Pepe de Lucia (Algeciras, 1945) comes excited from one other interview and no prior warm-up or typical questions to interrupt the ice are essential. The Taberna Ardosa de Chamberí breathes nostalgia and serves as an environment to speak about custom and flamenco. Leaning on the bar, its proprietor wipes away tears after having witnessed the earlier dialog between the singer and Javier Navarro, from Strim. Pepe de Lucía finishes the final sip of white wine and the innkeeper comes ipso facto to refill the glass. A flamingo can’t be thirsty.
Pepe de Lucía will not be drained and has been reliving his childhood for just a few days. It simply got here to mild Pepito and Paquito, an album that reveals a collection of rudimentary musical recordings by the De Lucía brothers. Paco was 11 years previous and Pepe was 13. A treasure hidden for half a century within the type of previous coils, saved inside a can of quince meat. The weird story of a sound doc that takes us to a time of wants and ingenuity to flee poverty via artwork. Residing historical past Spain: “I’m a singer, composer and producer. I’ve lived by and for flamenco and I’ve introduced out many individuals,” says Pepe de Lucía proudly as he sits on a bench within the conventional Madrid house.
Query: What a narrative, Pepe.
Reply: The can was saved in the home of Reyes Benítez, our second father. A person removed from cash, selfishness and ostentation and who beloved us madly. He moved home and his son Quique took that tape. In any case these years, the tapes have deteriorated and a few songs have been misplaced.
Pepe de Lucía is the important protagonist in Pepito y Paquito. His singing is pure heartbreak, ardour and brilliance. It’s comprehensible the place the admiration and appreciation that his vocal energy generated within the first years of his profession got here from. At 13 years previous, he can see the privileged place he achieved in flamenco each accompanying Paco and in varied solo initiatives.
The paradox happens that Pepito and Paquito It turns into the primary album that Pepe and Paco recorded collectively and, in flip, is the final of their lengthy flamenco careers. For Pepe it additionally represents a crowning glory to somebody who at all times devoted love, affection, satisfaction and respect, witnessing first-hand the success of his little brother. On the identical time he vindicates his personal determine inside flamenco singing with a private and soulful voice transmitting uncooked and trustworthy feelings.
Q: What did it really feel prefer to hearken to the recordings once more?
R: It’s one thing inexplicable. I could not consider that I used to be that boy who sings. It has been so lengthy that I did not bear in mind him singing so properly at that age. There have been many kids who sang very superbly at the moment; Nonetheless, there have been no kids who sang 39 palos. There have been no kids to the touch them both. As I listened to the recordings, I felt the necessity for everybody to do that. That it turned a part of the Nationwide Library, but in addition served as a flamenco pedagogy.
Q: Has this helped you relive a forgotten time?
R: From the second you might be born, you relive life each minute.
Paco de Lucía was killed by his want to be the perfect
Q: What are the variations between singing as a baby and as an grownup, between doing it for the love of artwork and out of obligation?
R: We by no means sing for the love of artwork. We sing for the love of starvation. Of youngsters and adults. It has been like this all my life. Out of necessity, due to precariousness and to deal with your loved ones.
Q: What was La Bajadilla like, the neighborhood the place you grew up?
R: A gypsy neighborhood. We have been joyful. I bear in mind watching my brother rehearse. He made me very joyful to see him. He rehearsed and I performed. He instigated him to return with me however he most popular the guitar to taking part in on the street. “Dad requested me to remain rehearsing and I am staying,” he mentioned. “Escape,” he requested her. However nothing. He at all times stayed.
Q: You have been extra interested in the road.
R: It was at all times clear to me that I used to be going to be a hustler and I knew that Paco was going to be a genius.
Q: What function did your mother and father have?
R: With out them, we might by no means have been artists. What is obvious to me is that Paco would have been the perfect at what he would have devoted himself to.
Q: While you hear Paco taking part in the guitar at 11 years previous, do you already see that genius?
R: I at all times knew it could be. He mastered the guitar in a singular approach. The way it stung. These fantastic joys…
Q: How a lot is expertise and the way a lot is figure?
R: Paco was very proficient. He was a relaxed, calm and picked up individual. A humble man and an artist who at all times wished to enhance himself. And that reward of at all times desirous to be the perfect via work was what triggered his cardiac arrest. He was a sufferer of his personal duty.
Q: Are guitarists enigmatic and introverted?
R: We’re all introverts resulting from worry of the stage and uncertainty. Paco at all times requested if he had performed properly. Not even he, being a genius amongst geniuses, was certain if he had finished properly after a efficiency. I instructed him why he requested that if he at all times performed very properly. He was an introvert, like Camarón de la Isla. I used to be much less so. That is why he was the one who mediated between them.
Q: What was the connection between the 2 like?
R: They’d a number of respect for one another. I keep in mind that, if Camarón did not like one thing that Paco was doing, he would come and inform me. So, I requested my brother to repeat a sure third as a result of it might be finished higher. “Let’s go away it like this, he is very fairly,” Paco mentioned. Camarón then made gestures to me once more to insist.
Q: Latin America has been an important facet in your careers. What reflection do you make of this cultural relationship between two elements of the identical world separated by the Ocean?
R: Take a look at this gorgeous girl who simply handed by right here (Pepe factors to his accomplice). I met her in Argentina 32 years in the past. That has been due to music. Music takes you to like.
Comply with us on WhatsApp and obtain the highest information and probably the most fascinating tales
