The French guitarist is already preparing 'Sinfonía Flamenca'
('Flamenco Symphony'), his next album

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, April 22nd, 2003

When Juan Carmona went to the Fez Festival he started to put two and two together: "I was amazed to see that Moroccan musical feeling was very close to flamenco. In fact, in Marrakech they do the same taconeo (heel tapping)". And that's how the idea popped up to do 'Orillas', a record which, as José Manuel Gamboa explains, proposes a happy mestization between the closest Mediterranean musics". The French guitarist did the album's composition work in Marseilles... The hard part came when he tried to put everything that was cooking in his mind into notes. He looked for lute players like Saïd Chraïbi, orchestras like the Morocco Philharmonic... "and I was lacking the equivalent in flamenco, so I got in touch with la crème de la crème": Antonio Canales, Montse Cortés, Potito, Carles Benavent, Jorge Pardo...

	Juan Carmona (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Due to questions of time and distances, the idea of bringing together the musicians from both shores was ruled out, so "what I did was rehearse a lot with the Moroccans and left the gaps for the flamencos". And he recorded the album between Morocco, Madrid, Barcelona and Marseilles. Conclusion? "You have to be crazy to do a production like this because in music you never know what the result's going to be; there's usually a big difference between what you have in mind and what comes out. No matter how much you calculate the tones, inevitably, everything ends up changing".

Even so, the prior structure was solid. And the introductory theme is an example. "The record begins with a rondeña. Curiously, the ambience at the square in Fez that sounds is similar to the ambience at the market square in Jerez, where all the families are selling fish. I made a connection between both places because the rondeña's intonation has to do with rhythms that are played there, and also there the mixture of bulerías with gnawa sound".

Universal versus local

Juan Carmona faced extra difficulties. And so he explained at El Corral de la Morería, the Madrilenian tablao where on April 22nd, 2003 he presented his album sponsored by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. "For us foreigners, it's not easy to be here, since the best artists are from here. If, for instance, you go to Japan, it takes you many years to learn the language, to understand the culture, and that's why I went to Jerez, a city I hated as much as I loved. Hate, because they told me that I spent more time with the ones at la Plazuela than with the ones in Santiago... Someone coming from the outside finds it strange in the sense of the outlook on life. On the other hand, Jerez has given me a great deal. 'Borboreo' - the title of one of his previous albums - means Jerez. I was lucky enough to play for all of them there: Agujetas, Fernandito Terremoto, Sordera... And the thing is that before making the record... I think a person has to know how to walk before he runs; and in flamenco, walking is knowing where the cantes are going". With the foundation laid down, Carmona knew that "I wanted to do my own thing... and I owe a lot to Isidro Muñoz. I myself realized that I was involved in something that was not me. I respect Moraíto, but that's his thing, I could never do those kinds of flourishes. I was born in Lyon, my culture is French... though I don't know what culture I have because in France I'm the Spaniard and in Spain I'm the Frenchman".

Juan Carmona (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

On this point, José Manuel Gamboa, the presentation's master of ceremonies, comments with subtle irony that at a time when flamenco texts talk about the universalization of this art, they go on falling into that micro-localism which is not even from a region, nor a province, nor a city and not even a neighborhood, but rather even from a family... or from a branch of that family, as Juan Carmona himself experienced. And that is one of the reasons why journalists defend 'Orillas', "a record that drinks from here and there, made by a guitarist who wasn't born in Spain". It also stands out for being an "album where mestization is tackled not from the primitive modal perspective, but rather from the harmony sought by contemporary guitarists like Paco de Lucía, Serranito and Manolo Sanlúcar". And moreover for coming out in "times not very favorable for going from one shore to the other...".

And he perseveres in said enterprise... Although he promised himself that he wouldn't record again after 'Orillas', "I've already gotten myself into another mess, since artists are always seeking something they're never going to find, to move up a step". Juan Carmona is already preparing 'Sinfonía Flamenca' ('Flamenco Symphony') , "an album also with an orchestra which I want to sound flamenco to the max, for it to be flamenco through and through". The planning has already been sketched out. The guitarist's upcoming record will be taken on tour this summer to countries like France and Tunisia and will be recorded in September with the intention of being released in spring of next year.

magazine@flamenco-world.com