Two years after Diego Clavel Although recognized in his native Huelva, the Moorish artist continues to create sensations with his own achievements, leaving a significant mark in another flamenco singing genre in 2005 and leaving us once again astounded. He thus broke a new record by presenting By soleá, an anthology that, with lyrics signed by himself, Diego Andrade MartagónIt was announced on January 22, 2006 at the headquarters of the Peña Flamenca Francisco Moreno Galvan from his hometown.
This new compilation leads us to consider that inventorying the typology of the canteThis has been the unspoken desire of artists flamencos, especially since the Anthology of the Cante Flamenco (Hispavox, 1954). But many are called and few are chosen, with Diego Clavel standing out above the rest, breaking another record with more than fifty styles of a palo, the soleá, which seems to be one of the most complex in the flamenco repertoire.
With this work, recorded again in the Antequera studios of CambayaThe Moorish singer reinforces his passion for stylistic compilation, also noting the peculiarity that in both cases he contributes, as usual, his own lyrics.
In that sense, the flamenco singer does not hide that with this trilogy "it's not that I want to become a champion defender of the flamencoBut I can clarify one thing: I'm going to try. That's why again – Clavel insists – I've done this work in which I don't invent anything, but rather offer some canteSome are linked to their creator and origin; others to their origin but not their creator; and still others to their creator but not their origin.
This is how he manages to perform 83 styles of soleares, from Alcalá to Marchena, passing through Utrera, Lebrija, Triana, Jerez, Cádiz and Córdoba, including both personal and anonymous styles, in order to associate each cante with the place of origin and who the creator was.
"Such an illustrious Moor wanted to know what had happened before him, the only way to know what his future would be, that tomorrow which sometimes consoles us with its promises or saddens us with its grim prospects."
The guitars accompanying him on this arduous adventure are the usual ones of the man from Granada. Paco Cortes and the Sevillian Antonio CarrionTwo instrumentalists whose skillful craftsmanship inspires Diego Clavel to multiply himself to infinity. By soleáBut by bifurcating its unusual proposal into a descriptive display of expression and a proclamation of intention, since these canteThey are the ones who truly break through the silent wall of consumer society and separate the artist from the contaminated elites.
However, just when we thought the Moorish master had gone beyond belief, he outdid himself in February 2008 by revealing Diego Clavel. For Levante, another monographic work now focusing on the canteminers through a double CD with the guitars of their usual Paco Cortés and Antonio Carrión.
Clavel's involvement in these stylistic differences is total, as evidenced by the fact that he begins with the taranta, starting with those of The Little Owl y The Pena, to continue with the one Hyacinth Almaden and of The laurels; continue with those of The Lame Man from Malaga, Manuel Vallejo and so on up to a total of 22 styles with a more than satisfactory result, in which the silky sounds achieved in each of them stand out especially.
It also makes evident his complicity with six mining women, his unwavering appreciation for the Levantine or Murcian styles, and even his performance of the miners' fandango or his vocal rendition of the Ferreña de Phosphorite and Diego Clavel's own, to contrast with the inflections of the cartagenera, the well-resolved tones of three versions of taranto, such as those of Pedro el Morato, Manuel Torre y Uncle Henryand conclude with two Canarian women from Malaga, cantewith imposing vocal presence, full sonority, and resolved with intention and variety of phrasing, with adequate doses in the nuances that each variant demands, and even with a profusion of accents.
Chromatic modulation is another of Clavel's dominant features, with those steely tones that have always characterized him, with the addition of a perfectly produced sound, very well supported and sonorous in the bass, with great homogeneity of registers, without any tuning problems and controlling the high end pleasantly accompanied by jaw movement, a gesture that is within everyone's reach By seguiriyas (2008), or Diego Clavel singing fifty seguiriyas, the two-volume anthology that we met in early 2009.
That's nothing. Fifty cantes for seguiriyas. There had been no similar feat since Antonio Mairena recorded the Schedule of Cantes by Seguiriyas and Soleares (1976), a great master whom Diego Clavel considers a reference, but recreating an unparalleled work, an anthology with semi-forgotten ranges that see the light with high levels of musical performance.
"If the hunger for knowledge is Diego Clavel's confessable secret and the one that clears up his many questions, the fervor to advance has been his insatiable appetite, hence the unsatisfied devotion, the greed for knowledge, the yearning to think, to grow and to believe in what he does, which is, in the end, the best gift for those diners who have a Homeric hunger for elves."
And is that By seguiriyasRegardless of the nuances Clavel makes in the booklet accompanying the compilation, he tackles a work of great technical and virtuosic demands, such as its beginning with the Triana versions of Mr. Manuel Cagancho, Antonio Cagancho, The Red Jar y Silverio, and effortlessly dissecting, with the ease of the chosen few, the Jerez-style variations of Manuel Molina, Paco the Light, The Marrurro, Antonio Mairena, Crazy Matthew, Manuel Torre, Pastora Pavón y Joaquin Lacherna.
But there's more, because Clavel displays a connected, broad, round, powerful and clean sound in the Puerto Rican style, including the cabal of The planet; the precise notes of The TwinFrasco el Colorao, Loco Mateo, Sweet Curro y The Nitri; the dynamic gradations and immense musicality of Juan Junquera, Juanichi the Handler and Paco la Luz, or the technical prodigy when he appeals to the scholastic perfection of Antonio Mairena and the sensitive evocation of Luis del Cepillo, The Fillo and the light one of Juanelo.
Finally, there was Cádiz, where Clavel creates a climax worthy of the contributions of Francisco la PerlaManuel Torre and the Old Man of the Island, with attacks that sometimes leave the listener almost breathless.
Diego Clavel thus proves to be the most encyclopedic flamenco singer in history cante, a feat with which he also opens the eyes of the fans so that they can see in our protagonist qualities not usually found in the genre, such as the fact that it is essential to have a humble awareness of the modest limits of one's own knowledge, and an unsatisfied passion, like that of someone who knows what is needed to know everything that needs to be known.
This is what history foretold in 1972: the predisposition of a modest and shy young man from a Sevillian village who had the courage to prefer the lack of an explanation to a bad one. But behind this courage to live with doubt lay a profound desire to know. This illustrious Moor wanted to know what had happened before him, the only way to understand what his future would be, that tomorrow which sometimes comforts us with its promises or saddens us with its grim prospects.
Therefore, if the hunger for knowledge is Diego Clavel's confessable secret and the one that clears up his many questions, the fervor to advance has been his insatiable appetite; hence his unfulfilled devotion, his thirst for knowledge, his yearning to think, to grow, and to believe in what he does, which is, ultimately, the best gift for those who have a Homeric hunger for wonder. And to avoid starving, what better than to feast on the scent of his anthological work? ♦
→ See here the first installment of this series by Manuel Martín Martín about Diego Clavel.
