El Lebrijano, flamenco
cantaor. Interview
“Many sing well,
but... and what else?”
Silvia Calado. Madrid, June 2008
Cuando Lebrijano canta se moja el agua,
Gabriel
’94, Seville
... ever since Gabo wrote those
words (‘When Lebrijano sings, water gets wet’)
on a paper napkin, Juan
Peña ‘El Lebrijano’ has been trying
to decipher the dedication. “That’s a funny
compliment!”, the cantaor exclaims. What has always
been clear to him was how to return it: by transforming
into cante the atmosphere and flamenco feeling latent
in the literary work of the Colombian Nobel Prize winner.
How? Well, first, Casto Márquez excerpted the lyrics
from several novels. Next, the cantaor recorded the vocals,
just in time before he became seriously ill. Then Dorantes
and Pedro María Peña imagined what magical
realism sounds like. And now there’s an album, bonds
between Lebrija and Macondo... and health.
Lebrijano (Photo
Daniel Muñoz)
Following the prior work of adapting
the texts, how were the vocals and music done on this
album?
First, we more or less did a general
rehearsal and mental purging. Since they (David
Peña ‘Dorantes’ and Pedro
María Peña) were the producers, I wasn’t
going to interfere in their work; far from it. I told
them that whatever they did was it. Even though they’re
nephews, you have to have some norms. When they told me,
I stuck in the vocals. And every once in a while I would
ask them, can I say something? Of course, uncle. And if
we do it like this? Yeah, yeah. But really, yeah? What’s
really been done is what they wanted. The thing is that
I’m a joker and every once in a while I asked them
why this and not that. It was to add a bit of wit to the
matter. You have to delegate because if not, I’d
be the producer. It’s impossible.
And were the vocals before the
music?
I started to stick in the vocals first.
The opposite to everyone else, who normally do the music
first. Since we sing out of inspiration and we play out
of inspiration, I knew that if they did the music first,
they were going to tie me down. And more so on this album
where there’s no rhyme, but rather it’s prose.
I can lengthen it or not, how are they going to know where
I finish? And once the vocals had been stuck in, they
got down to work. Of course, I left the choruses with
the lines to follow. I did them first.
They have a real ‘lebrijano’
trademark...
| |
Lebrijano (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
| |
|
When they came in, the main lines had
them. Then there are choruses in which you can hear me,
because I knew they weren’t going to be able to
do them alone, since they’re used to singing in
rhyme. So they just had to listen to it for a couple of
days before sticking in the vocals and then when I finished,
they started to listen and to get hold of the prose. Little
by little, they got used to the prose. Even so, they told
me, “maestro, don’t give us any other little
numbers like this”.
Was it very hard for you to take
those texts to cante?
Well, yeah, it was hard, but I had an
advantage. I’ve sung a lot with Arabs and I’ve
gotten away from traditional meter on many occasions.
That helped me to be able to sing in prose. I came with
a little experience. I already came with the idea of singing
in four and a half; I have a soleá recorded that
way, which Juan Reina has. In principle, it’s impossible,
but it worked out. I’ve had a lot of experiences
with Arabs at my house, not just on records, but personally.
I’ve also listened to a lot of Indian music, which
gets away from our schemes. And things like that. I’ve
had a career of listening to a lot of music. I don’t
do it because... I do it because I think I can do it,
because if not, I wouldn’t have sat down and started
doing something with Gabriel’s work. The good thing
about this is that it’s already done. Now they’ll
come and they’ll say “how easy”. It’s
not easy. Even so, it’ll be hard for them.
At the same time, those challenges
cause creation in cante, don’t they?
It’s a creation hugely. Just think
how much it is because you always sing in rhyme, and more
rhyme. And now the schemes are broken and you have to
sing in free prose... and tied down, because the time
has to be there. If you get away from the time, it’s
no good.
