"Más flamenco que el tacón" - descripción del disco
| Contenido: 1 CD + 1 DVD Año de edición: 2007 | |
 | |
| Disco donde el protagonista es la percusión del baile, a través de los pies de Juan Ramírez. Juan Ramírez es un bailador que se destaca por su fuerza en el zapateo, y capacidad de taconear y puntear largamente, matizando el compás hasta un punto que parece imposible que pueda volver a subir el ritmo. Su poderío está en los pies. Ha acompañado a Paco de Lucía en sus giras durante muchos años. Este es un trabajo lleno de detalles sorprendentes como: - Un grupo de colaboradores excelentes como Remedios Amaya, Raimundo Amador, Parrita, La Barbería del Sur, Jorge Pardo, Guadina, Viejín, Ramón Jiménez, Niño Jerónimo, El Maca, El Paquete - La primera vez que se baila un Fandango de Huelva - El primer RAP flamenco bailado - La primera Rumba FUNKY bailada - La primera Rumba TRIBAL-Africana -Rumba de Parrita –Flamenca Además, este CD incluye 1 DVD con una actuación en directo de Juan Ramírez en el Palu de la Música de Altea y entrevistas. Versión Español e Inglés. Sólo disponible en formato PAL, zona 2. Antes de añadir este DVD a tu pedido asegúrate de que tu reproductor es compatible con este formato. El formato PAL, zona 2, es el más comúnmente usado en Europa. Más información acerca de formatos y zonas de DVD Independientemente del sistema (NTSC o PAL) o zona (de 0 a 6) para los que los DVD's estén fabricados, son compatibles con cualquier reproductor de DVD del ordenador, ya sea PC o Mac. |
Interview with JUAN RAMÍREZ
 |  | |
 | ||
| Juan Navas Salguero, “Ramírez” (Mérida, 1959) has had a long career in flamenco dance, but as a youth he started out as a singer with the greatest maestros of the era. In 1985 he participated in a European tour with Paco de Lucía and in 1986 won the “Pastora Imperio” prize at the Córdoba contest. The versatile artist never looked back and has been offering his shows throughout Spain with the country’s biggest stars. Now he has made a first recording for which he composed the words and music and even sings most of the themes. “I just want to be known as a dancer” Manuel Moraga “Más flamenco que el tacón” [‘more flamenco than footwork’]... A title which defines your dancing quite aptly.It’s from a bulerías verse I wrote and which Guadiana sings, “más flamenco que el tacón, más pillo que la guitarra tengo yo mi corazón”. There’s a double meaning: a heart can be more flamenco than footwork. “More flamenco than a guitar” is a good-natured wink at Paco de Lucía (I’m very fond of Paco and learned a great deal from him), a bit like saying the guitar is well and good, and the dance also deserves its rightful place, but it’s all with the best of intentions. It’s my take on dance. Dancing is footwork for me, without sound, it doesn’t seem like flamenco dance, I’d call it “danza”. It’s not often a dancer makes a record. The more logical thing is a DVD. In this case, it’s both formats. It was an idea I’d had for a long time. As the center of attention, I think footwork can be fantastic. It’s that sound that’s in the forefront. I didn’t do everything I really wanted because it’s very expensive to rent a studio and spend the time I wanted to take, but I think it’s very good and I’m already considering a second record that will be done will a longer preparation. What audience did you have in mind when you made this record? Who do you expect will purchase it? I want it to reach the whole world. “Dancing is footwork for me, without sound, I’d call it ‘danza’” Your dancing, aside from the visual aspect, is like another instrument, and at the same time, you’re the orchestra condutor.Exactly. Right now I’m going through good times. I’m evolving and I think dance has the same potential as any other instrument if it comes from the heart, with feeling, trying to give the audience your best. We hear a lot from singers and guitarists about how difficult it is to record these days...you have only to look at the limited output over the course of a year. Was it difficult for a dancer to manage to get a recording like this made? I really put everything into it because dance needs to be up there, and I hope other dancers will take the plunge as well and make more records like this, because it’s a way of making people aware of flamenco dance, and people get hooked. It’s also a way of selling dance to people abroad. How long was this idea incubating? Ever since I was with Paco de Lucía en 1985, and I recorded “Siroco” with him in 1986. Then I recorded “Misa Flamenca” that same year with Enrique Morente, and I was also on Camarón’s last recording. Since that time I was always thinking of making a record with footwork. I began working on this five years ago, and just finished a few months ago. Let’s talk about the CD, which includes some important collaborations. A good fire needs several pieces of wood to be strong. I’m talking about the relationship between guitar and dance. There’s also one number with drums. I was talking to Paco about this, but he had projects of his own and couldn’t participate. The next record, I hope he pitches in with a ‘guajira’ or something. Then there’s Remedios, Parrita, Raimundo Amador, Guadiana... A lot of good people on the record, and I’m delighted because I needed good solid flamenco artists.  