A decade later… and still a desolate vacuum
THERE ARE MOMENTS that forever remain imprinted in our consciousness, engraved on the general map of our lives, no matter how much the ‘wear and tear’ may affect us.
I cannot forget the excitement of seeing snow for the first time in Córdoba, aged three or four, rushing to walk on it only to slip straight away and fall on my behind! Or when I discovered the sea, in Cádiz.
I also don’t forget the tense moments, full of trembling emotions when my mother left the house every day before dawn to go to the sellers-market with empty pockets, to start the daily adventure of acquiring, on credit, vegetables that she would then sell on her stall in order to settle with the provider, always making sure there was something left to feed all eleven of us; or the many tough struggles that would often make their appearance too.
Special, magical dates like Christmas day, with the expectation of delicious ‘perrunas’, biscuits my mother made only once a year; or Easter with its extraordinary rites and the excitement of kids staying up very late, way past their usual bedtime; All Saints Day, looking forward to the typical ‘gachas’, a sugar and cinnamon gruel (yum!). Or the “verbenas’, open fiestas in the nearest square… So many memorable days, expected every year with avid anticipation…
And then of course, the other unexpected occasions, like that night when I felt a massive surge of emotion and nerves, when I met the young artist everybody was talking about. A kid who was upending all the patterns we were following at that time, not only flamenco guitarists but all other aficionados, whether professionals or casual lovers of this art.
I was in Madrid visiting some colleagues in the club where they worked, and Paco showed up accompanied by his father. The whirlwind he caused that night was a really clear sign of how deep his influence was being felt… Or better said, how fundamental the influence of that young genius already was!
Inevitably, there are also anniversaries of a different kind, just as impossible to forget. Ones that emotionally bring you back to the day in which destiny tore something away from you - something that you felt was yours, not because you owned it, but because it occupied a space in your consciousness that made it part of your being.
We are now in one of those unforgettable moments, an anniversary of the fateful day when we lost the person and the musical genius that we most loved, since he was installed in the deepest space of our sensitivity.
Paco left us ten years ago today, and so today is of course a date of terrible sadness. But at the same time I can’t stop thinking that it is also a date full of wonderful memories of happiness, of the fundamental enrichment that his art had brought to our feelings; of the rich gift that his legacy represents.
I have said on some occasion that I am happy when I think of beloved people who are no longer with us… This happens with Paco, though now and then reality sneaks in and I feel torn, profoundly moved with the realisation that he is not among us anymore.
It happens that every time I listen, as I have done many times, to his posthumous recording ‘Canción Andaluza’, I have to confess I always well up. And it is not sadness that I feel but happiness and proximity, enormous satisfaction, even rapture at being able to enjoy a product so well realised. A project of exquisite sensitivity that inspires and stirs, particularly if you have grown up listening to those songs, or ‘coplas, on the radio (all we had at that time) or listening to them in the voice of some of the women or girls of the shared house, while they were going about their domestic responsibilities; or in the village…
I believe that the musical treatment Paco applies to his ‘Canción Andaluza’ shows his deep love for the genre and is evidence of how close his heart was to it. I think he was moved by the depth of meaning contained in the poetry and the music that give form to the genre. His recording is clear proof of these realities, and at the same time it’s so surprising as Paco, once more and with a new set of nuances, lets loose his extraordinary genius. A form of Spanish song often described as “popular”, perhaps wanting to infer “light weight”, he finds avenues to place it, without any doubt, in its proper expressive level, full of content; that is to say, the level that Paco generally reached in all his work.
In hindsight, although easy to say now, it seems only natural that Paco would one day answer the call to apply his style to Canción Andaluza… that sooner or later we would enjoy his version, and we must thank the gods that it did arrive! Sadly, we shall never know how far Paco might have continued to explore the field of that rich and dense cultural vein, if destiny had not intervened on the date that we now revisit, ten years later…
For his project, Paco dug into the creative spirit of great Andalusian artists: Antonio Quintero, Manuel Quiroga, Rafael de León, Salvador Valverde or Juan Solano, all of them exalted in the recording. The result is a heartfelt homage to the Andalusian Song, based essentially on the creative work of the renowned trio formed by “Quintero, León and Quiroga” plus, in part, Solano and Valverde.
Andalusian popular culture, full of life, humanity and vitality in the community, was for these great masters a fertile field where they planted their poetic seeds, nourished by the intensity and passion of the 'Cante Flamenco', or Flamenco song, creating a musical narrative that turns into the ideal, and urgent, vehicle for the Andalusian people to sing out loud their history, their suffering, their happiness… their identity.
And, if the great poets and composers of the Andalusian Song take important, meaningful elements from Cante Flamenco to complete their project and give it to the people, then Paco, inevitably, sets up the artistic journey in the opposite direction. That is, with his unshakable commitment with the essence of the flamenco art he takes the 'cancion' that he so loves to a forum that projects the most profound flamenco expression.
How sad that he left us… And how wonderful that he gave us such a wealth of unique and precious presents.