And what happened when you listened
to the result?
| |
Lebrijano (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
| |
|
I stuck in the vocals, and I unfortunately
became ill. David left for Tokyo, on his return I finished
sticking in the vocals and he must have been studying
what it was going to be like, since he’d already
heard how I was going. He surely must have gone over it
in his mind there. I couldn’t follow up the creative
part of his because I had surgery (the doctors took a
long time to detect the illness and had to give me an
emergency operation). I have fifty-two stitches. I got
really scared. The album needed to have ten songs and
it has nine because I couldn’t do any more. My nephews
went to see me when they could, because they were really
busy and then I’d ask them. But they told me not
to worry, that everything was going well, that I’d
done it really well. When they gave me the album already
finished, I broke down and cried... They had to stop playing
it for me and everything. I thought I was going to die;
I saw the end really near... After listening to it I knew
those kids had made a privilege, a work of art. The album
has lineage, it has progress and it has a cachet you wouldn’t
believe.
How is it that you veterans keep
on opening new roads? What’s going on with young
people?
Because young people don’t have
the ability, they don’t have courage. We set off
down that path. I don’t think they have the foundation
laid out solidly. But even so, afterwards they might not
have the ability. There are many who sing. The three of
us who have broken the mold are Camarón, Enrique
Morente and I. The rest, the thing is you say you sing
well, but... and what else? The first thing you have to
have is vocalization. Language is something that if you
don’t understand what I’m singing to you,
how is it going to hurt? If I’m not singing the
bit about “no one writes to the colonel and no one
attends to his wife”, well uttered, you aren’t
going to like it. Or about Cándida Eréndira.
You have to sing clearly, with vocalization. Those things
worry me when I’m recording. Because, well, you’re
at a party and you more or less go through the lyrics,
but in a serious recording, you have to try to do things
well.
And daring...
Daring, but with limits. How far shall
I go? And above all, being self-critical. Because I’m
my own top critic. I tell my nephews to tell me things,
since we’re inventing something new... And they
answer me that they can’t tell me anything, because
I’m laying down the guidelines. I’ve had extraordinary
collaboration from them. And then, for example, I’ve
had the ones clapping with me for like fifteen years.
They even know my breathing. One of them knows all my
lyrics and stands next to me. We do shows with Arabs,
we do flamenco shows and now this. So with so many things
on my mind, if I go blank, the guy to my right helps me
out.
How have you searched for García
Márquez’s flamenco feeling?
Lebrijano (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
|
| |
|
What Gabriel writes seems to have been
done by a flamenco. Yes. That magic they talk about with
Gabriel is on the album; it’s floating. And I think
David also gives it a lot of magic, that piano... Apart
from the career he’s leading, I’d like never
ever to part with my nephews again because I enjoy myself
with them; the thing is that they boost me on and off
stage. And they also take care of me a lot. But at night
they mess around with me like you wouldn’t believe...
I sing better with Dorantes than with a guitar, which
is kick-ass. The seguiriya is bloodcurdling. Every time
he plays a note, it’s the right one.
Do you have to know that literary
work deeply in order to make an album like this?
I’ve read basically what we’ve
all read by García Márquez: ‘One Hundred
Years of Solitude, a ‘must’, ‘No One
Writes to the Colonel’, and the latest one, ‘Memories
of My Melancholy Whores’. I said so to Casto Márquez,
who knows his entire work. He’s a friend of mine
and has collaborated with me a lot. And I asked him to
look for ten themes that I didn’t know. He’s
adapted it with feeling, without losing the harmony; it’s
all magical...
And moreover, García Márquez
has given his approval...
If not, it couldn’t be done. The
thing is that Gabriel’s publisher is very serious
in these matters. And first we sent them the songs, but
they resisted because they didn’t know about the
friendship we have. So we informed them, I sent them the
dedication... I understand perfectly well that Gabriel’s
work can’t be touched. But they sent everything
to him and two months later they answered me in writing,
and moreover, he told me to do what I wanted, to sing
whatever I wanted. That’s out of friendship and
the affection we have for one another. I’ve been
Gabriel’s friend since ’86... forever. I have
respect for him, admiration, affection, in love with him,
I’m everything.
Do you keep racking your brains
over the dedication?
The thing is that the dedication is funny.
It’s a little gift there... oh yeah! It’s
the greatest thing I could be told. I’m as proud
as a peacock about that. And I’ve returned that
compliment to him with his lyrics, with his literature,
the CD being tinier, without so many sheets... but with
a lot of affection.
