MORENTE

Published in DEIA, Dec. 16, 2010


I know his daughter, Estrella. Curiously she was the person who opened the trilogy project singing Haurtxo txiki of the album Etxea. I always imagined being able to fuse together our oral tradition with the flamenco music and the result was spectacular. They have just mention to me that she sang softly to her father’s ears melodies and songs while he found himself bedridden in the hospital. Incredible! Enrique Morente, the great revolutionary of the singing, past away last Monday at the age of 67. The "maestro" that every time he sung imposed the law of his talent he was one of the most renewing and important figures of the contemporary flamenco. He was born on Christmas Day, 1942 in Granada and being an adolescent he traveled to Madrid being very curious of learning and discovering the secrets of singing. Enrique "el granaíno" (the man from Granda) as he was known then, aroused the interest of a full heart born ethnic Flamenco singer, Pepe de la Matrona, because of his attitude and devotion in his art. During his career he touched stick there was, as well he presumed, affirming that he was the only capable one to sing the "49 notes and half of the jondo". He fused the flamenco with oceans of cultures and music’s. He experimented with a lot of artists of very different styles. He sang poems and the letters of the most important writers and also he could dedicate himself to the pure of singing. He always looked further on and was ahead of his time, with the resulting criticisms; "They criticized me of being innovative and not being Gypsy", he said. He obtained very important prizes like the National Award of Music or the gold Medal to the Merit in the Fine Arts among others. Besides he had and kept a deep affection to our land and maintained a great friendship with another great artist of our homeland, Mikel Laboa. Flamenco is something energetic, sincere, of worldly essence, something that is kept in their souls, a mystery that reminds the crying and forces it vast of the human soul. Morente would say that you have to be "savage, free and to sing what you feel", or what is all the same, being oneself. Thank you "Maestro" for so much talent and all the singing.


www.kepajunkera.com

HERRIA

Published in DEIA, Nov. 18, 2010





WHEN after an adventure that I have lived this past year and with the results in your hand to present it in public, you can feel of types of sensations. You always create a kind of profound respect of everyone's opinion towards your work. . One knows all that he has lived, felt, and even what it represents for him all that he has experienced in life, but the great question that always comes to my mind is: How do I make myself express to others and to make them have an image, the closest possible, of the outcome? Herria is one of the most special and intensive albums that I have had opportunity to present. Recorded in New York, Oakland, Paris, Casablanca, Istanbul, Athens, Boise Idaho, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio Texas, Hawaii and Bilbao, this record is like the final attainment of an incredible project. In this occasion I have counted with the help, among others, of Eleftheria Arvanitaki, the voices of Chelle's and Friends, the quintet of Dave Douglas, the incredible All Nations Singers, the people of the Boise´s Choir, NOKA, Amuma Says No, the Texan music and so on, more then 130 artists of 28 countries or writers like Bernardo Atxaga and my friend Xabier Amuriza. A whole challenge of diaries, journeys, airports, taxis, education, schedules etc. Remembering the previous ones Etxea and Kalea, Herria has supposed a new turn around focus, something like curling the curl just a little more of the efforts and the complicities of it all. I do not exaggerate if I say that I am very proud of the outcome. It is not a perfect work but definitely I have counted on great collaborators and the perfect team. Result: 23 songs in which we have overturned to the last straw of what we have inside, literally emptiness, in a job that I hope will produce oceans of sensations in all those who decide to undertake this journey, around the world, just like our ancestors carried out in search of a better life. Kaixo denori, hona hemen Herria!


www.kepajunkera.com