Teresita Mazzantini's soleá: background, variants and lines of transmission (and II)

To Luis Suarez Avila, in memoriam.

 

A Therese Mazzantini He is credited with the creation of a little-known soleá, which my friend Jose Maria Castano dedicated an illustrative program de The paths of the cante, with the participation of the late Alfredo Benítez, father of the singer Ezequiel Benítez.

As far as we know, the first to impress that style of soleá was –and, with the data presented in the previous installment, it makes sense– Manuel Torres, almost eight years younger than her first cousin, Teresa Loreto SilkAnd I say without hesitation that they are cousins, because between the release of the first installment of this article and this second one, the sagacious Alberto Rodriguez Peñastrong has published data on Facebook that confirms what was pointed out by Rafael Chaves placeholder image, namely, that the Teresa Loreto Seda registered in Seville in 1895 is the same one who is living in Madrid with Luis Mazzantini in 1920. Furthermore, there is documentary evidence that she was registered in Madrid in 1905.

 

 

In Manuel Torres' interpretation, the beginning of the cante Mazzantini has a certain Cadiz flavour and is reminiscent of the soleá at the beginning of Henry the Twin (Cádiz, 1848-1906) but even more so to that of another soleá from which it could be derived. The conclusion is purely Jerez, typical of the soleares of Antonio Vargas Fernandez Beans (Jerez de la Frontera, 1846-1917). The recording dates from 1908, with the guitar of John Gandulla Bean, and lyrics:

 

My dear cousin
Look how close we are,
I raised my eyes to see you,
yours didn't look at me.

 

Manuel Torres.

 

As I say, the beginning of the soleá resembles a cante that my uncle louis soler and I attribute in Antonio Mairena in the world of siguiriya and soleá (Antonio Mairena Foundation, 1992, p. 331) to another Jerez woman, Mercedes Fernandez Vargas the Sernet (Jerez de la Frontera, 1840-Utrera, 1912). This is a style that was recorded little and for only a few years and, as far as I know, never after 1913. I know of records of the The Child of Cabra, the Diana, the Girl of the Combs, the Girl of Jerez and the Child of the Matron, although it is possible that there are also some other singers. In addition, the Niño de Cabra and Pastora Pavón recorded it frequently, three and four times respectively, if no other recordings appear. The attribution to the Serneta is based on its similarity to the Jerez-born singer's large soleá (of the type "Fui piera y perdí mi centro" and "Tengo el gusto tan colmao" which they recorded, respectively, Pastora and Tomás Pavón). Likewise, some of the lyrics associated with this almost forgotten style are also often interpreted by the Serneta's much better-known soleá grande. Although it is a cante whose melody is halfway between the initial soleares of the Serneta and the Mellizo, the attribution to the Jerez singer seems more likely to me since the diffusion of that style must have been due to her greater level of professionalization compared to the Cadiz singer.

Let's hear that style in the voice of Niña de Jerez, a singer whose name we know was Luisa and, perhaps, Carrasco surname. The recording is from 1909 and plays Ramon Montoya. The lyrics, as can be seen, are very commonly interpreted by the other, more widespread style of the Serneta:

 

Just by looking
you will understand that I love you
and you will also understand
I want to talk to you and I can't.

 

Girl from Jerez

 

In the following audio you can perceive the similarity between the first two thirds of Teresita Mazzantini's soleá and the one we have just discussed from the Serneta.

 

Manuel Torres and Nina from Jerez

 

To compose her soleá, Teresita Mazzantini drew on two cantes previous ones. They were from two creators of the generation before her, Serneta and Frijones, first cousins ​​as well. She had the talent to make the whole sound homogeneous, without the stitches being noticeable.

The following year, with the same verse as Manuel Torres, Niña de los Peines recorded the Mazzantini soleá with Ramón Montoya's guitar. At that time, she was very influenced by the Jerez native, so it is possible that she learned it from him. Even so, she adds her personality by lengthening the first third somewhat, which brings it closer to the cante of the Twin.

