The book contains audition guides to all of the cantaor's discography

S.C.O. Madrid, November 2003
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

'Camarón vida y obra' ('Camarón's Life and Work') is presented as "the definitive biography" of the cantaor. The book, in which whose authors, José Manuel Gamboa and Faustino Núñez, invested three years of work, is divided into two parts. On the one hand, it compiles all the information known about the artist's life, based on numerous statements by his colleagues, many of them previously unpublished. On the other hand, it offers a conscientious dissection of all the artist's discography. The aim of these six hundred pages, according to Gamboa, is "to help all people with sensitivity to keep on being surprised when listening to Camarón, who sings better every day. The book is the perfect complement to the records".

José Manuel Gamboa and Faustino Núñez

The presentation of this new contribution to the 'camaronian' bibliography took place on Thursday, November 20th, 2003 at the headquarters of the Spanish Authors Society (SGAE), the publisher. With this publication, which sees the light a few days after the biography 'Paco de Lucía en vivo' ('Paco de Lucía Live'), the society says it has settled "SGAE's debt to the figure of Camarón with this book which does justice to one of the flamenco greats". Next, the floor went to Faustino Núñez, the book's co-author. The musicologist, arrangement writer and guitarist of 'Fuenteovejuna' by Antonio Gades, explained that it is a personal tribute to one of our favorite artists, "who marked a turning point in flamenco, he opened the way to new arrivals and even today is among enthusiasts' favorites". Núñez specified that the book is "an artistic biography and an analysis of his work, with audition guides to find lyrics and flourishes, with an index of names".

José Manuel Gamboa, author of works such as the didactic book/record 'Cante por cante', started off the book's presentation joking: "It has two sides to it: it can be used for culture and to defend yourself in case of assault". Gamboa related that "its publishing was consciously delayed to avoid it coinciding with the tenth anniversary and thus avoid any suspicion. This is not a work done to be a commercial hit, but rather a serious book which goes over Camarón's work, song by song, album by album, date by date". The writer's wish is for enthusiasts to be able to "delve deeply into the knowledge of the albums" by the cantaor and, in passing, for the sales to increase this Christmas. About the biography, he pointed out that there are "new contents, opinions of many artist colleagues which are new, but we don't try to surprise, but rather to speak about Camarón as an artist".

Luis Monje and Juan Luis Cano

Faustino Núñez

In this sense cantaora Carmen Linares spoke, for whom "Camarón was a great worker and a reference. He didn't know how to sing any other way than giving his soul, all his truth. And I say this because of the great admiration I have for him". Upon the arrival at the ceremony of Luis Monge, Camarón's son, to show his family's gratitude, the cantaora told an anecdote: "Driving back from a performance, he was sick and had only been able to perform for twenty minutes (enough to drive the audience crazy). Camarón told us that you were bent on him buying you a jet... but a jet ski. Did he buy it for you?". And his son, who is now preparing remixes of songs by his father, replied "skis yes, but not jet".

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