Paco Ortega
Interview

Paco Ortega, apart from being a musician and composer, is also the producer of Niña Pastori's albums. We spoke with him about "Las tres mil viviendas" (The 3000 dwellings), at a recording studio in Madrid.

Flamenco-world.com: What are "Las 3000 viviendas"?

Paco Ortega: "Las 3000 viviendas" is an almost unthinkable project which has come true after three years; in 1996 I was at the sierra de Cádiz (mountain region in southern Spain) recording an album for a band formed by two musicians called "Gritos de guerra", and we decided to go up to Seville, where the concerts of the Bienal were taking place, to take a break. Then one of the members of Gritos de guerra told me that he had managed to organize the people of the area of the "3000 viviendas"(neighborhood in Seville), and that they were presenting a show called "Viejo Patio" at the Bienal. He invited me to see it, I was completely fascinated by it, and I immediately came up with the idea of recording this show in an album, with all the possible complications that that would bring with it...

FW: How did you select the artists that make an appearance in the CD?

Many were at the Bienal, and I already liked them when I saw them there, and others I met when I visited the area where they live. After some time, I started to get to know some of the people of this area, and each one led me to the next member of the community.

FW: Many of them had never had access to a studio. How can you reflect what you had seen in the streets or on stage when you go into the studio?

With a lot of patience and trying to create a comfortable scenario for them to express themselves in a natural way. Creating the adecuate environment for the artist to develop all of their art and personal way of expression is the most important task of a good producer. I chose a very special studio, at the sierra de Cádiz, in an isolated country area. It is not the ground floor of a building, but a cabin in the country with large windows, with asses peeking into the windows, you could see all kinds of animals, and everyone was pleased and relaxed, with no hurries; we would decide to meet at noon and they would arrive at 7 in the afternoon and it would be OK; we would go and have a beer, we would go to sleep, we would decide to see if we could meet the next day, and when the time was right, and they were full of inspiration, I would record their performances.

FW: You would let the master tape record...

We used meters and meters and hours and hours of tape.

FW: Then you have more music recorded from those sessions.

Yes, I have much more material. This album finishes off with the children, with a song we call "Savia nueva" (new life); you see, instead of being opportunistic, because the kids can give you a lot of publicity, I decided to include only a small piece, as if to say:"this is what's up and coming..", but I limited this to a little bit more than two minutes, when I had over an hour and a half of kids singing.

FW: Will there be a part two?

Yes, but not with the recordings obtained for this album. I think that I have already included the best of what I recorded, and I wanted to do a second part with the youngsters, with a more electric sound... bass, drums, electric guitars, the opposite of "Viejo patio"; the young ones there play blues, rock, there are D.J's, an incredible atmosphere; they are the next generation, and I have the people that could be there.

FW: And what about live performances?

Since "las 3000" originated in a live performance, we would just have to go back to that formula, and since we have so many artists in this neighborhood, we don't depend on any fixed artists; maybe one day "el Torombo" will dance and the next day it will be someone else.

FW: Were there any problems with people who wanted to participate in the album?

Yes, there was a bit of everything; kids that sing as solo performers there are two or three, but cheering and setting the rhythm with the clapping of their hands we had ten or twelve kids; there were always people who wanted to appear and others whom we discovered after the recording had been finished, even now this happens, as we are promoting the album with some new kids who weren't there when we made the album.

In this place, music surges as a form of expression which the kids are familiar with since they are born, because they cannot understand that there may be other forms of expression, since they see that in their houses people eat, sleep, sing, dance, and embrace life; that is what they, in turn, do. Their academy is life itself.

FW: This is a very poor neighborhood in which great names of traditional flamenco live

There are some who have arrived at a good economic situation because they have obtained some success, like Juana la del Revuelo, or before that Rafael and Raimundo Amador, or Aurora Vargas, but they still live there and never leave; they still live in their houses, with their same customs, doing the same things, the same cooking pots, but now they live well, and enjoy living well, eating well, having good cars, and always having spare money for a drink.

FW: Once the album was recorded, was it easy to edit it and release it, with the support of the prestige that the name Paco Ortega, already with some commercial successes behind it, gives?

Not really. Now it is less difficult than before, but sometimes you still have problems. I have an album by Elena Andújar finished and ready, but it still has not been released, and the album of "las 3000" was supposed to have been released by a label that later decided they didn't want this project, so I had to pay for it and release it with my own company in association with EMI. This is the way that the album of "Dieguito el Cigala" was released, too, and it's what happens when you make a brave bet on something.

FW: Even though it seems easy to say for the onlookers that Paco Ortega only produces the most commercial products.

That is easy to say after things have been done. When Niña Pastori had only sold three thousand copies in a month, all of the members of the specialized media supported her as something pure and really powerful, and when she had an outstanding success, then they say hat she is very commercial in her style. It is true that I make records that are very close to the sensibility of the everyday, apparently commercial albums, but it is also true that they are very well sung and recorded, with good musicians and technical equipment, with carefully written texts... I make records for those who are not members of the "critics".

FW: It is true that your work is well liked by the flamenco musicians...

That must be because I have also always respected them profoundly, and because I have never said that I was very flamenco, or that I know a lot about flamenco. No way. I am not a flamenco person; I like it a lot, I have a good tune and instinct for it but, because of my culture, I am a hybrid who has nurtured himself from the fountains of pop and of many other types of music.

magazine@flamenco-world.com