Carlos Piñana
alive.
Festival de
Jerez 2000
(RealVideo)
View online

Carlos Piñana, guitarist.

At 23 years of age, Carlos Piñana puts forth his second recording: Cal-libiri.
When this Cartagena native completed eight years of classical guitar study, and after receiving awards in the most important flamenco guitar contests, he led a sextet with two Albanians, two Cubans, and two older brothers. Despite all this, flamenco runs long and deep in his family, and is first and foremost in his playing.

How is this different from your previous recording?

It's quite different, because the first one is all about pure orthodox flamenco, and the second is fusion. A lot of cultures are mixed together, flamenco with avant-garde, and classical music and Latin rhythms.

The title, 'Cal-libiri' seems more laid back than the first one, 'El cuidado de la esencia'.

In the first one, I was trying to portray the essence of my family, and the title came from a taranta, a style that my father and grandfather had maintained. The title of the second one comes from the nickname I was given by the Cuban musicians; it's a bit more original.

You can't deny that the group is at least colorful.

Yeah, a friend says I'm a walking human-rights organization.

For example, how did the Cuban percussionist adapt to the bulerías?

The Cubans have an incredible sense of rhythm, with a lot of training, and they've adapted perfectly to the flamenco rhythms. I've been with them for a year or so, but in just two sessions-two parties-they picked up the rhythm. It was harder with the Albanians, because classical musicians are more strict-thinking; they're not accustomed to improvising, and flamenco has a lot of that.

You say that after ten years of studying classical guitar in the conservatory.

Yeah, eight years, but I couldn't really study for two of those years because things came up. Classical and flamenco guitar are incompatible. The techniques are different, and it was tough to keep them both going. In flamenco, you pluck the string with greater force. Paco de Lucía broke the flamenco guitar mold. He was revolutionary, and he was criticized by classical musicians, even Andrés Segovia. There's always been rivalry between the two worlds. In the conservatory it got me hopping angry, and I even went and graduated with special honors. One of the things I gained was the virtuosity in my left hand, and an open mind when composing.

Carlos Piñana at Festival de Jerez 2000
(May, 2nd. 2000)

Excuse the indiscretion, but was your grandfather Antonio as severe as he seemed?

Severe? He used to hit my brother in the head with a stick when he didn't get the singing right. He wanted him to be his inheritor, and he forced those songs on him. He put us all on the right track. He used to get so angry with me... My father was really severe, too. He was my first teacher, then I studied with Manolo Sanlúcar, and I learned a lot from him.

That flute solo that opens the bulerías is going to get you enemies in flamenco…

I don't know... It's a risky job, and the things that are different always get criticized. It opens the CD because it's a strong moment, and because the recording company thought I should do it.

Is it your intention to mix classical, Cuban, and flamenco music?

I'm not out to create fusion, this is just the stuff that's inspired me in the last two years. Without losing the flamenco essence. It's not a question of perverting anything; this is just the way it came out. It's not a fusion recording. I can't present it as a flamenco recording, it's not solo guitar, even if the minera is purely traditional. I'm a flamenco guitarist to the core, but I live with the times, and in the last two years I've been inspired by all of these contacts.

Luis Clemente