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"HE SINGS BETTER EVERYDAY"
10th Chapter of:
CAMARON DE LA ISLA: COMPLETE RECORDINGS.
by JOSE MANUEL GAMBOA RODRIGUEZ
Two years would pass before Camarón
would return to the world of records, most of that time being spent in dodging
the critics and specialist with a desire for argument and chatter. The 80's decade,
in which the Camarón phenomenon acquired its fill magnitude, is inaugurated
with a re-encounter in the recording studios with Paco de Lucía. José,
Paco, Tomatito, Pepe de Lucia and Ricardo Pachón were the creators of this
acoustic "Como el agua". The production of Ricardo Pachón, with the direction
of Paco de Lucía, is impeccable. The flamenco voice of the "cantaor" is
sweet and inflicts pain as never before, and the guitars ...never have accompanying
guitars been heard like this on a record. Simply superb. It could be said that
Pepe de Lucía is the soul of this album,as he signed the authorship of
most of the cuts. He only shares the credits with José Monje in "La luz
de aquella farola", and the "bulería" "Gitana te quiero", originally by
José Monje and Antonio Humanes, is not his. The illustrations on the record
cover introduce us into the secret world of the recording studio. There we see
Camarón wearing headphones before his enemy the microphone, which looks
like a fearsome insect. But he is content. It seems that there is a good atmosphere,
and the report on the back jacket cover confirms it, they are having fan. They
are doing something good.
The album is full of "lolailos",
"lereles" and repetitive choruses, in other cases abonimable, but with Camarón
sound glorius. The tango "Como el agua" is catchy and undisputably flamenco, and
"Tu amor para mí no es fantasía" loses the slight rumba character
of the previous cuts to concentrate itself on the classic rhythm of the tango.
Of the three "bulerías" we most prefer "Quiero quitarme esta pena", and
particularly the verses where he signs "a veces se me olvida la razón",
wich are full of beauty, and wich Paco uses musically to compose a "falseta" he
plays in "La luz de aquella farola". In this "cante" the voice of Camarón
full of "duende" (charm) flows in time with with dizzying rhythms. The "alegrías",
which have a lot of influence from Morente, are at the level of the rest and in
them the guitars commit authentic devilry. In the fandangos of Huelva, marked
by the rhythmic banging of knuckles on wood, in the "onubense" manner, the catchy
chorus is used and they are superb. We leave for the end the "tarantas" (the credits
say "tarantos"), which Pepe de Lucía claims as his, calling them "En tu
puerta da Ia luna", an old "taranta" of Málaga by Fernando "el de Triana"
that we know from the recordings on slate of the "Cojo de Málaga".
To be continued
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