Everything seems to indicate that this is going to be a non-interview. It's pointless to insist that, without his name, the story will be incomplete, that he was a fundamental part of that adventure that changed the history of music: Pedro Ample Candel, better known as Pedro-Ruy Blas, has no intention of speaking to Expoflamenco. He confesses that he does not feel authorized to talk about what jondo, those sounds that he has loved and cultivated, but among many others. And much less would he want to talk about Paco de Lucía for the series The chosen ones. "It wouldn't do me or the truth any favors. I'd rather avoid having to say things I don't want to say. I'd like you to do the interview for my book."
His book is the volume of memoirs he published last year in Milenio Publications with the title of one of his greatest hits: To those hurt by love. Just over 500 pages that are part, and not anecdotal, of the history of Spanish music in the XNUMXth century, written by a creator with a memory and in full possession of his faculties. Among his many stories, as could not be otherwise, he tells how the music was created. Dolores, that band that was going to revolutionize the fusion of what jondo with jazz and psychedelia, and how Paco de Lucía first and then crossed paths Camarón de la Isla Later. We turn to these pages, but in the meantime, he himself seems unable to avoid commenting on some aspects of that time.
The summer of 1977 was coming to an end. (…) Paco de Lucía had just married Casilda Varela, and his hit single "Entre dos Aguas" was still fresh out of the gate, playing frequently on my record player along with his other works. He also had a contract with Fonogram (another label from the same company), perhaps for this reason he listened to my work and became very interested in those rhythmic and harmonic concepts, which, while not being anything like the original, were a bit of a surprise. flamenco, they did contain an air close to that fusion that I was trying to achieve.
“The thing with Paco came about because of the work I was doing,” he recalls now. “He called me because he had heard the album.” Dolores, was going to tour Europe with an English promoter, Barry Marshall, who had worked with Weather Report, John McLaughin, Chick Corea, and others like that… Paco had a good chance of breaking into that scene if he surrounded himself with young musicians and broke away from the usual flamenco aesthetic; he couldn't do it with a comb and Cuban heel. He called me, and I said yes."
"We have to demystify the myth. Give him his place in glory, and Paco undoubtedly has it. But we also have to think about the real man, who swore, who got angry like everyone else... The idyllic vision bores me. That's why in my book I wanted to show a human Paco, taken down from his pedestal."
“Then one day I said to him, ‘Why don’t you bring in Jorge, who plays with me?’ ‘The one with the flute?’ He was horrified. ‘They’ll kill me for that.’ And I insisted no, that it would sound great, that I would do whatever he said, that Jorge had a prodigious ear… Until he gave in, ‘Well, tell my brother.’ And I was talking to Ramón, blah blah blah, and then to the guy from the record company, blah blah blah… And from the first moment it was a success.”
He offered me to join that trio as a percussionist, which I accepted instantly without having to think about it.
From that day on, a great friendship began between us. We used to spend all afternoons in that attic on Orense Street where I lived with Casilda. (…)
I asked someone at Polydor to send Paco Chick Corea's impressive double album, 'My Spanish Heart,' released the previous year. I mentioned anecdotally that the American pianist, after his visit to Madrid, had bought two of his albums that I had recommended. After quietly listening to Chick Corea's album at his house, the first and perhaps only thing Paco said to me was: –This one knows what he's doing.
“Do you know what it was like to play with Paco, at his house, when he was newly married and living in an attic on Orense Street? And saying to him, ‘Come on, let’s make a little gadget, roll a joint, and start strumming chords…’ And Paco saying to me, ‘I’m not going to let you play the guitar because your hands will sweat and you’ll ruin the strings,’ what a jerk… And then the two of us on the street, finding a pack of cigarettes and kicking them, like two kids. That’s Paco for me, a kid I’ll never forget.”
And he adds immediately: “I remember saying to him, 'Paco, play me that one. Moon reflection. He laughed and said to me, 'You like that one, huh?' 'Fuck if I like it, it's the Debussy of the flamenco''.
Paco trusted me, and from that moment on, he made me a sort of advisor to him. (…)
Paco immediately realized that I was a perfect match for him (…) I was very fond of flamenco Through my mother's family, I learned to play the guitar at the age of twelve. palmas through bulerías, rumbas, also siguirillas and soleás.
"Paco was not a god, as many people want to make out. But there are those who need to create mythologies, like Camarón, who seems to have been the only one, with all due respect, because he is a giant, but, wasn't there anyone else?
In his book, Pedro-Ruy Blas also evokes The first European tour with Paco, including resounding successes in London and Paris, which encouraged them to repeat in the Alcalá Theater of Madrid, now with the Dolores group itself. Also the addition of a newcomer Rubem Dantas, who came to live with them in the house of Antonio Arias placeholder image which his bandmates already occupied. Together they recorded the band's first album in 1978, Asa-Nisi-Masa, in whose subject Where are you walking? Paco collaborated. Shortly after, they accompanied Paco on his album dedicated to Manuel de Falla, on another tour filled with memorable moments and also some fears of not being up to the challenge. Especially that night in Munich:
The performance began, and I immediately realized that more than half the audience was Spanish. Immigrants who adored Paco and cheered him on like they were in a corner of a grocery store. So far, so good. The time came for us to come out and play our two instrumental songs as a group. We'd only been playing for a minute when some of those, I'd call them, uninitiated people started making fun of us at the beginning.
–Come on! Look at the black guy's hair! Where's Dolores? Get Paco out! Go!
