Interview with José Mercé. I really learn a lot from young people.

Interview
with

JOSÉ MERCÉ

Make no mistake, “cante
grande” or “cante chico”, what matters
is the interpreter.

Bulerías, tangos, alegrías, soleá,
fandangos, rock, salsa and a version of Manu Chao’s
song “Clandestino”, this is the varied menu
of “Confí de fuá”, José
Mercé’s latest recording. A record which
also has a limited amount of copies released with a
DVD. “There’s martinete, toná,
debla, an interview, photographs…it’s really
nice to have, because you can see José Mercé’s
true root” says the singer. This is José
Mercé’s third record in which Isidro Muñoz
has been in charge of production and most of the song-writing.

There are also some Jerez regulars, there are
songs with social content and generally speaking the
record is in keeping with the style of Merce’s
previous work. Once again the singer wraps it all up
in his powerful voice in a very appealing way.

Is
“Confí de fuá” the delicacy
the title suggests?
I think it’s an elegant record, as far as the
repertoire goes. It touches upon social themes. I’ve
always eaten foie gras and had no idea it was “confí
de fuá”, but in that title song I wanted
to draw attention to the bad things that are happening
with women by saying that I’m even willing to
bring them confí de fuá, which is the
best paté in the world. I tell the woman to get
prettied up and put on her best clothes, take the world
by storm! It’s a bulería with a little
Andalusian humor, like we say “Hey girl, get
yourself together! You deserve all the loving attention
that’s coming to you”.

“Singing is not shouting,
it’s telling people something that they can relate
to, and in this new record, above all else, we’re
talking about the world as it is today”.

The record includes some classics,
then some more festive songs and things directly from
flamenco flamenco, doesn’t it?
There are some other pieces with social content like
“Líbreme el hombre de vencer al hombre”.
We’ve had enough violence, and power-grabbing.
I think we have to take human beings into consideration,
we’re evolving quickly in every way, but each
day that goes by the human spirit is becoming more impoverished
and that’s what the song is about, an end to war
and violence, we have to behave a little better, be
more human. There’s a rumba cubana with a wonderful
Cuban sound where my cousin Diego Carrasco does his
rap. There’s an alegrías where Joaquín
Grilo dances wonderfully, it’s fresh, but there’s
always a backdrop of flamenco’s roots. Then there’s
“Clandestino”, the song I mentioned
by Manu Chao which is so popular now and which in Cádiz
we’re hearing all the time. “Oxígeno”
is rock, where we can truly say a flamenco singer is
doing another kind of music, but bringing it into flamenco
territory. Flamenco is universal, the music is an idiom
we can all understand and it has nothing to do with
pure, or orthodox…it’s the interpreter who
has to make things great.

“When you hear these
young people sing it’s impressive…I really
learn a lot from them”.

There’s also a soleá,
a fandango…
There’s a great bulería with a neat verse
that says “en el barrio de Santiago hay un gitano
que su gitana le ha vuelto vegetariana” (‘In
the neighborhood of Santiago there’s a gypsy guy
whose girlfriend went vegetarian’). You have to
sing verses about contemporary themes. There’s
also fandangos. It’s been a while since I recorded
fandangos and the poetry is great. Then there’s
Juana’s tangos, very flamenco, very traditional.
It’s a varied record where there’s a little
bit of everything, and I think of my three recordings,
this is the most complete.

Do
you try to make each recording different from the previous
one?
I demand more of myself every day, but each recording
has to be different, whether people like it more or
like it less, that’s of no concern. I like my
records to be different from each other and to have
a message. Singing is not shouting, it’s telling
people something that they can relate to, and in this
new record, above all else, we’re talking about
the world as it is today. This isn’t a record
to hear, it’s a record to listen to.

Once again you’re working
with Isidro Muñoz. What do you find in each other
that makes such a long-lasting relationship?
First of all, I find a good friend and a colossal guitarist
and composer. His head is full of ideas and he writes
verses that reflect my way of thinking. We sit down
together and look at everything….this yes, this
no….and I’ve really found my perfect artistic
match in him because when he writes he’s thinking
about who is going to sing the material and he knows
what I like and don’t like and he knows who is
the right person to get the most out of the material,
because it’s not easy.

There are other contributing
artists, aren’t there?
Moraíto…I always say he’s the half
of it. I feel secure with him when I have him alongside
me on stage, and with his son Diego we both learn a
lot because I think young people are very alert, they
pick things up easily. If something takes us ten minutes
to get, it takes them one second, and we really learn
a lot from them. In Confí de fuá it took
a long time to find the harmonies, but the young people
caught if before we did, his father may be more experienced
and well-rounded, but the guitar and how it’s
played has evolved a lot and we need young people with
us in order to learn.

The interpreters always talk
about respecting the roots, but you can’t be closed
to new things…you seem to like being at the forefront…
I love it, there’s a crop of young people who
are doing fantastic things. I think they’re on
the right path and that’s important. When you
hear these people sing it’s really impressive
and you think “shit!…how is it possible?…and
here I am doing this all my life”. I really learn
a lot from them. I always say that youth is the future
and they’re doing a fine job, I say it all the
time, don’t be in a hurry, let them do what they
have to do and follow their path. When you like what
you do and you know the foundations well, because that’s
very important, from that point on you have to do your
thing, whatever it might be.

