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Arash -> Diego del Morao - Interview (Dec. 15 2010 15:37:20)
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Source: flamenco-world.com
Los Morao live on. Diego del Morao, the youngest representative of the Jerez guitar family, makes his solo début with the album ‘Orate’. On the one hand, he takes stock. The guitarist captures his roots and compiles the keys to the music which he has hitherto made for the artists who return his accompaniments in the form of collaboration: Moraíto – his father -, Paco de Lucía, Niña Pastori, Chaboli, Diego Carrasco… and Diego el Cigala, whose record label endorses the début. And on the other hand, he defends his personality and his search. Both go necessarily hand in hand when he is praised for revitalizing flamenco guitar. But in his eyes, everything is natural and from within: “I play the way I am, the way I feel… I don’t know how to play any other way”.
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What does ‘Orate’ mean?
I like how the title sounds, but it also has a meaning. It was a toss-up between “arate”, which means blood in gypsy slang, and “orate”, which means crazy… because I think all of us musicians are a bit mad. And the bulería with that title is also a little different. I proposed it to Amparo and we all liked it.
Are they new scores or do they come from jobs which you’ve done for accompaniment?
That’s why first albums are so special and so important. It’s the music you’ve made since you began, until that moment. Now you start from scratch and you have to reinvent yourself. There are undoubtedly many things which have surely been heard and others which I’ve ruled out. It’s a real shame, but guitar evolves and so do you. There’s always very significant stuff which identifies you a lot and it has to be there. But I think people who know me are going to hear something new and that’s the intention, always maintaining my identity and my way of feeling it.
Which of those significant things would you highlight?
I identify a lot with the rhythm, with the bulería. I really like playing with rhythmic ways, always bringing out new ideas.
There are four bulerías on this disc, but is each one focused from a different point of view?
Of course. I didn’t set out to make four bulerías, but rather, simply, in Jerez we live in a constant bulería; it’s inevitable. You have to be intelligent when expressing yourself and use your weapons. And it’s reciprocal: the people listening to you accept it likewise.
You’ve also used more unhurried styles…
A guitarist has to have an assortment of toques; it’s fundamental. You can’t make an entire album of bulerías. The seguiriya is a way I heard my father do, from Tía Anica la Piriñaca, which I’ve been doing like that for a long time. The soleá is also especially tuned. The rondeña is there because you should always do something free on a guitar album. Everyone has to use his weapon, and I think my weapon is rhythm.
What’s there in the recording from Los Morao and what’s there of your own contribution?
I can’t deny where I come from; I carry the banner of my land and my family’s toque, but you have to play the way playing’s being done now. I don’t try to play differently; I play like that because I feel it like that, because now we go in a car with a GPS and we used to go in a carriage. Diego Carrasco told me years ago that playing flamenco didn’t mean playing a few “tiraíllos”. It’s good to know the roots, but flamenco is within you and your way of feeling and the art are timeless. You can play flamenco because you feel it like that now, or within twenty years, but you can’t play now like twenty years ago. You have to know the past, but you have to contribute new things.
In fact, when you were a boy your father took you to El Carbonero’s school for him to teach you the basic techniques, didn’t he?
Oh yeah, and I feel really proud of that period. Many of us guitarists from Jerez got started with El Carbonero. My grandfather used to take me to classes when I was ten or eleven years old. That’s where I began to get to know guitar. And listening to my father, I then found my way.
Everybody stresses that you have something new. Is it hard to contribute something new to guitar?
I don’t know how to play any other way. From the artist’s point of view, it’s difficult. I don’t try to create anything; I do try to reinvent myself, since a musician’s job is to create. I play the way I am, the way I feel; I don’t know how to play any other way.
The disc is full of collaborations: Paco de Lucía, Diego el Cigala, Niña Pastori... Why are they special artists in your career?
I feel very proud to have made the album in the family; they’re artists I admire and at the same time, they’re my friends. And that’s the best thing that can happen to you, that people collaborate with you and there’s affection. Chaboli is the music producer with me, he’s been fifty-fifty, he’s helped me in everything, I adore him. I wanted to vindicate that because in the credits he doesn’t appear and it’s an error which will be fixed in the following edition. What can I say about María? We all like María. And my uncle Diego Carrasco, who I grew up with and is one of the ones who stimulates me the most when creating and seeing. Diego is a wise man and many people don’t know what he is. And about my father… All the musicians are the ones I admire: Paquete, Piraña, Jumitus, Yelsy, Alfonso Pérez, Maca… And what can I tell you about the collaboration with Paco de Lucía? More than a collaboration, it’s a gift which life has given me. Having the maestro on my first disc is a pride and a privilege, a real luxury.
What do you learn beside him?
The maestro is so natural… The thing is that he puts himself at your level so that you don’t feel uncomfortable, he talks to you about soccer… he’s a genius. An artist of that magnitude demonstrates that he is one with that humbleness. He called me to see if I’d liked it, telling me I hadn’t called him. “Maestro, but I had to drink half a bottle of tequila to call you up”, I told him. And how am I not going to like it if it’s a gift which life has given to me.
Does the fact that musicians like Yelsy Heredia and Alain Pérez collaborate mean that there’s an opening towards other territories in your music?
Since I started working with Diego el Cigala, I’ve begun to discover those other types of music. I worked with maestro Bebo Valdés, with Jerry González… And my mind’s been opened up a great deal with them. The guitarist has no choice but to see it like that now, regardless of you having your roots. I’m learning from them and in a way, I’m the intruder. It has to be like that; you have to plunge into the pool and try to be up to par with those magnificent musicians. It’s clear that bolero and latin music are a field I love; it stimulates me and I like to keep on learning. That’s what musicians have to do, never tire of being restless.
What does it mean to bring out this first album with Diego el Cigala’s endorsement?
I only have words of gratitude because he hasn’t pressured me at any moment, he’s supported me in everything… but Diego, Amparo and the entire production crew. I made the disc the way I wanted to, when I wanted to, with the musicians I wanted and the contract he offered me is spectacular, a real privilege.
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