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Agujetas, Cantaor
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"Agujetas, Cantaor"

naive - flamenco vivo 2003

flamenco / ¶cie¿ka d¼wiêkowa filmu

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Agujetas - urodzony w 1939 roku w Hiszpanii - klasyka flamenco szczególnie w wydaniu Cyganów andaluzyjskich (por. film "Vengo").

P³yta jest ¶cie¿k± d¼wiêkow± z francuskiego filmu dokumentalnego o tym samym tytule. Film zosta³ nakrêcony w 1999 roku przez Dominique Abel. Jako ¿e film jest o nim, Agujetas ¶piewa wszystkie utwory, jest te¿ autorem tekstów. Na gitarze akompaniuje mu Moraito.

Agujetas, Cantaor

Agujetas. Manuel de los Santos Pastor. Rota (Cádiz), 1939. Singer.
It is not a sure thing that the son of Agujetas el Viejo was born in the Cádiz town of Rota in 1939; he might have come into the world in Jerez de la Frontera three years earlier... As he himself confesses in the documentary ‘Agujetas cantaor’, "I don't have any papers". And that defines Manuel de los Santos, this outsider artist who left behind the forge to devote himself to cante brandishing the paternal nickname Agujetas as his stage name.
The jump was brilliant. Upon arriving in Madrid in 1970, he made his first record produced by Manuel Ríos Ruiz, on which he was accompanied by Manolo Sanlúcar on the guitar. Private circles, tablaos, festivals, theaters, student residence halls... no stage was beyond him after that. Nor was recognition long in coming. In 1977 he was awarded with the National Cante Prize of the Flamencology Professorship of Jerez.
Following a prolonged stay in North America, Agujetas came down with a serious illness. And for that reason, the most outstanding flamenco artists paid him homage in 1987 at a charity show in Jerez de la Frontera; a turning point following which Agujetas' career is revived. The cantaor's appearance in the film ‘Flamenco’ by Carlos Saura (1994) is one of his most intense moments, a martinete in which his ancestral cante is displayed, his visage marked by the years. Immediately after that date, the recordings follow regularly: ‘Agujetas en París’ (Harmonia Mundi, 1996), ‘Agujeta en la soleá (Alía, 1998)...
On these albums, Agujetas defends ancient cante and oral memory, legacies of which, together with a chosen few such as Chocolate and La Paquera, he considers himself a keeper. This and other confessions sprinkle the documentary that French director Dominique Abel dedicated to him in 2000, ‘Agujetas cantaor’, released, just like the record of the same name, by Naïve. A couple of years later, with the label Palo Nuevo, he records ‘24 quilates’ (‘24 carats’), where he insists on vindicating the school of Manuel Torre, El Marrurro, Tío José de Paula... above all, through seguiriyas, soleares and fandangos.

"Agujetas, Cantaor". Documentary Review.
"I get up with a headache because I dream of singing every night."
"I don't know where I was born; I haven't got any papers… No age... You can be 200 years old and it doesn't matter as long as you can still get it up, you silly girl!" We imagine the French model Dominique Abel blushing on the other side of the camera. She has been in love with his rock-hewn features and cracked voice since she came to Spain; since she first saw him sing. Romanticism is back (with a certain touch of morbidness): Dominique Abel left Madrid for flamenco, to study dance in Madrid without completely abandoning her work as a model. She has published a book on her experiences, and a video about the man who initiated her in flamenco; about her punishing shaman who sings flamenco with his scarred voice and blood surging in his veins. The film is in black and white with a moment of color at the very end in a close-up of a somber Agujetas staring into the fire.
In this film-documentary he sings several martinetes at his home, hammer in hand. In the six-track CD version this is extended to seventeen minutes. The rest of the performances were filmed in a tavern in Chipiona alongside Moraíto, in which we see the savagery of Agujetas; both out of place and unpredictable.
Agujetas is flamenco in vinegar: well-preserved and nasty-looking. He is a singer of extremes, and is as hard as his Neanderthal martinete. Here he shines: "I get up with a headache because I dream of singing every night." And here he kicks: "A person that knows how to read and write can't sing flamenco because his pronunciation isn't right." He has plenty of comments, and we also see him singing to his Japanese wife as she dances alegrías. There is also some footage from the seventies, and some impressions: "Agujetas' singing is rough like the first drink of whiskey," is one of the declarations that punctuate the film, as well as these of the aficionados Platero: "real old, born a hundred years later, real strange and mistrusting," and Coyote: "The singing of Agujetas hurts you; it makes you bleed; it cuts open your flesh like a knife." The film also includes a quote from Unamuno: "He that defends his ego defends all of our egos. He is we," as Agujetas walks through the country singing. Is Agujetas strange, or is he complete and balanced? Throughout the 58 minutes of the film we see several of the egos of Agujetas, through his voice; deep as the gaze of the Cyclops.
Luis Clemente [za: http://www.flamenco-world.com]

Manuel Agujetas: Fifteen Points of Scarred Genius
"A person that knows how to read and write can't sing flamenco because his pronunciation isn't right."