But your footwork is present throughout the record, from beginning to end: counterpoint, center-stage, dialoguing with the other instruments...Exactly. Heelwork is the star of the record, in addition to the people who are with me, but the idea was to highlight the heelwork. The record has three bulerías... There was another one, a Charlie Parker theme, with El Paquete playing, but we had to cut it out because the family wouldn’t give permission. The Spanish Society of Authors (SGAE) even sent a petition to the U.S. It was a great bulería, but we couldn’t include it on the record. And fandangos de Huelva... A danced fandango de Huelva was never before included on a record. But fandango de Huelva is a perfectly legitimate dance. Dancers are afraid of it. I’m becoming braver about exploring other perfectly danceable styles, such as verdiales... But people are overly cautious. Since no one dances it, nobody wants to put their foot in it so to speak. Now for example I want to dance the ‘guajira’ which is seldom danced, the ‘garrotín’, almost lost, a very flamenco dance. You can do anything, it just takes the time and interest. You have to seek it out, the way musicians seek out music. Dance is exactly the same. When you’re not completely sure, the first day it might not come out quite the way you want, but the second day it’s better. It’s a way of investigating. “I’m going through a creative stage now, giving musical form to my dance” “American gipsie”...sounds like something from the early days of Pata Negra. The title is sort of to get a laugh. Raimundo and me have been friends since childhood. We’re the same generation. I love the guy, and he loves me, we grew up together in Seville. So he came and did this piece for me...the kind of thing Raimundo does, very pretty. And I found a really nice interpretation, it’s a funky rumba. It was quite a novelty for me, I never would have thought of dancing a “funk rumba”. On that number, and the following one, you sing...this is a facet of yours I never knew... Well, my first experience in flamenco was singing, as a child. They called me “el gitanillo de oro” (‘the golden gypsy boy’). I made two ‘singles’ when I was nine. I had to give it up when my voice changed, because I didn’t have a flamenco voice. But I do like to sing. Every so often you catch me singing. Paco de Lucía also sings on his records. He’s got a voice like the guys who deliver bottled gas, but it’s okay. If the maestro does it, the rest of us might as well too. If you do it with spirit... What I said about the delivery guys was just a joke, no offense intended. There are two numbers basically devoted to dance, to your heelwork: “Tío Duende” and “Chaparrón”. Why “Tío Duende”? Tío Duende is a dancer in Palma de Mallorca, but he’s a gypsy guy from Murcia who went there very young. I met him when I was sixteen, when I was starting to dance, and he made a big impact on me. He had very strong feet, like an athlete. That made a big impression and I really love the guy. He taught me a few little steps and I treasure them. He’s never been to Madrid or Sevilla and his talent hasn’t been recognized. But he was a great inspiration for me, and that bulería is dedicated to him. “Chaparrón” you define as a “tribal rumba”, and the fact is, it does have a certain African sound. It’s an upbeat rumba a little different from the ordinary, from a rumba of Parrita’s and tangos of Remedios. It’s flamenco, but a bit of a tangent. You wind up with “Soy quinaor”... Yes, my grandfather was a gypsy ‘quinaor’. These are people who get by as petty thieves. He used to say there were towns where gypsies weren’t allowed to enter. If they couldn’t go in to make a living, what were they supposed to do? You also sing in that...what does cante represent for Juan Ramírez? Cante is a very important means of communication. First of all, it’s speech...when you sing you speak, you say things. It’s a person’s feeling, his music, and then, whatever he happens to be talking about. It’s something tremendous. The guitar is also tremendous, and dance...but singing, perhaps moreso because it’s the voice and words of the individual. In the lyrics you mention some major figures... The whole thing is a tribute to Carmen Amaya, more than anything else. I also learned a lot from Paco, Camarón...and of course from Farruco. Those four. “Flamenco singing is as immense as the sea” Would you say you’re in a stage of personal and artistic maturity? Yes. And I don’t take it lightly. I’ve lost speed dancing. I’m not twenty years old any more, but I think I’m dancing better now than ever before: with more strength, more meaning, richer. I’ve lost the youthful impetus, but that’s not everything. I’m going through a creative stage now, working with other instruments and giving musical form to my dance. I used to improvise much more; I’d just go out and dance, without instruments or anything. But for about four or five years now I’ve been involved with percussion, with the cajón, flute, violin, and I have to make it all work with my footwork so it makes sense. Every sound I make, they have to reciprocate with music, and I think