little tomatoborn José Fernández Torres (Almería, 1958) will always be the guitarist who accompanied Camarón de la Isla when the duo he formed with Paco de Lucía broke up. His musical career practically started with the cantaor, and he spent 18 years with him, during which he recorded some of his most memorable albums (the legend of time, I am gipsytogether with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the direct Paris 1987 either Pony of rage and honey). Forced to reinvent himself after that fateful August 1992 in which the singer died, this gypsy guitarist has not only developed an extensive career as solo flamenco guitaristbut has also experienced exchanges with jazz, classical music and has composed for the theater and for the cinema (for the soundtrack of Come, by Tony Gatlif, received a César Award in 2001). Even, a few years ago, she dared to record with the king of bachata Romeo Santos (on your disk my saint, published in 2012). He now continues to give concerts and on Tuesday, October 18, will be the in charge of opening the XVII Summa Flamenca, flamenco festival of the Community of Madrid. caters to THE NEWSPAPER OF SPAINfrom the Prensa Ibérica group, by phone from Almería, where he lives.
P. You have had great professional experiences in Madrid, which for a time was the capital of the Flemishan unavoidable place to make a name for yourself in this art.
A. Yes, the singer Pansequito brought me to Madrid when I was a child. He took me to play with him at Torres Bermejas, one of the great tablaos of that time, and it was a wonderful time. I was a child, it was before I joined Camarón. It is always said that I started with Camarón, hardly anyone remembers that Pansequito brought me to Madrid before. It was a small but wonderful stay, and I will always be very grateful for that.
Q. The great names of that generation passed through Torres Bermejas in the 1970s. In addition to Camarón, Paco Cepero, Carmen Linares, Enrique Morente, Pepe Habichuela… Did you match any?
A. Well, I remember the dancer Manuela Carrasco a lot, how wonderful! She was a girl too, but what a beauty, how she danced she & mldr; Unforgettable. We were children, we went with great enthusiasm.
Q. How do you see today’s guitarists? Do you think flamenco guitar is experiencing a good moment in terms of composition and performance?
A. Yes, but there is one important thing: I wouldn’t like the respect for cante to be lost. Because you can invent, create or recreate what has been created, because everything is already done, but it is important to play for cante, because the voice is the most important instrument in flamenco and the guitar must accompany and imitate it. That’s why the melodies that stay for a lifetime can be sung.
Q. Recently, at Seville’s Bienal de Flamenco, you could be seen as a spectator of the cantaora Rosario The Tremendouswhich featured six guitarists at the premiere of their show Beginning and origin. What did you think of her?
A. Very interesting. I think it’s good that he always remembers the flamenco styles but he also wants to reinvent himself and that the youth like it. And this is important, that young people like it, because when we did The Legend of Time With Camarón, people told us: “Well, what are these people about?” It was not understood, but thanks to that album there were many people who did not know flamenco or who saw it from far away who came to meet other artists, such as La Niña de los Peines or Manuel Torres, as I was able to fall in love from by Paco de Lucía to the guitar playing of Ramón Montoya, Sabicas or Niño Ricardo. From this type of proposals you learn what the deepest flamenco is. Flamenco is the feeling of a people, of course, it’s root music, but it’s interesting that there are these types of proposals to get closer and then be able to go deeper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSOq2-U-bag
P. I imagine that this is something that you can see now after the passage of time, but I wonder if you lived with that idea the recording of that revolutionary album, the legend of time.
A. No, of course not. I didn’t understand it and I didn’t like it. I told Camarón: “José, let’s go, this is very ugly.” Andalusian rock musicians from back then came, who were some of the authors of the songs and they played and I didn’t understand anything. And Camarón told me: “Don’t pay attention to this, this has nothing to do with us, then we do things our way.” “But José, this is not flamenco”, I told him. “You trust me & rdquor ;, he told me. And in the end, it turns out that he was right. I was 17 or 18 years old, I had been accompanying Camarón for a couple of years, because I met him when I was 15 years old. Camarón picked me up from school to take me to play with him. My poor mother did not want me to go with him, but my father, a little more intelligent, convinced her: “we are going to leave him, and if we see that it is not going well, he will no longer play the guitar & rdquor ;, he told her. And I behaved well, I behaved well.
