Fiesta en el campo

November 27, 2008 Thursday
It has gotten cold here. Winter has arrived with a bang. Sweaters and coats have been unpacked for the first time in a long time. It has been snowing in Northern Spain, but here on the South Coast, it is still just like California.

Last weekend, we were invited to a fiesta outside Jerez with 12, count'em, 12 singers! Unlike our gypsy fiestas, this one was all payos (non-gypsies). There is a difference between the way gypsies and payos do flamenco, but what is the very same is the level of enthusiasm that both groups have. They made a rabbit stew and we started in the afternoon. While we were singing and playing, a cook kept creating new items, so food breaks happened every little while.

In this fiesta, there were some well-known professional singers like Pepe Alconchel, who has a peña in Jerez named after him. Others were just good aficionados, but still great. There is an English guitarist here named Simon who plays really well and can accompany well. That meant that we shared the guitar duties and neither of us got burnt out. At one point, they had me playing Verdiales for half an hour and 4 or 5 singers were taking turns - as fast as one finished a verse, another jumped in.

Here we are in the afternoon with Pepe Alconchel singing and el Ruiseñor sitting next to me.


Here is a video of a singer called el Ruiseñor de Lebrija (mockingbird of Lebrija - a town near Jerez) singing a fandango of Gordito de Triana, a very simple, unadorned style - one of the first ones that I ever learned. He sings a lot of different styles, in fact his last verse is done in a different style. Fandango is his strong suite and he was a total delight.


We had a fabulous time with all of them and continued well on into the evening. Here we are around the campfire.

Tomorrow we drive up to Puertollano where I will be singing along with Carmen Linares (a very famous professional singer).

Another example of Miguel's cante

November 21, 2008
I don't think that this program wants me to upload more than one video per entry, so I'm starting another new one to upload Miguel's siguiriya from the fiesta on the boat. It is interesting that, even his friends and relatives don't have any interest in listening to his siguiriya and they all went outside to smoke cigarettes and talk. Even his wife talked! In the good old days, a singer was measured by the quality of his siguiriya and now.....



But as you can see, Miguel is a fabulous singer. He was not at his best here - I think bothered by everybody talking outside. But he rallied and finished up with a beautiful siguiriya of Manuel Molino. You non-flamencos won't know what that is, but the way he sings is classic gypsy flamenco, rough, primitive, but with a certain something that us non-gypsies never master. He was recovering from a cold, so his voice was not as clear as it would be otherwise.

Nervous, no not me!!!!

November 20, 2008
Last night, we went to a class we've been attending at the Peña Tio Jose de la Paula in the old gypsy barrio Santiago in Jerez. This is a relatively high-level class about the history of flamenco song. They provide a famous artist and guitarist to demonstrate the songs and then at the end, the members of the class are invited to get up and take a try at it. Well, last night they were talking about the Buleria. Jerez considers itself the home of the buleria, so they take it VERY seriously there and so, when I was called up to sing - well, I didn't wet my pants, but close.

Not only were the participants there, a bunch of gypsies had come over from the bar next door including Diego Carrasco (who was the lead singer/guitarist in that show that we showed your previously in Sanlucar a few months ago). So there was a wonderful opportunity to make a complete fool of myself.

But I had been thinking about it all day and had written a verse especially for the occasion:
Mas presumido no se ve
que un guiri cantando flamenco
por la gente de Jerez

More presumtuous there couldn't be
than a foreigner singing flamenco
for the people of Jerez

They loved it. I did that verse first to get it out of the way since I was afraid I'd forget part of it.



In short, it went very well and the audience was very good with me.

Who is Miguel, el gitanillo de bronce.....?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
I've been mentioning Miguel for a number of blog entries, but until now never had anything that I could show you of his art. For the moment, if you go back about three entries to the one called "Fiesta en Chipiona", you will find a sample of his singing por bulerias. He and others from his family have been several times to fiestas on our boat and finally we have some video footage from our own camera. In the meanwhile, you can see the other video.