it’s a way of enriching dance. Alegrías, siguiriya por martinete and tangos...why did you choose these particular dances for the DVD? They’re three very traditional styles, and very different from each other. There are softer and stronger colors, that’s how flamenco is. Your dancing could be described as “racial”, basic, with no artificial additives... I dance the way I feel. My dance is mostly in my feet, which is how I understand flamenco dance. There are people who understand it with their hands, their torsos... I don’t criticize anyone’s form of interpretation, each one transmits the way he or she feels it has to be done, but I just want to be a dancer. People can take it or leave it, but I don’t want to be anything more than a dancer. I wish people would stop messing with me because I don’t do classic dance, because I’m a flamenco dancer. For better or worse, that’s all I want to be. I never pretended to be anything else.  Flamenco dancer, not ballet dancer...Flamenco dance in Spain is too influenced by classic dance. I’m defending flamenco by hook or by crook, it’s what I like most. Like some people say, I’m a dancer from the waist down. That’s how I feel flamenco dance. I met Farruco twenty-seven or twenty-eight years ago in Seville, at Los Gallos, and he was the first one who said to me “can’t you take it a little easier?” And I told him “look man, I’m learning, I don’t know”. And Farruco says “naturally, you’re very young, you can’t slow down now. You’ve got lots of power and vitality”. It’s my way of understanding dance. Like I said before, dancing is feet, if there’s no sound, I can’t call it flamenco, it’s classical dance. Did it make you nervous knowing your dancing was being recorded to be seen throughout the world? There’s no more beginner’s butterflies. Now it’s another kind of nervousness: the responsibility, the need to do a good job, something nice for the audience, first something that I think is good, and then let the general public decide. Before you go out, look, the audience always makes you a little nervous, but it’s professional nervousness, not beginnger’s. On the record Parrita mentions Curro and de Paula...who are your favorite bullfighters? In actual fact, Parrita mentioned two purists of the bullring, because Rafael de Paula and Curro Romero are like two old dancers, but from the world of bullfighting. These are the ones who were most frightened of bulls, but when they came face to face with a bull, they did what they had to do, and it was pure art. Because that’s how it is, it can’t be changed. I see people in front of the bull, very young, very this, that and the other thing, they’re great bullfighters of course, but they don’t have that grace and that art that come to these people at just the right moment, and that’s when you see the greatness they carry inside. That has to be understood. These aren’t ordinary everyday people. They have to await their moment. What keeps you going work-wise? My love of flamenco, that’s what inspires me. For dancing especially. Guitar and cante too, of course, but what keeps me going is dance. It’s a way of communicating my feelings to the world. Flamenco is what keeps me wanting to go on. What interests does Juan Ramírez have? Right now I like ‘audio’. I’m learning my way around a recording studio. I think it’s a very interesting world, and moreso for a musician. It’s where you can make your ideas come together. I also like to play pool. But what I like most is music. - And the Marx brothers! [says his son] Yes, they’re brilliant [Juan laughs] Flamenco is what keeps me wanting to go on. You’re 45, a long career under your belt, well-earned recognition, a family... Anything you still want to accomplish? Yes. I want to improve, if possible, become a better dancer. Like I said before, there are dances that haven’t been explored and I want to remove the stigma for future generations. I can’t promise I’ll be able to do it, but I’m going to try. Is there anything Juan Ramírez would never do? Dance without a shirt, or come out in sandals...things like that. Do you live or subsist through flamenco? You live from flamenco. Flamenco makes me feel things I can’t get anywhere else. It makes me happy and gives me pleasure. I think you can call that living. In the monetary sense, there are many life-styles. There are people who dance well or average, and make lots of money. There are others who dance very well and don’t make so much. It depends on each individual. I believe that when a person is happy doing what he or she likes, that’s living. Whether or not you win the lottery, is another question. It’s customary to dedicate records to someone or include acknowledgements...who would you dedicate this work to? I have to thank my friend Juan Carlos, who made it possible for this record to exist. And after that, it’s for flamenco fans. Who is Juan Ramírez grateful to? I say it in the song “Flamencos de Hollywood” where I mention the artists of this country. It’s a flamenco rap I improvised, it’s these people we have to thank for being flamencos: Mairena, Camarón, Caracol, Fernanda, Bernarda... We owe it all to them. Photos: Rafael Manjavacas | ||
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)