|
Special feature: Christmas
Flamenco
On the road to Bethlehem, 'por bulerías'
Martín Guijarro, December 2004
Flamenco takes Christmas by storm. The family, festive and spiritual aspects
of this time for rejoicing, as religious as it seems pagan, provide the perfect
conditions for an outbreak of flamenco in its most extroverted form... and its
most introverted too. Plenty of christmas carols, or 'villancicos', have been
given the flamenco treatment - not only Andalusian songs, but more widely-known
traditional Spanish songs too. Every year, cantaores of every persuasion - including
plenty of amateurs - repopulate this fertile earth nourished by folklore and religion.
And they do so in several ways. They might take the individual approach - giving
their own twist to those songs which have been passed down from generation to
generation since medieval times. Or they might take a group approach. Here thay
can choose between a Jerez-style zambomba or campanilleros. A zambomba
is a christmas gathering held around a bonfire in a plaza or private patio, where
people sing to the sound of the rustic drum of the same name. The campanilleros
were impromptu choirs of carol singers who walked the streets of Andalusian towns
at night issuing a call to prayer. The result is the commendable preservation
and updating of this inherited aspect of Spain's folklore... and not only adapted
to bulerías, but also tangos, fandangos and even alegrías.
| |
La Niña de los Peines |
| |
|
The flamenco back-catalog bears testament to these 'jondo' christmas carols
right from the start. There are old gramophone recordings from the thirties and
forties, and later vinyl recordings by cantaores like El
Gloria (who it's said, incidentally, owes his nickname to a Christmas carol
he sang), Bernardo de los Lobitos, Manolo Caracol, Gracia de Triana, La Paquera
de Jerez, Niña de la Puebla, Canalejas de Puerto Real, Lola Flores, Niño
de Marchena, Enrique Montoya, Niña de los Peines and Manuel Vallejo. Many
of them can be found on various reissues and compilations, such as 'Bulerías
por villancicos' which is featured on the album 'Canalejas
de Puerto Real. Grabaciones discos de pizarra 1930'; or 'Por los balcones
del cielo' which appears on 'La
Niña de los Peines. Grandes figuras del flamenco. Vol 3'; or the 'villancicos
de Jerez' included on the compilation 'Rafael
Romero. Grandes Figuras del flamenco'; or 'En el portal de Belén' taken
from 'Pericón
de Cádiz. Historia del flamenco'... The list is endless.
Camarón por villancicos
Carmen Linares
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
|
| |
|
In fact, few have escaped singing christmas songs. Even Camarón
de la Isla succumbed to the temptation, as evidenced by the
gypsy Christmas Eve album 'Nochebuena gitana con Camarón
y Paco de Lucía'. Aside from songs by La Macanita and
Fernando Terremoto, it contains four flamenco Christmas carols
performed by the dynamic duo themselves. This item have been
reissued again and it is availlable for all music lovers,
in any case, it can be also found as part of the complete
Camarón collection 'Integral'.
Also accompanied by the legendary guitarist from Algeciras,
Fosforito gets into the Christmas spirit on 'El niño
dios', a "christmas carol from my village" which
happens to be Puente Genil (Córdoba province). This
track can be found on the double album anthology 'Selección
antológica del cante flamenco'. More recently,
other figures from the world of cante have left their mark
in the form of their interpretation of Christmas. Carmen Linares
and José Menese, for example, as can be heard on the
album 'Así
canta nuestra tierra en Navidad'. Then there's Diego Clavel,
who explores this 'sub-genre' on the disc 'Cantes
flamencos de Navidad'. And, lastly, by Estrella Morente,
princess of young cantaores, who dedicated the whole of her
second disc 'Calle
del aire' to Christmas flamenco with a Granada flavor.
And then there's Jerez...
Although cities like Huelva and Triana do things their own way (as the group
Triana Pura showed on 'De
Triana a Belén'), the Christmas output from Jerez, revolving around
the so-called 'zambomba', deserves a section all to itself. To the sound of this
earthenware drum, whose tense skin vibrates with the to-and-fro of the stick that
passes through it, the inhabitants of the poorer barrios of Jerez get together
in the private patios, yards, plazas or even in the warmth of their homes, to
sing 'villancicos'. And in this case the Christmas carols can be religious or
profane, sometimes poking fun at the church, sometimes raunchy, sometimes with
airs of Spanish or Muslim ballads. And this tradition - one that far from dying
out has seen something of a revival in the last few years - is gradually making
its mark in terms of recordings too. Under the initiative of the Andalusian bank
Caja San Fernando, an annual collection entitled 'Así canta nuestra tierra
en Navidad' has been running since 1982. The collection features local vocalists
as brilliant as La
Macanita, La
Paquera de Jerez, José Mercé, Fernando de la Morena and Chano
Lobato, to name but a few, all under the musical direction of Parrilla
de Jerez. The problem with this outstanding collection is that it is a limited
edition which is not for sale.