“Flamenco already
is international…there’s a lot of interest
in flamenco and fortunately we’ve gotten away
from always singing the same old things”

You manage an equilibrium
between classic and modern flamenco, and your pop repertoire
is outstanding.
I’m not trying to kid anyone. When I do a song
and pass it through the flamenco sieve, like case rock
or blues, I’m a flamenco singer singing another
kind of music, and I try to do it with dignity and feeling.
I feel right doing it. I like constructive criticism…if
it’s destructive it does no one any good. If I
sing blues or jazz or whatever strikes my fancy and
the critic wants to judge it as flamenco, too bad for
him. You have to be selective…if it’s blues,
call it blues and don’t just say ‘it’s
not flamenco’, that’s ridiculous.

Presentación de «Confí de Fuá»
en el Teatro Lope de Vega (22-11-04)

You also make a clear distinction
in your concerts between pop and flamenco.
Pop no, I always do flamenco, but I differentiate things.
In the first part I do a presentation of the most classic
and traditional flamenco cantes…siguiriya, alegrías,
whatever… Then I bring on my people and I do our
most recent stuff. What I like best is seeing how respectfully
young people listen to traditional cante and how it
really communicates to them, that gives me great satisfaction,
and I always like them to participate in the show and
sing along, I love that, it’s a way of doing flamenco
for the twenty-first century, which we’re already
in. I think it’s the best thing that could happen
to flamenco, because it means it’s eternal, it
can have its ups and downs, but music that comes from
the roots is always present.

This year you performed in
the US for the first time. How did audiences react?
People respond when they see someone onstage giving
everything they’ve got. They respond abroad, here,
everywhere. I’ll tell you something, I was really
scared because I figured among non-Spanish-speaking
Americans, they were used to seeing a guitar concert,
or dance, so I thought “shit! what are they going
to make of me sitting in a chair singing soleá
or siguiriya, and they can’t even understand the
words! They just see this guy sitting there saying ‘ay,
ay’”, but it was a real surprise when I
got to New York and for like two months the show had
been sold out so a lot of people were left without tickets,
there were Hispanics as well as 6-foot New Yorkers with
checkered slacks, the typical American, with tears in
their eyes begging the interpreter to tell them what
I was saying, that really made an impression on me.

Do you think it’s important
to give flamenco an international projection?
Yes, I do, and furthermore, flamenco already is international,
because I notice it when I travel in Europe or America
and see my records are being listened to a great deal.
There’s a lot of interest in flamenco and fortunately
we’ve gotten away from always singing the same
old cantes.

You often hear that José
Mercé is beyond being a flamenco singer, that
he’s a music or singing star. Do you agree?
No, I don’t. I consider myself a worker in this,
I’m a cantaor. Without a doubt I want to do it
the best I can. If people like what I do, great, if
and if they become fans, terrific, but I don’t
go in for the star thing, or being a diva or any of
those dumb stories, because I believe what really matters
is the man in the street, the guy who gets up at eight
in the morning and goes to work to bring some money
home, I think everyone’s important in our society
and no one is better than anyone else, like I sing in
one fandango verse. That thing of “I sing siguiriyas
so I’m more important than you” is the dumbest
thing in the world,

Have
you ever made a statement against purism?
I have to admit that the critics have treated me well
over the years, and I’ve done my bit, but what
I can’t stand is the same old question “is
this pure flamenco?” Make no mistake, “cante
grande” or “cante chico”, what matters
is the interpreter. I always give this very simple example:
a siguiriya, which is supposed to be ‘grande’,
if it’s sung badly says nothing. And another cante
like bulerías which is supposed to be ‘chico’,
all that matters is if the singer is good or not. He
or she can be singing the deepest siguiriya or soleá,
but if there’s no substance, where’s the
greatness or the purity?

You were saying that historical
singers like la Niña de los Peines were already
doing fusion.
That’s something that came up when I made the
first recordings like “Del Amanecer”, “Aire”,
as soon as I brought pop to flamenco. The first people
to put songs to flamenco were Pastora Pavón “Niña
de los Peines”, “Manuel Vallejo”,
Antonio “el Chaqueta”, in other words, the
most important flamenco stars were already doing fusion.

“Pastora Pavón
‘Niña de los Peines’, Manuel Vallejo,
Antonio ‘el Chaqueta’, in other words, the
most important flamenco stars were already doing fusion”.

Maybe because you’d
always done classic flamenco, no one was expecting anything
else from you.
Yeah, I don’t think they wanted me to move away
from the basic cantes, but I’ve been in this since
I was thirteen, now I’m 49 and if I have to do
what other people tell me, then I give up, it would
be deadly boring. I think I have the right to evolve,
just like flamenco evolves, like everything in life.
Those people who just want the same old cantes and don’t
evolve, let’s see what they have to say.

Right now your most immediate
project is touring with the record, but what about the
much-awaited anthology you’ve long talked about?
That’s a pet project of mine that I’m very
interested in carrying out and I hope that around the
end of 2006 or 2007 it will be ready and we can meet
at the Ciudad del Flamenco in Jerez, but I mean everyone.
We’d like that to be the inauguration of the Ciudad
del Flamenco, but that doesn’t mean it’s
only for Jerez.

Sonia Martínez Pariente
smpariente@deflamenco.com

More information:

JOSÉ
MERCÉ releases 'CONFÍ DE FUÁ'

José Mercé CD + DVD Ed. Especial

José Mercé CD