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"What are they singing here? What type of bulerías are these?" That is what a friend and flamenco dancer asked me the other day. It turned out that finding an answer led me into a far deeper analysis than she was asking for. My research inspired me to write this article. First, let’s have a look at the video she was talking about.
This is a very enjoyable number by dancer Pastora Galván with ¡mucho arte! You should also note that there is not a single step of zapateado or heel work.
There is a lot of material to dig out in this piece of beautiful artwork. Pastora is accompanied, from the left of the screen by one of the staple palmeros in Sevilla, José Jiménez Santiago “El Bobote”— the triumphant breakout cantaor at the last Bienal de Flamenco 2012, José Valencia; the cantaor and palmero Cristian Guerrero, and the veteran guitarist Ramón Amador, uncle of Raimundo and Rafael Amador of the legendary band Pata Negra, and pianist Diego Amador “El Churri”
The scene they are recreating here is straight out of a patio de vecinos from the popular Seville neighborhood of Triana (a patio de vecinos is a type of tenement building with an internal courtyard that was once the typical housing of Triana). Pastora Galván is wearing a bata (robe) and slippers, as if she was cozy at home just having fun with her family. The portrait is of a lady in a traditional setting, maybe in a time between the 1930s or 1960s that actually doesn't exist any more due to our modern-day lifestyle and the gentrification of the neighborhood itself.
Let's start analyzing! As it is often the case in flamenco, this piece in bulería rhythm, is a medley of different excerpts of Spanish popular music and bulerías forms or compositions ranging over a century. Despite that, it's amazing how seamless these artists make it look, not giving much indication of how diverse their sources are.
The intro to this piece is the music to a beautiful copla or Spanish popular song titled Echale guindas al pavo. This song was composed by Ramón Pelleró Ródenas for the movie Morena Clara (1936)— my grandfather’s favorite movie— in which the legendary coplera Imperio Argentina interpreted the role of a gitana (Roma) girl heartbroken by a señorito (rich boy) from the high society.
The first sets of lyrics written below, very sexually insinuating by the way, are by the poet and writer José Manuel Caballero Bonald, a flamenco expert who appears several times in the documentary series from the 1970s Rito y Geografía del Cante Flamenco. They were recorded originally in the bulería "Siete Horitas Seguias" by El Turronero in his album "Cantes Viejos" from 1976. Go to minute 2:22 in this Spotify player to listen to them:
These artists continue drawing material from a true genius such as Manuel Molina, the artistic and former real life partner of Lole Montoya. The very own style of Manuel Molina, the poet from El Tardón, one of Triana’s quarters, is unmistakable in this stanza.
As a curiosity, you can see Spanish pop music artist Alejandro Sanz singing a version of these lyrics in minute 2:05 of this video:
At around 1:31 (after Pastora closes by sitting on the table), we go back to the Spanish copla, when we hear ¡Triana, Triana! This song was interpreted by, yet again, Imperio Argentina for the movie titled Carmen la de Triana (1938). This movie was shot in Nazi Germany during the Spanish Civil War. This genre of movies, full of cheesy traditional lore, were very much part of the propaganda policies of Dictator Francisco Franco’s fascist regime. Despite the melodramatic character of these films, you can find in them music of great quality. During the shooting of Carmen la de Triana it is said Adolph Hitler tried to date Imperio Argentina with not much luck.
¡Triana! ¡Ay, mi Triana!
De tu río en el cristal
cuántas veces me miré
y en tus calles de jazmines perfuman
la frente me besó la luna.
Yo no tengo más tesoro ni cantar
que el barrio que meció mi cuna.
¡Ay, las campanas de mi Santa Ana!
¡Ay, ay!
Soleares trianeras,
quejíos del alma son
más florida cuando vuelva
Triana, te he de ver yo.
Yo te quiero, barrio mío,
A Dios pongo por testigo
Aaaaayyy mi Triana,
Aaaaayyy mi Triana,
Aaaaayyy las campanas
Ay de Santa….
Triana Ay my Triana!
How many times
I looked at your reflection
On the river, like a mirror.
In your jasmine scented streets
The moon kissed me on the forehead.
I don’t want for treasures nor fortune
Only the neighborhood which is my cradle.
Ay the bells of my Saint Ana!
Ay, ay!
Soleáres from Triana
Cries from the soul they are
More in bloom when I return
Triana, I have to see you.
I love you, my neighborhood,
I put God as my witness
Aaaay my Triana!
Aaaay my Triana!
Ay the bells
Of Saint …
Here’s Carmen la de Triana, Imperio Argentina, singing ¡Triana, Triana!
Pastora’s number continues with what we could consider a set of lyrics much more part of the flamenco oral tradition. We hear lyrics from Jerez, the birth place of the bulería. At this moment the performance is building up into a climax, getting into a hypnotic mode, a paroxysm. The words of the song work as a scat.
------missing lyrics ------
Utrera and Lebrija, these two cities in the province of Seville are very important in flamenco history, as you may very well know, but also because the gitano (Roma) artists there have preserved a set of romances (ballads, which used to be part of popular culture, thanks to blind traveling artists who performed them in the streets and squares) and alboreás (gitano wedding songs) that have a very distinct and magnificent flavor.
Yo vengo de Utrera
Yo vengo de Utrera
yo vengo vendiendo ollas y cazuelas
Es que te quiero
Te quiero
te quiero yo
te quiero yo
te quiero yo
Más que la madre
que te parió
I come from Utrera
I come from Utrera
I come selling pots and pans.
It’s that I love you
I love you
I love you
I love you
Even more than the mother
who gave birth to you.
In this video from the series Rito y Geografía del Cante Flamenco, we can see a very young Miguel Funi and guitarist Pedro Bacán, both from Lebrija, performing these romances and alboreás. In the minute 12:26 Miguel Funi interprets the stanza about coming from Utrera from Pastora Galván’s piece.
At this point everything that comes from José Valencia’s singing is almost unintelligible. It is as if the performers have achieved a trance-like state that can inspire nothing but joy. By now, no one can deny that this is the “real thing!”
You may say this is flamenco puro, but how can something that goes back and forth in time using material from the 19th Century, to the 1930s, to the 1970s, back and forth and over again, be described as pure? This is a hybrid, a fusion of styles within flamenco which also draws from Spanish popular music. What standards do we use to qualify a performance like this as “pure?”
By using terminology like that we are limiting ourselves to a very biased and simplistic categorization. What flamenco “purists” may consider flamenco puro is a response to their own cultural references and adherence to styles which were acquired in a time when a certain trend was in vogue, perhaps when they were young, and they perceive it through a romantic lens mixed with nostalgia and melancholy.
A performance like this one is pure because it moves you. It is pure art and reaches into your core. That’s why I prefer the term arte puro because it describes the essence of the performance, deters discrimination and simplification. In the words of the great dancer Eva la Yerbabuena:
“El flamenco es un arte fruto de la mescolanza. La única pureza que existe está en la honestidad del artista.”
"Flamenco is an art that is the fruit of a mishmash. The only purity that exists is in the honesty of the artist."
I’d like to thank my mother, Alejandra Cid Pagador, for helping me with her knowledge of flamenco and Spanish copla; José Manuel Gamboa for the couple of very good leads about Ramón Amador, El Turronero, and Manuel Molina; Martha Kessler, my dear wife for helping me with the editing, and my friend and flamenco dancer Sabrina Aviles for pointing out to me this beautiful performance by Pastora Galván. Sabrina, I hope this answers your question!!
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