 

 

Nina of the Combs

 

Also Pepe the Matron He recorded the same soleá and lyrics in 1911, with the guitar of Gaspar, which offers an accompaniment reminiscent of jaleos, which underlines a possible dance origin of this soleá. The recording is titled as Soleares from Jerez and, curiously, it opens with a cante Cadiz, the great soleá of the Mellizo. On some slate plates that Matrona printed in 1947 for the private collection of Manuel Garcia Matos –released on CD in 1990–, he also sings it with the same lyrics.

 

 

We do not know if Matrona takes the style we are discussing from Manuel Torres or from Teresita Mazzantini herself. On this subject it is worth remembering that when Niño de la Matrona recorded this soleá he was frequently The Gabrieles –where Teresita also sang– and the Fornos Cafe, run by Tomás Mazzantini since 1909. As already mentioned in the previous installment, Blas Vega He claimed –probably informed by Matrona– that Teresita worked in Los Gabrieles under the protection of Adrian Quijano.

 

Pepe de la Matrona

 

 

The soleá was forgotten for a long time until Antonio Mairena She sings it in a series entitled "Soleares de los Puertos y Jerez: Las piedras de tu calle" (The stones of your street), in The Great History of Cante Andalusian Gypsy (Columbia, 1966), already in the microgroove system. As far as we know, Mairena is the first to associate this melody with Teresita Mazzantini in a writing, in this case, in the explanatory booklet of the three discs that make up this great discographic work. There, we read:

 

Teresita Mazzantini also excelled in the soleá. She modified and arranged some of them in her own way. cantes Jerez natives that Antonio Mairena records for the first time. With them he brings a further contribution to our knowledge of the art flamenco.

 

From what can be deduced from this text, it seems that Antonio was not able to listen to the recordings that we have brought here from slate discs. In addition, it is very possible that his knowledge of this soleá came from the conversations he had with Niña de los Peines. We can even assume that he learned it after publishing World and forms of the cante flamenco (Revista de Occidente, 1963), because in that book its authors –Ricardo Molina and Mairena himself – when they talk about the different styles of soleares, they do not talk about Teresita Mazzantini.

Mairena interprets the soleá with the lyrics “Olvié a quien bien querido” and further remodels the first thirds. In doing so, he follows the path of his cousin Pastora Pavón, which reinforces the thesis that considers the Sevillian as his informant in this style. As the recording is easily located, I prefer to bring here a live version. Antonio performed it with the guitar of the Boy Melchior –Melchor de Marchena’s younger brother– in 1976. Where? Precisely in El Puerto de Santa María, the place where until now it was believed that our singer was born. And he sings it with lyrics that he recorded eleven years earlier in cantiñas and that allude to bullfighting. Coincidence? I don’t know, but the maestro was not used to doing anything without a reason.

 

You're behaving with me
like a bull in a square
that when you see jerío
He usually seeks revenge.

 

 

As I refuse to cut off the series, as it is magnificent and, furthermore, little known, we will leave it complete. Mazzantini's soleá is at minute 7:14, between two superb cantes of Henry the Twin.

 

Antonio Mairena

 

He was a disciple of Mairena, Jose Menese –or maybe Francisco Moreno Galvan–, who realized the quality of the cante. The one from La Puebla was recorded in 1968 with the guitar of Melchor de Marchena, in a series entitled «Soleares de Jerez: I feel more miserable». In this version, the first third is much longer than in the previous ones:

 

When you turn your back on me
and you took the first step,
that the flesh of your body
fall to pieces.

 

 

Jose Menese

 

Mairena rescued this type of soleá for modern discography, but there was a contemporary singer who knew it. Manuel de los Santos Gallardo Old Sore Muscles (Jerez de la Frontera, 1908 – Rota, 1976), who kept it in his memory even though he never recorded it on disc. cante which he remembered had some different nuances from the versions printed on slate plates and from the one made known by Mairena. He used to interpret it with a variant of the lyrics that we have heard from Torres, Pastora and Matrona, and also with others that begin with "You took me from my throne" and "If she is dead, let her be waked."