As would happen to Ramón for a long time, on those trips Pedro Ruy-Blas had to take on the thankless role of overseeing discipline among his young and somewhat crazy troop. He also recalls the producer's first encounter with the Steve Katz to involve Paco with jazz musicians, in which Pedro Ruy-Blas was the mediator. Names such as Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus and John McLaughin“Nothing came of it, and it wasn't because Steve Katz wasn't persistent. Paco was very smart and knew perfectly well that it wasn't the right time yet. It's that simple.”
Until the time came to say goodbye. Witnesses to that farewell process offer different versions. Pedro Ruy-Blas, who exudes love and admiration for the genius from Algeciras throughout his writings, cannot hide a certain bitterness when bringing that moment to the present. “The deepest thing I have felt for Paco is a great friendship, a brotherly affection that eventually fades, because everyone goes their own way, and if I've seen you, I don't remember,” he says.
"I was going to tour Europe with an English promoter, Barry Marshall, who had worked with Weather Report, John McLaughin, Chick Corea, and others like that... Paco had a good chance of breaking into that scene if he surrounded himself with young musicians and broke away from the usual flamenco aesthetic; he couldn't do it with a comb and Cuban heel. He called me, and I said yes."
“I'll tell you something. A few years ago, I was invited to Seville for something about Paco. Casilda was there. I remembered the exact day I left the band. I wasn't going to accompany Paco on the next tour, the first they would do in South America. He invited me to the new house they had, a chalet. And when the time came, I realized I didn't have enough money in my pocket to take the bus, or even to make a phone call. In the house where I lived with Rubem and Jorge and Jorge's brother, we didn't have a phone. There was a bar across the street. El Paleto, which was where we used to call to arrange gigs or whatever. But that day I didn't even have enough for a payphone token. I didn't go, and Casilda got really mad because I left her with the table set. I understand. When we saw each other in Seville, after we had said hello, the subject of our breakup came up, and she said to me: 'You were very unstable.' And I said, 'And Paco, wasn't it very unstable? We were all unstable back then; we were at the age of instability. But for Casilda Varela, I was the unstable one. And she was certainly right. Chaos is where I like to be. If you give me everything organized, I get bored.
The musician insists on this natural version, consistent with his professional and artistic career. “I've always been a singer, singing my own songs. With Paco, I found myself as an accompanist, and I didn't feel like that; I wanted to rediscover myself. I decided to follow my own path. Friendships are very long journeys, but there was nothing personal. The whole group is wonderful; I have nothing bad to say about any of them.”
The idea that Paco's salary as a musician wasn't enough is completely dismissed. "There were never any money problems with me, maybe with others. In fact, when I worked with Paco, on the two tours I did with him, we all went, even Jorge's brother. And not only did we earn a lot of money, we were also as broke as a ruler, and he allowed us to leave Spain and perform in some amazing theaters. But this is like someone who works hard in a factory, one day they ask their boss to raise their salary. The boss can say yes or no, give you everything you ask for, or tell you to fuck off... That's just the way it is."
“In any case, I don't think anyone will talk about it because It is always better to speak well and keep the myth on the pedestal"," he adds. "You shouldn't be interested in what others earn, but in what you earn. If you think you deserve more, ask, and against the vice of asking..." And he adds immediately: "We must demystify the myth. Give him his place in glory, and Paco undoubtedly has it. But we must also think about the real man, who swore, who got angry like everyone else... The idyllic vision bores me. That's why in my book I wanted to show a human Paco, taken down from his pedestal. Paco wasn't a god, as many people want to make us believe. But there are those who need to create mythologies, like Camarón, who seems to have been the only one, with all due respect, because he is a giant, but, wasn’t there anyone else?
"The flamenco "He's been through a lot of hardship, he's had to be in the service of unsavory people, he's had to work many nights to bring home a piece of bread. It's very valuable to achieve glory, but I don't pursue it. I've been in music for sixty years and I've never done it."
"Scorsese once said at a university: 'Don't say you're not interested in old movies. They're not old, they're movies you haven't seen.' And that applies to music," the artist continues. "Young people have an obligation to inform themselves, not just to live in the here and now, and to play as fast as they can. Although there are some who know more than Lepe, most only hear about what's new. Perhaps because of what I'm saying, my friend Gerardo Nunez He tells me I'm a rancid. Don't take me out of The Paquera nor the Gypsy Indian, which I've been going crazy listening to every night at the Café de Chinitas. But I was also moved by the first three notes I heard from Jose Carlos Gomez"I called him and said, 'Dude, you've made me open up from top to bottom.' And I understood his complete devotion to Paco. I saw things in him that I saw with Paco when I rehearsed with him, two feet away, when he played the bongos."
His vision of the world flamenco is equally critical: “If you hear what I'm going to say, flamenco If you don't know me, you can curse my mother, but the first thing you have to learn in the flamenco It's like selling the fish. I've seen guitarists with flat tires see a friend come in and say, 'You'll see how this thing I'm going to do really pisses him off,' pick up the phone and say, 'Another gig just came up, I have thirty this month!' I've seen them all stab each other in the back.
"The flamenco "He's been through a lot of hardship, he's had to be in the service of unsavory people, he's had to work many nights to bring home a piece of bread. It takes a lot of courage to achieve glory, but I don't chase it. I've been in music for sixty years and I've never done it," he concludes with a sigh. "Success and failure are impostors, and presumption has seemed like a tacky idea to me all my life. Since no one ever spoke about me, I've gotten used to being hidden, to not existing." ♦