A French video is causing a sensation in Spain. A separately produced CD complements the latest effort from the scarred voice of this outstanding and controversial singer; anarchic and unpredictable.

"A fierce enemy of modern ways, and a free and original personality that has been mythicized for the good and the bad of the gitano1 world." (text from the cover of the video)

1. "I don't know where I was born; I haven't got any papers… No age..." "Agujetas has made a mark on my personal universe," writes the maker of the film. "I guess I'm fascinated in an anthropological sort of way. My sensibility is fascinated by a type of beauty that is vividly embodied by flamenco and gitanos1."

2. Dominique Abel left Paris for flamenco, heading for Madrid to study dancing while continuing with her modeling career. About this experience she has written a book. About flamenco she has made a video that portrays the man that initiated her in lo jondo2; that scarred voice, of open-veined flamenco. A video in black and white, with color reserved for the last image.

3. The result of this new romanticism is a video and CD that differ in content but share a title: "Agujetas, cantaor." The CD includes more of the bare singing from the soundtrack: two seguiriyas, two soleares, and a fandango. Six cantes in 50 minutes.

4. The crude singing does not include the 17 minutes of martinetes recorded in his house with hammer in hand (previous mental preparation required). His furnace and his singing are white hot, like the style of the singing blacksmiths that forge good metal. Agujetas forges his twisted verses like passkeys to the soul.

5. This is the second recording from Agujetas in a year and the eighteenth in his career. The performance was filmed in a tavern in Chipiona alongside the guitarist Moraíto, in which we see the savagery of Agujetas, both out of place and unpredictable.

6. The formidable Moraíto acknowledges that it was one of his most positive experiences: "He's constantly surprising you with new and undeveloped ideas. Because the singing of Agujetas is wild and untamed in its natural state."

7. With a single shout he milks the cow dry. There are singers like Sugar Ray that can hit you fifty times in a flash. But just one punch from Agujetas, and you're going down.

8. "Agujetas' singing is rough like the first sip of whiskey." This is one of the declarations that punctuate the film, as well as these of the aficionados Platero: "real old, born a hundred years later, real strange and mistrusting," and Coyote: "Agujetas' singing hurts you. It makes you bleed. It cuts open your flesh like a knife."

9. "Aglow with pain and gitano essence," wrote Fernando Quiñones about the unmistakable voice; "Soaked in acid primitiveness." A flamenco Neanderthal. In a string of poetic definitions, Caballero Bonald wrote, "Uncontaminated. Nothing here is superfluous or artificial." "It's as if an erotic world shuddered in his captivity," wrote Manuel Ríos. "If Manuel has built his house with his own hands, and without a plumb line or level, who am I or anyone else to demand that he appeal to our own geometries?" asks Francisco Almazán. The singing of Agujetas is not easily explained. How can you explain a force of nature?

10. The film opens with a quote from Unamuno that appears as we see Manuel walking through the country: "He that defends his ego defends all of our egos. He is we." The film portrays all the different egos of Agujetas, and expresses his darkly colorful statements: "The best singer is the one that has suffered the most," or "You don't get to be a singer until you're at least 75."

11. In the wounded cry of Agujetas we hear the groaning hinges of flamenco: "I've got several families, but they've had enough of me." His family is extraordinary, to say the least. His great-grandfather was a singer, and his grandfather Rubichi was a companion of the original mad genius, Manuel Torre. His father Agujetas Viejo was an encyclopedia of great Jerez singers from the past. "He had unforgettable memories, and he would bring out those lines of saetas3 sung to siguiriyas with the lungs of an ox." The restricted transmission of flamenco; the vitality of inherited cante4.

12. His teeth are golden and his words are pointed. Statements against the señoritos5: "I never sang for anyone's party, because I think there would've been problems. I wasn't born with a remote control... I'm real dangerous that way." Is Agujetas strange, or is he complete and balanced?

13. Agujetas: Flamenco in vinegar.

14. He is a singer of flamenco maxims, hard as a martinete6. Here he shines: "I get up with a headache because I dream of singing every night." And here he kicks: "A person that knows how to read and write can't sing flamenco because his pronunciation isn't right," he says, referring to the illiterate singers that charted the territory of flamenco; gitano singers that were allergic to frills and rhetoric.

15. With his voice, deep as the gaze of the Cyclops, never is always possible.

(1). Gitanos: Spanish Roma (Gypsies).
(2). Lo jondo: Literally, "that which is profound (hondo)," used to refer to certain intensely emotive singing styles.
(3). Saeta: a singing style normally reserved for Easter processions dealing with the Crucifixion.
(4). Cante: flamenco singing.
(5). Señoritos: Upper-class flamenco enthusiasts that pay for entertainment. In the past they were often land owners that hired the gitanos for manual labor.
(6). Martinete: An archaic singing style. Literally, "pile driver."

Luis Clemente

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 13 January, 2009.