Interview with ULTRA HIGH FLAMENCO – UHF – Bipolar

The project called UHF came out of a chance meeting of friends.  Joaquín Grilo asked for some help from a group of musicians, and since they were Alexis Lefèvre, Paquito González, Bolita and a Pablo Martín, he never realized what it would lead to.  They’re already presenting their second recording, “Bipolar”, and, if their schedules permit, their collaboration has all the earmarks of creating a trend.  Having recently appeared at the Festival de Jerez, here they give us their impressions.

  
You’re in the midst of presenting your second work, “Bipolar”.  Why do you talk about two poles and not four?
Well, we talk about two poles even though we’re four people, because we come from two diametrically opposed worlds.  On the one hand, El Bola and Paquito grew up in flamenco, while Pablo Martín and I (Alexis Lefèvre is speaking) come from other musical genres, mostly jazz.
  
The fact that Paquito González is the only member of the group who didn’t compose any of the pieces…is this because of specific circumstances of this particular recording?
It’s important to defend Paquito’s contribution, because even though there’s nothing of his, in actual fact his work is important in all the arrangements.  He takes care of adding the necessary color so each element sounds complete.  Clearly, without him, the music wouldn’t sound like UHF.

You met as a result of a meeting with Joaquín Grilo.  What happened exactly to make everything come together?  You’re always around so many musicians…something special must have taken place.
In actual fact, several of us had already met on other occasions, but it was with Grilo that all four of us got together for the first time.

From the word go we had a great rapport and realized we were on the same wave-length.  There was power…a special dynamic.  From that point on, the idea of doing something together was in our heads, and we wasted no time getting down to work.

The idea of building an essentially instrumental band, was that in response to a perceived vacuum in the flamenco panorama?
Not, not at all.  We just decided to do together what we already knew how to do individually, and it came out in a natural way, each one contributing his specific talents.  No more pretext than that.

What other bands of this type did you have as a reference?  The trio Benavent-Pardo-Di Geraldo comes to mind.
Actually, UHF isn’t inspired in other bands, but just as we described, as an instrumental necessity in Joaquín Grilo’s show.  Naturally, you could cite many other similar bands, whether flamenco, jazz, pop or rock, although we may not have been thinking of that.  In any case, this is complicated talking about UHF, because each member of the group comes from a different background, which means the references are also individually diverse.  This isn’t to say that we overlook the quality and creativity of previous bands like Benavent-Pardo-Di Geraldo you mentioned.

Are you more jazz musicians or flamencos?  I ask because of the texture and outward appearance of the group.  Many flamenco followers might balk…
Neither one thing nor the other.  We’re just people who have known many types of music.  In recent years, particularly flamenco.  What we try to do is contribute that knowledge and our individual instincts in each kind of music.  Although it’s true that in UHF flamenco is the common bond that characterizes us.  There are many other musical influences, I don’t think we can be categorized as classic flamenco or pure jazz.

How much improvisation is there in the music you record?
A lot actually.  And although the compositions follow a specific and well-defined pattern, we also try to leave room in each one for improvising as much as we want.  That’s also valid, don’t you think?

Being so creative, how do you go about planning each number?
Each of us works in different ways.  For example me, Alexis, I always compose with the guitar and afterwards I add the violin arrangements.  Then I pass the results on to the rest of the group, and they study it all, adding their own ideas.
On the other hand, José Quevedo uses the guitar, which logically is the medium he most has on hand and knows best in order to create not only melodies and verse for the pieces, but complex instrumental compositions as well.
Generally speaking, we start out working individually and then work together to give form to each piece.

  
How do you manage to rehearse?  Just getting you all together for an interview is hard, but for a whole afternoon of rehearsing, with the packed agenda you guys have…
Rehearsals are complicated, not only because we’re so busy, but because each one of us lives in a different area.  We do a lot via internet, and when there’s a concert, we get together a few days before to go over the repertoire, but the fact is we can’t do much rehearsing.  Or at least, not as much as we’d like.

How’d it go in Jerez?  Did you get flamenco fans or more jazz fans?
Quite well actually.  We couldn’t have been left with a better impression.  The people really enjoyed the music, and the reviews were excellent.  All kinds of people came to see us, which is good news, because the more people the better.

What kind of festivals or theaters call you the most?
For now, we’ve done as many flamenco festivals as jazz, in equal parts.  That’s the advantage with our kind of music.  Since we don’t have a clearly defined style, we have the possibility of playing at a variety of musical events.

Do you consider yourselves unidentified flamenco objects?
Yes, sometimes we feel a little unidentified, and objects…(laughter).

More information about CD