But who could Old Agujetas have learned it from? I don't think it was from Mazzantini herself, since most of her life was spent outside of Jerez. I suspect it wasn't from Manuel Torres either, despite being a follower of his cantes. Manuel's 1908 recording was quite inaccessible, unlike the discography he recorded with Borrull in 1928, which Old Agujetas knew well, as can be seen from what we have preserved of his recordings. In addition, Agujetas did not make exactly the same the handwriting of Manuel Torres, as we will see. He could have had another informant.

As Teresa Loreto y Seda was Manuel Torres' first cousin, she was also his Jose Niño Loreto Carapiera (Jerez de la Frontera, 1882-1931), a singer who lived in Jerez all his life and from whom Viejo Agujetas learned a cantiña that is usually sung in Jerez during a tanda of soleares. I believe, therefore, that it was from Carapiera that he learned Mazzantini's soleá, and he passed it on to his son Manuel Agujetas, who recorded it on disc.

 

 

Fortunately, there are home recordings in which Agujetas el Viejo sings Teresita's soleá. I don't know the date the recording was made, although I suppose it was in the late 60s or early 70s. We can hear this great singer performing it twice in a row, with an intimate aesthetic of short lines:

 

If I am dead, let them wake me,
My soul recommends you
to the Virgin of the Snows.

Cousin, I saw you on a plain,
I opened my eyes to see you
yours didn't look at me.

 

The second letter was picked up by Rodriguez Marin (couplet no. 3.417) in its Spanish folk songs (published in 1882-1883) like this:

 

Along that path no longer
I opened my eyes to see you,
yours didn't look at me.

 

It is, indeed, a variant of the one recorded by Manuel Torres, but not the same one.

 

 

Old Sore Muscles

 

Your son Manuel Agujetas, accompanied by Programming, sings Teresita's soleá at the beginning of "Bulerías al golpe: I saw you on a plain" (routes of the cante jondo, Ariola, 1973). Since that recording can be found without difficulty, I prefer to bring here a recording recorded on Spanish Television, for the TVE program Flamenco who directed Fernando Quiñones. Mazzantini's soleá is at minute 3:35. Curiously, it is followed by the cante of Carapiera, which serves as a closure. Cantes overwhelming.

 

 

 

There are not many singers today who interpret Teresita Mazzantini's soleá. As a continuator of Manuel Torres' line today we have Perico the Clothier. The wake of Antonio Mairena, as expected, is the one that has found the most echo, although not too much. Apart from Menese, he used to sing it very well. Canela de San Roque and, of course, his son Jose Canela today. Finally, the version of the Agujetas, as expected, is in the repertoire of Dolores Agujetas, daughter of Manuel, and of some singer sagas of the Plazuela de Jerez such as the Moneo.

But we are not going to end the article with soleá, but with bulerías. And bulerías from Cadiz. There is a cante what did i do the Pearl, surely learned from his mother Rose the Mumps or of this one's sister, Manuela the Chinese –grandmother of Juan Villar–, whose beginning bears some resemblance to that of Teresita Mazzantini's soleá. This is how La Perla sang it:

 

The Pearl of Cadiz

 

 

Heard like this it may not be perceived well, since it is common in bulerías to add extra words in the verses to play with syncopations and off-beats. But if we leave the cante Without these ornaments and placing it next to the beginning of Mazzantini's soleá, perhaps what has been said can be better perceived. Here we hear the beginning of Perla's bulería, without ornaments, and that of Mazzantini's soleá, again, in the voice of Manuel Torres.

 

The Pearl and Manuel Torres

 

There are many questions that remain open and confirm news and statements made in these two articles, such as:

1. Since that soleá was in the repertoire of the three cousins, one might assume that it was created within the Loreto family.
2. The connection with the soleá of Serneta and Mellizo suggests a Cadiz substratum as well, and so it is not surprising that it resembles a bulería from Cadiz.

 

There are currently fellow researchers with more than enough ability to provide more information in the future about the life of this mysterious singer. I think it is worthwhile. It would also be desirable for current singers to take up Teresita Mazzantini's soleá for their repertoires, as it is of unquestionable quality.

I would like to thank Rafael Chaves for the documentation he provided me with and for carefully reading the text before its publication. ♦

 

 

→ See here the first part of this research work by Ramón Soler.