A. No, of course not. I didn’t understand it and I didn’t like it. I told Camarón: “José, let’s go, this is very ugly.” Andalusian rock musicians from back then came, who were some of the authors of the songs and they played and I didn’t understand anything. And Camarón told me: “Don’t pay attention to this, this has nothing to do with us, then we do things our way.” “But José, this is not flamenco”, I told him. “You trust me & rdquor ;, he told me. And in the end, it turns out that he was right. I was 17 or 18 years old, I had been accompanying Camarón for a couple of years, because I met him when I was 15 years old. Camarón picked me up from school to take me to play with him. My poor mother did not want me to go with him, but my father, a little more intelligent, convinced her: “we are going to leave him, and if we see that it is not going well, he will no longer play the guitar & rdquor ;, he told her. And I behaved well, I behaved well.
R. Unfortunately, when Camarón was missing I had to become a soloist. I started playing alone because the singers didn’t want me. No one called me, not from the festivals, or anything. And since I am in love with the instrument, I started playing alone until I was invited to a Frank Sinatra tour when he came to Spain, I was the opening act for him, and there I started a new career.
Q. Then came the albums with the jazz pianist Michel Camilo. That had to be another discovery, right?
A. He spent a long time looking for me and proposing that we play together and I didn’t want to, because I was with my flamenco and I didn’t want to mix with other styles. But they invited me to play at a jazz festival at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona where Michel Camilo was also present, each one with his concert, and he told me: “why don’t we do a fear together or two?” We did Spain, by Chick Corea, and the Palau came under applause. Later he suggested that I do a tour of Japan and we were playing pieces by Piazzola. I fell in love with Piazzola when I was in Argentina playing with a great Argentine guitarist named Luis Salinas, one of the best guitarists in the world for me and a great friend, and it seemed like very emotional music, it gets into your soul. So I learned some songs and did them with Michel Camilo on the Japan tour and we were so successful that when we came back it was when we decided to go into the studio and make the album. Spain. And there she started everything else. Now we continue, because on November 9 I am going to do something with him too.
Q. A few months ago I interviewed Miguel Marín, director of the New York and London Flamenco Festival, and he commented that in the festival’s more than 20 years of existence, he remembered as the most exciting moment a concert you did with Enrique Morente at the Carnegie Hall in 2005. How do you remember that meeting?
R. Well, it was a great concert, but it happened thanks to a technical failure. The monitors began to fail and the entire amplification system fell apart. And Enrique, instead of stopping, told me: “Come on, come on, without monitors or microphones or anything, go ahead!” And Enrique sang to die for, really, it was memorable. And on top of that he got angry, because the sound technician recorded all his performances and he didn’t record that one and he was so pissed off, I remember, because there is no memory of that concert with how wonderful it was.
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Q. On the 18th the Suma Flamenca de Madrid opens with a concert called From the Plaza Vieja to the Plaza de Santa Ana. What other projects do you have?
R. I have a new album that I’m preparing, flamenco. Let’s see if I can finish it not too late and we can present it soon.
Big names and a Madrid accent for the Summa Flamenca
Between October 18 and November 6 the festival Flemish sum It includes concerts and dance shows distributed by different theaters in the Community, mainly in the capital. Under the artistic direction of Antonio Benamargothe 2022 edition of this already classic event (it is number 17) includes some of the most established artists, but it also tries to emphasize names that were either born in Madrid or have grown artistically in the region (such as Paco del Pozo, Juan Carmona Habichuela, Josemi Carmona, or José Maya, among others). In addition to Tomatito, who will open the event, there will be Mayte Martín, Rafael Riqueni, Esperanza Fernández, El Pele, Dorantes, Dani de Morón, Patricia Guerrero, Rosario La Tremendita, Capullo de Jerez and the two winners of the most recent Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, Maria Pages and Carmen Linares.