Zambomba jerezana with La Macanita
(Frame from DVD 'Flamenco de Carlos Saura')
And the same applies to the tracks recorded by José
Mercé several years ago, which was only available for a short period
of time as a bonus disc accompanying his album 'Del amanecer'. Those who managed
to get a copy can count themselves lucky. As a consolation, there's the 'B side'
of the disc mentioned earlier, which shares the title 'Así canta nuestra
tierra en Navidad', featuring Carmen Linares and José Menese. Considering
this sparse availability, the best option might be to travel to Jerez and experience
this celebration in person. Seville is also attempting to revive the tradition,
with a season of zambombas organized by the city's Biennial Flamenco Festival.
And the buzzing of the zambomba can be heard as far away as Almería this
year, with a program sponsored by the city council. A shot of 'aguardiente' liqueur,
a photocopied lyric sheet and a good atmosphere are the basic ingredients for
putting a little 'jondo' spice into your Christmas.
|
"En el portal de Belén
gitanitos han entrado
y al niño de dios chiquito
le han cantado y le han bailado"
|
"In the stable at Bethlehem
some gypsies have entered
and for the little son of god
they sang and danced"
|
Flamenco-world.com wishes you a happy flamenco Christmas!
| Camarón
de la Isla. Nochebuena Gitana con Camarón y Paco
de Lucía
Polygram, 1973 y 1994
Not even the great
maestros have been able to escape from a flamenco Christmas.
‘Nochebuena gitana con Camarón y Paco de
Lucía’ (‘Gypsy Christmas Eve with
Camarón and Paco de Lucía’) contains
four Christmas cantes recorded by the cantaor from La
Isla and the Algeciras-born guitarist in 1973 at Fonogram
Studios. The voice and toque of maestros, through tangos
and bulerías, embellished with the traditional
accompaniment in refrains by choruses, tambourines and
anisette bottles. ‘La Virgen María’,
‘Un rayo de sol’, ‘Mira qué
bonita’ and ‘A Belén pastores’
are the titles of these popular-style songs, written
by J. Torregosa and A. Sánchez, which offer a
curious look at the prodigious work of this now mythical
pair consisting of Camarón de la Isla and Paco
de Lucía.
The album is complemented with another
five Jerez-style flamenco Christmas carols performed
by La Macanita and Fernando de la Morena, with the guitars
of Manuel Parrilla and Moraíto Chico, and the
collaboration of Manuel Soler on clapping. ‘Si
para venir a Belén’, ‘Bulerías
de la Morena’, ‘Duérmete Jesús
mío’, ‘María, te quiero’
and ‘Compare mío’ are the songs that
both cantaores recorded at Bola Studios in Seville in
1994. All the essence of the ‘zambomba’
contained in this first half of an indispensable album
whose only catch is that it whimsically enters and leaves
the record company catalogue. The consolation is that
when it is unpublished, it is always possible to get
these flamenco Christmas carols in the ‘Rarities’
included in Camarón's ‘Integral’
collection.
|
|
Estrella
Morente. Calle del Aire
Virgin Records, 2001
Estrella
Morente offers, on her second album, a flamenco Christmas with a twist of
Granada. The cantaora tackles a selection of popular songs compiled and adapted
by her father Enrique
Morente. Of the twelve tracks on the album, 'Qué quieres que te traiga,
que voy a Burgos' stands out, being "a song contributed by the Soler family",
who were miners from central Spain that lived in Granada. Summing up the collective
spirit of Christmas there's 'Caracol', a veritable tongue-twister which "grandma
Encarna used to sing, and which Estrella has sung since she was a girl".
The accompaniment comes in true family style: A bottle of aniseed liqueur, tambourine,
drum and bells.
Federico García Lorca, on account of his work to
bring popular songs back to life, is present on 'Los cuatro muleros', a traditional
song made popular years ago by Pepe Marchena, and on 'Canción de los pastores',
collected by the Morente family from Laura García Lorca, who comments that
it was "sung at her family gatherings." There are two samples of Granada's
cultural heritage: the tangos 'Salve gitana del Sacromonte' and 'Calle del aire',
a mixture of the christmas carols sung in the barrio of Albaicín. And to
complement them there's 'Tangos del chavico', "a song of Sephardic Jewish
origin which the Morente family sang at Christmas", and a personal version
of 'Noche de Paz'. In addition, there's a flamenco piece entitled 'Tabanco', where
the cantaora immerses herself in the spirit of Jerez, with a 'bulería por
soleá'. The disc's true Christmas gift is the taranta which a seven-year-old
Estrella Morente sings to Sabicas, and which he, emotionally, sings back to her...
