Music in the Streets of Jerez
In the previous installment of this short series of articles on
the province of Cadiz I mentioned the ghastly local tv channel.
It features an almost endless supply of flamenco. There are, of
course, rather a lot of distinct flamenco styles. You get the
whole gamut on tv. I can appreciate the general feel, but a
small amount of pain and angst goes a long way.
When I first came to Spain many years ago I was walking along a
track out of Alicante towards Elche. I believe it was a sunday,
and I hit the village mid afternoon, right during the paseo. The
whole community was off to the far reaches of the palm forest to
celebrate a saint’s day. It was some time before I came abreast
of a cart containing six guys. I was puzzled as to why they were
penned into this cart. They all seemed happy, so I asked what
was going on. It turned out to be the midsummer feast of St
John. I therefore smiled and introduced myself as John, or Juan.
This caused much jubilation because now there were seven Juans,
and the crowd insisted that I get into the cart. Having seven
Juans would bring immense good luck for the forthcoming seasons.
That evening was magical with the dancing, and the guitar
playing, and the singing. It wasn’t flamenco, or what I call
flamenco, but it was definitely a form of cante jondo, and it
was very moving.
When I was in Jerez I did not attend a dance party, but watched
several parties on tv. (Sorry about this, but that’s modern
life.) And I’m glad I did watch one program. Sadly I had no-one
to ask who was the small girl who put on an amazing performance.
I am guessing she was ten or twelve years old, but she had
obviously been singing for some time. She had a strong voice,
and took complete possession of not only the stage, but the
audience as well. She is not just going to be a great star, she
is one already. If anyone knows who she is I’d love to know her
name.
Well, we did go out, but only briefly because it is, after all,
winter down here. One of the booklets you get given when you
arrive in your hotel gives a list of all the carol singing that
takes place over the religious period known as Advent. You know
what a zambomba is, don’t you? Yes, of course you do.
For those of you who don’t know what it is, let me explain. This
is a custom dating back several hundred years, but which had
almost died out until recently. It’s is a celebration. around a
fire in a courtyard or in a local cafe or tasca where local
ballads are sung by flamenco singers accompanied by everyone
present, with added tapas and drinks to make things go with a
bang. This sing-song is named after a special type of drum that
is used as part of the accompaniment.
Here is a picture of some typical drums. The zambombas are pots
covered with goatskin, which is pierced by a wooden rod, which
is rubbed with the hands to produce a rather odd sound:
This tradition is especially strong both in Jerez and in Arcos,
but I note the custom is spreading all over the province, and we
had a booklet in Santa Maria giving a list of the eateries
taking part.
Let me quote an article from the newspaper El Pais’s web site.
“In the courtyard outside the Atalaya Museums, a towering
19th-century palace that has almost 300 period clocks on
display, the bells strike two in the afternoon. Wicker chairs
are gathered around a bonfire, and a selection of liqueur
wines, Ibérico cold cuts and Christmas sweets are on
offer.
“Today, the guitarist Juan Diego strives to rescue
old romances (Spanish poems with eight syllables to a
line) and Christmas carols, preserved through oral history, so
he can put them to music and sing them.”
I think the newspaper is forgetting that way back in the
thirties and even up until the time I briefly lived in Grenada,
these old romances were sung in the evenings.
They were usually quiet affairs. I remember two guys (they were
brothers I believe), who had a small shop in one of the streets
at the foot of the hill of the Alhambra, used to make and repair
guitars by day, and in the evening they would fill a couple of
glasses with tinto, and sit in front of their shop playing their
guitars and singing softly.
Sometimes there was a small group of us listening. Often the
brothers just played for themselves.
In those days Grenada was a small quiet city, and I was then
studying and translating Lorca’s Gypsy Ballads. I lived only a
block away from the brothers, and just round the corner was the
pad of Ian Gibson who was then researching a book on Lorca.
Lorca,
A Life.
I climbed to the top of the tenement building where he had an
apartment on many occasions but eventually an old biddy put me
out of my misery. “You won’t find him here now. He’s teaching
back in Ireland.”
But I had this idea of trying to set Lorca’s traditional eight
syllable ballads to music.
According to the article in El Pais “The origin of all this is
in Arcos, where we used to sing romances. With time,
Gypsies in the poor quarters of Jerez adapted the lyrics to
flamenco,” says De Luisa shortly before the performance.
De Luisa’s repertoire includes songs about Baby Jesus becoming
drunk from the fruit of the strawberry tree and others on love
affairs and quarrels. “Like all good popular traditions, these
twists and turns of the Spanish picaresque genre [relating to
roguish heroes who outwit their corrupt, upper-class foes] come
out in the songs,”
I remember two of these old songs from way back, and I didn’t
hear them in Arcos. One was a charming song about a campesino
who crept over to his girlfriend’s house one night, but then got
frightened because he thought he heard her father coming, but it
was only the cat.
Another was about a mad boy who was always singing songs. He
would sing bits from various songs all muddled up, which ended
up producing a song that was disgracefully suggestive, which
everybody found hilarious, and all the ladies adored listening
to.
It’s a pleasant way to spend an afternoon in the week up to
Christmas. Maybe next year I will go to Arcos and see what they
make of the tradition.
Cadiz (Part 1)