But who is this Miguel? (This will be of interest to only the hard-core flamencos). Well, he is from one of the most famous gypsy families. There are a group of famous singers all decended from Agujetas el Viego (for whom the local peña is named) - they are Manuel, Gordo (father of Negro Agujetas who is featured in a previous blog), Diego, Luis, Juana and Anglica - the last two girls married US sailors from the base at Rota and now live in the States. All the family of Agujetas el Viejo have are named like Manuel de los Santos Pastor. Well, Miguel's mother was the sister of Agujetas el Viejo and she married into the Pastor family, so Miguel is Miguel Pastor de los Santos. The same two families, but married the other way. So Miguel is from famous bloodlines and has the same family background - gypsy singers learn most of what they know in the beginning from their families.

But not only is Miguel a fabulous singer, but a really fine person. He has lots of afición and is always learning new things. At this minute, he is in Japan where he will sing for 4 days and then come back. He is mostly retired from singing, but given the current economic conditions, is thinking of going back out onto the peña circuit. He has asked me to be his guitarist. Talk about died and gone to heaven!!! So check out the previous video and here are some new ones.

Concurso de Cante en Alcala (singing contest)

November 7, 2008 Friday
Two nights ago, I had one of the best nights of my life and am still floating 2 inches above the ground. I went to sing in a flamenco contest in the town of Alcala de Guadaira. Now in that town, they sing a song called Solea that is famous in all the world of flamenco. When I first started singing some 40-something years ago, that was one of the first things I started to learn and over the years has become my best thing. I could sing that for more than 2 hours without repeating a verse. So when I read that the contest was awarding the biggest prize for the best singer of Solea de Alcala I knew that I had to go and give it a try.
I will digress for a second to note that, for almost 50 years I have been chasing this exotic art form pretty much on my own. Naturally, there was nobody around who could tell me whether or not I was doing it well or badly (other than to say they liked it or didn't). Because Americans naturally don't know the many intricate distinctions that comprise flamenco singing. So when I performed in public, there was applause, but when I executed a particularly difficult part of the song, nobody ever said "ole" because nobody ever knew what I had accomplished. With the exception of a few flamenco hard-core crazies, I never had anyone to even discuss flamenco with. But I had the disease and went on studying and learning for my own satisfaction. I mention all this to provide a context for the way I am feeling now.
So we arrived in Alcala. There were 10 other contestants and each could choose to sing songs in 3 categories. The first was the Solea de Alcala, which had the biggest prize. The second was a group of songs considered "cante jondo" - the serious and deep emotional songs; and the third was a group of everything else in flamenco. I elected to do one song from each group (to maximize my chances of winning something). I was scheduled to compete in the second half of the contest, so we got drinks and a good table and started to watch the show.
Well, some of the other singers were pretty impressive. None of them were gypsies (which means it was sort of like white people singing the blues), but they sang with lots of style, lots of little details and flourishes. It was obvious that they were very advanced singers. In fact, someone said that a lot of these folks follow the singing contest circuit as a way of making money.
Well some were very good, but in spite of all the apparent emotion on the stage, the audience was dead. One guy sang with an intensity that was amazing. He had complete control and amazing technique, but you would have thought that he was in the electric chair, they were turning up the voltage, he was about to die any minute and this was his last message to everyone. And the audience just sat there. Shakespeare's phrase went through my mind "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".
When I saw all that I thought, "well if this is what wins concursos (contests), I don't have a chance because my singing is really primitive in comparison". My singing is primitive because I sing like the primitive singers I learned from. So I wasn't at all sure how the audience would respond to me. I was more nervous than usual. On top of it all, I was playing my own guitar. Some singers brought their favorite guitarist with them and others used the guitarist that was provided (who was excellent), but I am so used to playing for myself that I figured I might as well go with something predictable.
Finally, it was my turn. I climbed onto the stage and started the Solea. I was pleased because the guitar was working well and the first few verses came off perfectly. The second verse I had learned only that morning, so I was afraid that I could forget the words under pressure. So once I had finished that verse, I could coast to the finish line. So I started paying attention to the room. People were shouting jaleo (words of encouragement)! A lot! That hadn't happened all night. I finished the Solea to a big applause. I then sang a siguiriya and then a buleria (you flamenco folks will know what those are, but it doesn't matter). When I did the buleria, Andi, Estela Zatania, and Juan from Jerez got up to do palmas (handclapping). We got it cranked up and the audience started shouting. Andi said, "You rocked the room!" We finished to a huge applause with some people on their feet.
Afterwards, all kinds of folks came over to offer congratulations and praise. The most important praise that I got was from two gypsies who were from the family of Manolito el de la Maria, one of my heroes and someone who I most want to sing like. (My poor children had to grow up listening to Manolito when all the rest of their friends were listening to the Beatles). The gypsies were very happy and enthusiastic. One said that it had been years since he had heard the "eco" (sound) of Manolito sung like that. Both said that the amazing thing about my cante was that I was actually able to transmit the emotion and the audience really felt it. It went on until I was glowing pink to the bottoms of my feet. I don't know if I won anything - there are 4 more days of contest (71 competitors) before we know who the finalists are. But, as an expert on cante, I know that on that night, nobody sang a more pure Solea of Alcala than I did. And if quantity and warmth of applause - and the number of "oles" - is a measure of success, then I won.
This was to die and go to heaven for an artist - to have finally been heard by an audience that is qualified to judge good cante and to have been approved, even celebrated by that audience. If nothing else ever happens for me, this was enough!
I've rambled on and fear that telling all this is to be guilty of hubris, but to whom would I want to share this joy but my family and friends. Forgive me if I went on too long, but I am so happy! I've waited 50 years for this, never really daring to think that it could happen. For the younger folks, the moral of the story is - follow your dream and dare to dream big.