The disc as a whole sums up all that's best about Christmas - enjoyable, family-oriented,
sweet, warm... and flamenco. An essential balance between tradition and modernity.
|
|
Así
canta nuestra tierra en Navidad. Concierto flamenco
RTVE Música, 1995
 |
|
| |
|
Radio Nacional de España made this live recording
at the Teatro Monumental de Madrid on December 18th 1994. And it's a recording
which provides a complete showcase of Christmas flamenco. The concert, which was
broadcast by 21 European radio stations, demonstrated two approaches to this type
of cante: a personal approach, using the voices of Carmen Linares and José
Menese; and the collective approach, performed by the group Manuel Morao and
the Gitanos de Jerez. Carmen
Linares also draws on the the popular songbook Lorca
recorded on piano as La Argentinita sang in 1931, choosing 'Romance pascual
de los peregrinitos' and 'Nana de Sevilla'. And she adds 'Los príncipes
de Oriente', por rondeñas, by Luis Ortiz Muñoz and José R.
Boeta, accompanied by Julio Blasco on bass, José
Antonio Galicia on percussion, Juan Parrilla on flute, Bernardo Parrilla on
violin, and Paco and Miguel Ángel Cortés on guitar. As for José
Menese, he recalls the Christmas carols he heard as a child in his hometown La
Puebla de Cazalla, which were sung by the choir of campanilleros which walked
around the streets of the town. So he sings the tangos 'Iba caminando', the fandangos
'El rey de los cielos' (based on the version by Rafael Romero) and 'Los campanilleros',
based on the version by Manuel
Torre. There are also versions of songs by painter and lyricist Francisco
Moreno Galván on 'Brilló aquella aurora' and 'Descalcito andó'.
The cantaor is backed by guitarists Enrique de Melchor and Antonio Reyes, and
by Faiquillo and Sebastián Manzano who supply 'palmas'. In both cases,
explains José María Velázquez-Gaztelu, they are "Christmas
carols whose origins lie in popular folklore, and which have been elaborated by
cantaores, enriching the aesthetic concepts of yesteryear."
The 'flipside' of the disc shows how Christmas is celebrated
in Jerez. As Velázquez-Gaztelu points out, these are "patio songs
- this was the place where the whole of each family gathered, and to the sound
of guitars, zambombas, bronze bowl-like 'almireces' and tambourines they sing
traditional ballads, coplillas and christmas carols". The Caja San Fernando
Coro de Villancicos and Manuel Morao with the Gitanos de Jerez perform popular
ballads, coplillas and traditional Christmas carols like 'El pollo', 'El melo,
melo', 'Estaba Santa María', 'Villancico de la niña y el soldado'
and 'Calle de San Francisco', rounding off with 'Nochebuena por bulerías'.
The voices which make up the choir belong to Macarena de Jerez, Carmen la Cantarota,
Sonia García, Luis de la Chicharrona, Manuel Fernández el Gordo
and Ángel Vargas; the guitars belong to Fernando Moreno and Antonio Higuero.
Zambombas and tambourines mark the compás for them . An essential work
to understand the spirit of Jerez's zambombas.
|
|
Diego
Clavel. Cantes flamencos de Navidad
Cambayá, 1998
 |
|
| |
|
Diego
Clavel gives campanilleros the flamenco treatment. The cantaor from La Puebla
de Cazalla in the province of Seville, recalls that in his infancy "in the run-up
to Christmas we'd rehearse for months, waiting impatiently for that beautiful
night, when we'd go from street-corner to street-corner singing the Christmas
carols people sang in those days, which have sadly been forgotten and bear no
relation to the ones people sing now." With the aim of "transporting his Christmas
feeling from back then to my world today," he converts the Christmas carols of
yesteryear into fandangos with a hint of Huelva, tangos de Triana, bulerías, sevillanas,
lullabies and alegrías. And the work the cantaor's put in is clear to see, as
he himself compiled all the lyrics. On the album he's accompanied by Paco Cortés
and Fernando Rodríguez on guitar, and María del Carmen Andrade Recio and Amalia
Rodríguez on castanets. A different approach from zambombas.
|
magazine@flamenco-world.com
|
