I did something really special this Easter holidays, and that was to spend some days in Almeria (Spain), where my family comes from. I had the chance to listen to Lidia Plaza and her group of flamenco musicians (David Rodriguez -guitar, Salvador Martos -percussion and Chochi Duré -accordion) at La Guajira.
Lovely music, very well assembled musicians, a good choice of repertoire, with modern and early flamenco pieces (as it corresponds to a living tradition) and superb interpretation by the voice of Lidia Garcia. I couldn't miss the opportunity of a short interview on how singing makes a flamenco singer feel. She noticed me inmediately as I walked close to the back door, and came to find me, and warmly agreed to meet us after the concert for a chat.
How did you start singing flamenco?
It runs in my family. My father used to
sing flamenco and
play guitar, so I've been listening to this kind of
music since I was a kid. I didn't start singing myself until I was 29
years, so that was quite late. I joined a music school in Roquetas
that had a flamenco workshop with flamenco singing lessons, so there
I went.
Do you think that singing flamenco has
ever help you personally?
Yes, a lot. It's given me confidence,
and happiness, I can wind out when I've had any problem. Singing
renews me inside, it feels like my cells are being renewed. It's
regenerating, it makes me feel alive, and when I'm on stage I enjoy
it to the maximum.
When I sing in public I try to make
others feel how much I am enjoying it so that others can also feel
that adrenaline and sense of renewal and well being when they listen
to something that they are enjoying.
Do you feel that there is anything
specific to flamenco singing with regards to emotional expression?
Yes. Flamenco singing is pure feeling.
Depends on what palos you sing you get different emotions,
some are happier, like tangos, alegrias
and bulerias, that were performed by our ancestors to
celebrate popular parties. But the mine singing, the seguidilla,
the soleá, it's about suffering and difficulties that people
had to go through in a tough area. It's a very special kind of
singing, with lots of suffering and it comes from a very deep place
inside one. They express how people could cope with the everyday
hardness, how people used to live in the past. That was the way they
used to express it, by singing.
If you sing, your mood improves, you
can really become happier and you get closer to an authentic state of
health.
What are your projects for the future?
What do you aim for?
What I really want is to sing and to be
in a stage and share music with people, an audience to enjoy with me.
That's what I always want to do, with disregard of the fact if I
record a disc or I become famous and all that fantasies, but my
biggest wish is to sing... I am already fulfilling it!
A lovely night in front of the medieval arabic castle of the city, that ended with a walk in the warm andalusian night. I highly reccomend Lidia Plaza and her ensemble for performances in UK.
