Interview with El Negri. AGUSTÍN LARA BY EL NEGRI

EL NEGRI

AGUSTÍN LARA BY EL
NEGRI

“I felt like delving
into flamenco”

Interview: Sonia Martínez
Pariente
Photos: Martín Guerrero

“El último beso” is Enrique
Heredia “Negri’s” first solo recording
and it’s dedicated in its entirety to the Mexican
composer Agustin Lara. El Negri’s musical career
had always been linked to the group known as the Barbería
del Sur where he sang with his guitarist friend Paquete
a sort of music which fused flamenco with other rhythms
such as salsa or pop. With this recording, the gypsy
from the Madrid neighborhood of Cascorro tried to move
closer to flamenco. With his sweet melodic voice it’s
quite a challenge he’s taken up, that of adapting
Agustín Lara’s songs such as “Granada”,
“El último beso” or the “chotis”
“Madrid” to flamenco forms.

Record’s presentation at Casa Patas

Agustín Lara, the inspiration
for your first solo record.

I know Agustín Lara because I was born very
near Agustín Lara plaza in Madrid and he’s
always been a reference. In 2002 I felt like making
a solo record and I wanted a classic sound. I recorded
“Noche de Ronda” at home, as an experiment,
and right away I liked it. It wasn’t all Agustín
Lara at first, but the project began to define itself.
I started recording things of his, my producer liked
it and encouraged me to continue in that vein.

Each piece, a flamenco form…

I didn’t want to just copy the original versions.
I wanted to give something to them, make them mine and
bring them into flamenco, because flamenco singers have
done boleros very often, but the music had never been
put to flamenco rhythms and harmonies. I think that
thing of using flamenco forms, bulerías, alegrías,
etc., for bolero has never been done before.

What’s on
the record:

“Veracruz” (alegrías)
opens the album. Agustín Lara was from
Veracruz. We did this with a jazz trio in alegrías
compás with rather free harmonies.

“Nadie” (tangos).
Sort of a remnant of the Barbería, drawing from
elements I was already familiar with. It came out like
tangos in a samba style. This is one of the most upbeat
pieces on the record although it’s not a pop record.

“María Bonita”
(bulerías), a special treat. Agustín
dedicated this composition to his wife María
Félix and it’s one of his most representative
pieces. We put it to bulerías with a string quartet
and I think it’s really nice.

“El último beso”
(bolero-zambra), in the line of classic jazz.
This is a momentous piece. Lara made it somewhat lighter
and I put it to bolero, zambra, more feeling. I like
it because it’s a step in the direction of classical
jazz, the kind Nat King Cole sings, that sort of thing.
It’s a style I like very much although I’ve
seldom delved into it.

“Imposible” (tangos),
the catchiest piece on the record. This is a
sound we’re accustomed to hearing. It’s
light-hearted tangos with lovely lyrics and it’s
one of the most accessible pieces.

“Arráncame la
vida” (bolero-zambra), meant to be sung.
This is a very moving piece because at the time Lara
was composing it was the height of the Argentine tango
and I moved it in the direction of real bolero. I really
like singing this.

“Granada” (granaína
and tangos), the sound of Andalucía. This
is a typical piece with international appeal. It’s
one of the arrangements I was most worried about because
I couldn’t find the thread until I heard my niece
Triana sing it a bit in the studio and I said “that’s
it!”, that’s the way to go, because when
she sings it, it turns into something else, she takes
it somewhere else. It sounds gay, and it sounds like
Andalucía.

“Solamente una vez”
(alegrías), exciting. This is a rather
exciting song because doing it to alegrías with
the “tiri ti trán” and the whole
thing was risky, but it’s not that radical after
all, it seems like this man was thinking along those
lines and it came out quite natural.

“Noche de Ronda”
(rondeña), the starting-point. This was
the first song of Lara’s I recorded, before I
knew it was going to be a tribute to the man. David
Cerreduela plays, he’s a flamenco guitarist who
deserves recognition because he’s one the best
right now. As soon as I heard him play rondeña
it inspired me for “Noche de Ronda”.

“Madrid” (soleá
por bulerías), a real challenge for a Madrid
gypsy. To compose a “chotis”, something
so symbolic of Madrid, and transport it to the era,
it makes no difference what type of music, it’s
already a challenge, and if you bring it to flamenco,
even more so. It’s one of the pieces I like best.
A lot of people encouraged me to do it, but others said
I was crazy. Andalucía has its own music, but
Madrid could never boast of a flamenco form of its own,
and I think it becomes a sort of flamenco hymn for Madrid.

Participating
musicians:

-This
was a recording where we prepared the musicians in the
standard sense. I used my friends and family: Montoyita,
El Bola, Antonio Carbonell, Pepe Luis Carmona… all
my buddies.

And with Paquete, your sidekick…

-That’s where the gossip-mongers can see we’re
still intimate friends and we get along better than
ever. He plays on two pieces, “Veracruz”
and “Madrid”. He was really anxious to participate
and he said “hey! I want to play in Madrid!”
and until he played guitar there, he wasn’t satisfied.

A record that’s closer to
flamenco than to Barbería…

I made eight recordings with Barbería, that’s
where I grew musically and I felt like veering in another
direction, especially towards flamenco. I want to get
more deeply into it and open up new venues, other terrain
that Barbería barely touched: more jazz, more
flamenco, bring it into a reduced format of musicians
where I can sit in a chair and sing my heart out, that’s
what I really want. I don’t want to worry if the
spotlight is here, the brass is over there, which is
also part of a show.

With Barbería we started doing pop flamenco
when there had been almost none of that. But I was a
little tired of the brass section and drums, because
it reaches a point where you listen to recordings and
everything sounds the same. I think that with this kind
of flamenco, or whatever you want to call it, everything’s
fallen into a sort of rut.

An open door to the Barbería
del Sur.

– I think we’ll keep recording, but right now
there’s a parenthesis so that both Paquete and
myself can do our own things, because I wanted to open
up artistically.

A multi-faceted performer….producer,
composer…

– I’d like to do more producing, but I just don’t
have the time. I also enjoy composing. On Cigala’s
new record two of the pieces are mine. Everything is
in crisis, if you don’t branch out, you get left
behind.

Collaborations with other artists:
the call from Paco de Lucía.

– It was a wonderful experience with Paco de Lucía
because when he called me I couldn’t believe it
and I said: “hey listen! I don’t think my
way of singing and my concept of flamenco has anything
to do with you” and he said “no, that’s
just why I want you, because at least you bring something
new that can surprise me and which I like”. It
was fantastic being able to be with Paco de Lucía
get to know him, and I played for Morente, with Armando
Manzanedo, they were very important for me…it’s
a privilege just to realize they know who you are.