In the previous chapter, we studied how the figure of maestro Antonio Mairena was key in reestablishing our singer's legacy. While Merced's soleá was widely disseminated by the greats in the first quarter of the last century, its performance gradually declined, especially in her own land of origin.
Several reasons can be considered, one of them being the great importance that the preparation style attributed to Joaquín from Paula de Alcalá displacing almost all the others. Fortunately, the eponymous style of Henry the Twin of Cadiz It is still performed by many performers, but I understand that not as much as that one. Another reason may be the increasingly limited choice of the short soleá which has great value flamenco but it is less effective for the general public.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of this new installment, we cannot ignore some historical singers who recorded soleás from the Serneta with a certain presence. Case of Paca Aguilera, with up to 5 cuts between 1908 and 1909, Niño La Isla with a full slate side, La Niña de Jerez, the already mentioned Manuel Centeno, Pepe de la Matrona, Bernardo de los Lobitos, el Niño de las Cabezas, who recorded a cante like Soleares de la Serneta, Juan Valderrama and some others…
In the short soleás there are two singers who sublimated the cante de la Serneta, in my short-sightedness as Fernando de la Morena would say. I speak of Uncle Gregorio the Borrico in samples such as 'Sweet Melon Grove', 'Think of me, I love' or 'May you come to me' y Fernanda from Utrera who gave us the jewel 'Since I'm yours', uniting Utrera and Jerez even more and forever.
It is somewhat curious that There is very little of contemporaries. Jerez, her hometown, practically condemned her to oblivion in the repertoire, which was increasingly diminishing among its singers. We must go to some successful concessions of Enrique Morente (let us not forget his devotion to a great Sernetian as Don Antonio Chacón) on the album 'Esencias Flamencas' from 1988, with Sabicas from 'New York to Granada' from 1990 and in the 'Soleá de la ciencia' from 'Morente sueña La Alhambra' from 2005 with Tomatito, among others.
We now turn to the other two singers mentioned in the title of the article: José and Juan.
Camarón de la Isla Nothing less than opens his 1970 album with soleá from the Serneta with the title 'Every time we look at each other' accompanied by Paco de Lucía:
Y Juan Moneo The Cake, following Tomás Pavón and Juan Mojama, opens his soleá with the Serneta on two occasions on his celebrated 1992 album 'Colores Morenos' with Moraíto on guitar:
We cannot leave aside the contribution of the very complete singer Vicente Soto 'Sordera', who in his Triptych Flamenco (RTVE Music, 1996), in the volume dedicated to Seville with the guitars of Diego Losada, Moraíto Chico and Rafael Riqueni, proposes this tribute to Mercé La Serneta, in the form of soleá:
That same year, the singer Carmen Linares included a great tribute to various styles of La Serneta in her 'Anthology of Women in the cante' next to Pepe Habichuela's guitar. This lady is always up to date with the cante:
I would like to highlight, among the most recent, the nod to the Serneta in a performance at the Jerez Festival by the singer Jesus Mendez and whom I congratulated for it. You can listen to it in this podcast:
Jesús Méndez – Quiero CantArte – Podcast expoflamenco
And on the outskirts of the flamenco of the interpreter Dani Llamas, in the exploration of a new path between American music and Andalusian roots with a sixties feel, uses the lyrics that lead to the title of his song 'I was a pied':
With all these articles, in which we have turned to the priceless book for data collection 'Antonio Mairena in the world of siguiriya and soleá' by Luis and Ramón SolerWe've paved the way for a journey back in history in search of the traces of Merced Fernández Vargas 'La Serneta,' the greatest creator of soleá styles in history. I remind you that the course will be held at Espacio expoflamenco A single session on July 25th. There are only a few places left. Here's all the information:
