good for both Fernando and me. To him, Moraíto’s guitar was ideal. I’d never worked with him and I was a bit nervous, but there was perfect harmony, as if we were at Diego Carrasco’s bar. And we’ve managed for the soleá to sound the way it had to sound. Fernando starts off singing a trilla, since he’s one of the few cantaores from Jerez who knows how to sing it and he does so with all the essence of the field because he’s lived it. With our knuckles we managed for it to sound like a party and inspiration. Then we do three sets of lyrics por soleá by Fernando, who had a cold and even though he wasn’t at his best, it can’t sound any more flamenco. Then I pay him my little tribute with the lyrics. When he heard them he was moved; he told me he was proud that I paid him tribute like that. We combine his lyrics with mine, guitar, clapping, knuckles… everyone taking part unselfishly. Everyone who was in the recording got involved in a way I wasn’t expecting. And I’d like to mention Diego Carrasco because he acted a little as the song’s producer, especially with the guitar. He gave a big hand and the three of them, Fernando, Morao and Diego, are people who like to get across their experience”.

Moraíto with Tía Curra and Tía Yoya. ADN Jerez session (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

He also did so with guitarists… and not just with the ones from his house. He went to back Juan Diego in the official presentation of his ‘Luminaria’ at the Alcázar in Jerez. And although it failed, he even had his own production company, Mukazo, to promote young talents. His commitment went further in the social project which the group Soniquete came out of. When they presented their first album ‘Asignatura flamenca’ at Festival de Jerez 2010, Moraíto acted as the master of ceremonies. There, he read them a text in which he said that “Jerez had just recovered the old tradition of children going out to play to the flamenco beat after school”. And he celebrated it by joining the grand finale of those children, who include his daughter Teresa…

His son Diego is now a separate case. There’s Diego del Morao, now a unique guitarist. He had already excelled on the circuit for several seasons now, not just together with his father and Mercé, but with Niña Pastori, with Paco de Lucía, with Diego el Cigala… The cantaor was precisely the one who produced and released his first solo album. ‘Orate’ is what Moraíto let us in on in an interview for Flamenco-world over five years ago, that mixture of genetics and world, of dynasty and personality, of yesterday and today:

“I used to listen to my father and to my uncle, and they didn't have to tell me this way or that. I would go to my room and it would work. And as for the directions, you pick them up yourself along the way, even if you have a school running in your veins, built into your genes. That's true of my son Diego, he plays mine and the family's music, but at the same time there’s Tomatito in there, Vicente Amigo too, and Paco de Lucía, Cañizares... the people at the forefront right now. My family's style rubbed off on me, but I also liked Melchor de Marchena, Habichuela, Sabicas... I rolled them all into a little style and made it my own. And he works the same way, he does my stuff, he modernizes it, he changes it to suit him, draws it into his territory, and all with a modern style of guitar”.

Diego seemed to answer him, totally agreeing, when he presented his first album at the Casa de América a few months ago:

“I can’t deny where I come from; I carry the banner of my land and my family’s toque, but you have to play the way playing’s being done now. I don’t try to play differently; I play like that because I feel it like that, because now we go in a car with a GPS and we used to go in a carriage. Diego Carrasco told me years ago that playing flamenco didn’t mean playing a few “tiraíllos”. It’s good to know the roots, but flamenco is within you and your way of feeling and the art are timeless. You can play flamenco because you feel it like that now, or within twenty years, but you can’t play now like twenty years ago. You have to know the past, but you have to contribute new things”.

Moraíto with Diego Carrasco, Flamenco Biennale Holanda 2008 (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

In those sentences he mentioned another key figure, another fixture. Diego Carrasco and Moraíto always played to the same beat. There wasn’t a disc by Tate which didn’t include his buddy’s toque, from ‘Tomaketoma’ to ‘Voz de referencia’, and ‘Inquilino del mundo’. Both of them dialogued more than once up on stage as each other’s guests. And they were also part of that special quartet which was assembled in the show ‘Los Juncales’, where they were with Manuel Molina and Tomasito. They did so at the 2006 Nîmes Flamenco Festival and at Seville’s Bienal in the same year. That time at the Hotel Triana had its anecdote and everything, since shortly before the show began, which turned out strangely cold, one of the courtyard neighbors passed away who was there in the flesh throughout the performance. And in that gypsy band, those who didn’t know it could smell it. Oh, Heaven help us!

Moraíto with José Mercé (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

He was a real lucky charm for José Mercé. “I’m his lancer, his trusty worker”, Moraíto defines himself. Following the huge success of ‘Del amanecer’, which was produced and played on by Vicente Amigo, he was the guitarist on the cantaor’s discs, both the ones produced by Isidro Muñoz (‘Aire’, ‘Lío’, ‘Confí de fuá’, ‘Ruido’), and ‘Lo que no se da’ which was taken care of by Paco Ortega. And of course, he always took part in that sea of hits at a discreet middle distance:   

“Moraíto and I have had a close bond since we were born. We were born in the same neighborhood in Jerez, in Santiago, we've know each other since we were little, we went to the same school, we played the same things. Morao and I have always known each other and the truth is that we have the same feelings; we understand that that's the way flamenco is. And he knows when I'm going to make a mistake, I know when he's going to get it wrong... There's a sense of security to go out on stage having him at my side”.

Moraíto (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Photo gallery.
Moraíto Chico, by Daniel Muñoz