ROCÍO JURADO 'Si amanece y ves que estoy dormida…'

[«No,
no,
no bulerías today,
not even the raging bull of pain is on the charge,
cold on the inside and spring on the outside»]

Text: Estela Zatania

Diego Carrasco, one the musicians who most personifies flamenco in Spain,
wrote that verse for the singer from Chipiona. The child, long before
becoming «the voice» of Spanish lyrical song, had learned
to love the flamenco she so often heard at home thanks to the immense
appreciation of the art her father always cultivated.

While still an adolescent, Rocío traveled to Madrid with her mother
where an old friend from back home presented the girl to la Niña
de los Peines and Manolo Caracol. But it was a first meeting with Pastora
Imperio that set her on the unstoppable path of her brilliant career.
Imperio immediately hired Rocío to sing at El Duende, the tablao
she owned, one of the first of the tablao era. Since Rocío was
a minor, she had to dress and act in such a way so as not to call the
attention of the authorities. Her friend, singer-dancer Cañeta
de Málaga who had also gone to Madrid as a young girl to try her
luck at selling her art and was hired by El Duende, recalls in a recent
interview how young Rocío «sang her alegrías, her
tientos and her songs from Concha Piquer».

With el Lebrijano, Fiesta de la Yerbabuena, June, 2005. (photo: Estela
Zatania)

But Rocío Jurado’s boldest flamenco statement would come
years later when she was already a well-known lyrical singer. In 1982
she applied her extraordinary talent and voice to flamenco cante on a
double long-play album with the collaboration of two flamenco megastars:
guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar and singer Juan Peña el Lebrijano.
Titled «´Come Follow Me» [«Ven y sígueme»],
a good part of the country took her advice and discovered the popular
singer could also move comfortably through the great labyrinth of flamenco.
Despite a perfectly developed lyrical delivery, the multitalented singer
demonstrated her knowledge and compás in a series of rigorously
traditional cantes, lovingly interpreted.

Film-maker Carlos Saura took note and made use of Rocío’s
voice in two feature-length films: «El Amor Brujo» with Cristina
Hoyos in 1986 and «Sevillanas» in 1992 where she shared the
celluloid with flamenco stars like Paco de Lucía, Camarón
de la Isla, Tomatito, Lola Flores, Manuela Carrasco or Matilde Coral among
many others. In the 1998 Festival de Jerez dedicated to flamenco dance,
Rocío’s special concert at the Villamarta theater was sold
out weeks before any other show on the program. Legendary cantaora Fernanda
de Utrera paid her own personal tribute when she adapted Rocío’s
popular song «Se Nos Rompió el Amor» to bulerías.

Rocío Jurado was the first of her artistic genre to substitute
typical polkadots and ruffles for elegant evening gowns and an international
look, but she never gave up traditional Andalusian garb for specific occasions.
For her wedding in 1976 she wore a bata de cola, peineta and ruffles.
In the hermetic world of flamenco there have always been celebrities who
were part of the ambience: Curro Romero, the Duchess of Alba, Rafael Alberti,
Antonio Burgos, Jesús Quintero, Rafael de Paula, Federico García
Lorca, Ava Gardner as well as musicians from outside flamenco like Alejandro
Sanz, María Jiménez, Juanita Reina or Isabel Pantoja. Rocío,
intimate friend of flamenco artists, was a permanent member of this elite
fan-club of an art that a young girl from Chipiona had found so inspiring
so many years ago.

In June of 2005 the 14th Flamenco Festival of the Yerbabuena of Las Cabezas
de San Juan (Seville) was dedicated to her. With her life-long friend
Juan Peña «Lebrijano» by her side, Rocío Jurado
emotionally accepted the honors which she offered to her father and all
flamenco-lovers. On March 24, 2006 official recognition came from the
country she loved so well when she was awarded the Medalla de Oro al Mérito
de Trabajo (gold medal for lifetime achievement) for being «one
of the best embassadors who over a period of many years took her art to
every corner of the planet representing Spanish culture».

«Espérame
roba un minuto de ese tiempo
en el reloj.
Calma tus nervios
no te inquietes, por favor.
Domina un poco
esa tormenta en tu interior.
Espérame
voy a dejar todo por ti
en esta mañana».*

[«Wait for me,
take but a moment
from the clock,
be still and please don’t fear,
control the inner torment.
Wait for me,
on this morning I’m sacrificing it all for you»].*

*[«Espérame» (1983) Pablo Herrero
/ José Luis Armenteros]

Tribute to Rocio Jurado.
Festival Yerbabuena 05