When artists reach some kind of summit, it is customary to give thanks to those who helped along the way. In my case, I owe absolutely everything to my lovely wife who give up a home in the redwoods, a garden, her cats, and her own career in dance, so that we could follow this dream of coming to Spain and sailing. Then she insisted that it was time for me to put my art in front of a real audience and has been a support every inch of the way. To her, the biggest of thanks. And the most moving thing about the contest was how happy and proud of me she was after it was over.

Here is the video of the soleá on YouTube:



And here is the Siguiriya - the singing is something that I have sung for years, but I was very proud of the guitar work since I made it all up in the moment except for the introduction":

Rain, colds, and lots of flamenco...

November 4, 2008 Tuesday
And we are watching election results like the rest of you and all of Spain. The US elections are HUGE here and every channel is giving it major coverage. The final results won't be in until daybreak tomorrow here - 10PM in California. It being morning, we may not open a bottle of champagne on getting the results even though it seems like some kind of celebration would be appropriate.
It has rained in Spain and not just on the plain. This has been the wettest October ever and it has extended all the way through Europe. Even Yemen has had serious flooding. In the mountains there has already been snow. So October was a month of transition where I learned to put on clothing upon arising in the morning. And the sweaters got found and we even used the heater a few times. It hasn't really been cold. We are on the same latitude as Santa Maria, CA or North Carolina, and it has been in the 70's most days. The nights fell into the 60's. The shorts have been replaced by Levis.
We've been sharing a cold with our local flamenco community. It laid me low for about a week and now Andi has it. These are some germs that are new to our systems, so we have to build up some resistance. In the meanwhile, buy stock in Kleenex.
Flamenco gets busier and busier. That's good because we don't know any Americans here. We are in total Spanish immersion. A day ago, we had a recording session here on the boat with Negro (pronounced nay-gro, not nee-gro) Agujetas. He is the son of Gordo Agujetas and the grandson of Agujetas el Viejo, for whom the local peña is named. This is a very famous gypsy family and we have been hanging out with several of them. The other one is Miguel, el Gitanillo de Bronce. You will hear more about him later. But Negro has been getting serious about singing for the last year. Before that, he was like a lot of kids who want to grow up and be different from their parents. He liked pop music, but then something changed and now he is crazy for flamenco - maybe worse than me. We had a long video session and recorded quite a few things. I'll give you a sample at the end of a video that I edited.
Not only that, but last Friday we went to a peña in Jerez to see Mercedes Ruiz dance. She is one of Andrea's favorites. This Thursday, I have to accompany Miguel for a program on local TV. Friday, we drive up to Alcalá for a singing contest. I don't expect to win anything, but it's nice that I get to be there. Next week, Rota TV is going to do an hour-long program on us - part of which will be dancing and singing - the other part will be an interview about our adventures. The second part is way more intimidating because talking well is harder than singing well. Whew! So we are staying out of trouble - but still love it when we get emails from you.
Here is the video: use the controls to make it play - it may take a minute...