A Jafelin Helten, for his hobby.
There are commemorations that we take as urgent because of the marks that their protagonists left in our history, or, indistinctly, because of the motivations that inspired their contemporaries and/or later voices.
In this forum we usually take them into consideration, and speaking a few days ago with the director of this media, Jafelin Helten, while we were reflecting on singers who contributed to the dissemination of unusual or lost nuances in time, the name of Antonio the Sandman, a character that Helten deeply admires since he not only contributed conceptual content, but was also the custodian of the cantes trianeros.
In these thoughts arose the fragility with which the flamenco We often forget the role models, those who served as models for successive generations. And hence the commitment to highlight today Antonio el Arenero, whose centenary of birth has gone unnoticed and whom we got to know thanks to Emilio Jimenez Diaz, illustrious Triana native to whom Seville and the flamenco They owe him much more than they keep quiet about.
I consider Antonio, who deserved the nickname of El Arenero (The Sandman) because he was dedicated to carrying sand along the Guadalquivir River, to be the custodian of the Triana soleá, and his musical heritage reached such notable names as Chiquete, among others, apart from the fact that he was always highly regarded for allowing fans to perceive, more than nine decades ago, some Triana melodies that they had not previously distinguished.
El Sandy Blonde, as he was known in his youth for being the son of Antonio the Blonde, was born on April 13, 1925 at number 111 Castilla Street, in the Triana neighborhood, where they also lived Carmen Florido, Manolita Perea, Matilde Adorna and TudelaAs a child he collected the cantepaternal and of Hooks, and when he was older he sang for his friends in the taverns of David, Eulogy, Manolo the Donkey, which from 1947 would be Mario House; Celestino House, right in front of your home in Plaza de Chapina, or that of Joaquinito Ballesteros, on Castilla Street, who after his death in 1967 praised him for soleá: Joaquinito has already died, / Joaquinito Ballesteros, / who sang soleá / better than the whole world.
In those days were the unexplored times of The Sordillo, Manolo OliverJoaquinito Ballesteros, Second Child, Emilio Abadia, The Kestrel y Sunday the Potter, a collective that formed the cream of the crop of a Triana Zurraque – the potters' workplace – whose soleares shone in the flash of the neighborhood through which Antonio strolled like a person of quality, affable and with an empathetic attitude, as he considered Carmen Perdigones Infante, whom she married in April 1952, with whom she would have eight children, three girls and five boys.
But let's get to the point. Antonio makes his guitar debut in The Garage, together with Manolo Brenes, and lost the fear of being heard in The Soleá of Triana, Paco Parejo, the famous flamenco gathering on Alfarería Street that was once the bar The Trianero Corner, until it is revealed in the Astoria Cinema, on Castilla Street, on November 6, 1976, when the tribute to Sordillo de Triana –although he was from Veleño– was organized by Paco Parejo and Emilio Jiménez Díaz.
He would, however, make his professional debut on June 9, 1979 in the Festival of the Scarf, Beds, and with the help of his friend, writer and poet from Triana, Emilio Jiménez Díaz –this is a must-attend event–, as well as being present at concerts, cultural weeks and on the essential album The Triana of Zurraque. Cantes of Triana (Hispavox, 1982), along with his friend, The Tit, and his partner Marquez the Shoemaker, an album that left out an unreleased soleá by Antonio and where we can hear his calling card: They call me The Sandman / because the bread that I ate / I earned it, grain by grain / from the depths of the river.
«Antonio González Garzón, Antonio el Arenero, the “happy Buddha of the Triana soleá”, as my admired friend baptized him Angel Vela Nieto, died on July 3, 2004, and his remains were laid to rest in the San Fernando Cemetery in Seville. (…) He earned everyone's respect with his pottery soleares, but also because thanks to him, Triana melodies that had previously been indistinguishable could be heard.
The LP mentioned includes Antonio's personal contributions to the Triana soleá of The Quino (If your mother loves you, Go and tell your teacher, When I pass by your door y There is no revenge in love), The Sordillo (Here is what was convenient y Oh, it's already turning off, it's already turning on) and Noriega (You have never had clothes, I always buy you combs, In the Chapel of Carmen y I have four thousand reales), probably from Emilio Abadía.
This album, in which the lack of custom of not singing with a guitar is detected despite the work of Jose Luis Postigo, just as it was done in taverns in the past, would elevate Antonio to the ultimate professional level, and he even recorded for the program The Gate of the Cante, from RTVA (1989), and appeared in concerts at important events such as the Biennial of Flamenco City of Seville or the Flamenco Summit in Madrid.
He participated in the Andalusian summer festivals, which we remember wearing his Tyrolean straw hat, and was honored at events such as the Festival Flamenco from Tomares On August 30, 1997, or when the 1998st Competition of Cante Flamenco The Soleá de Triana, instituted by the El Turruñuelo Cultural Association, in addition to recognitions in Villanueva del Ariscal, the Peña Torres Macarena (1980), or that of the friends of the extinct Peña The spring.
Such a fascinating executor of the Triana sones, who in summer worked as a ship's carpenter - his name was Teo - and in winter as a sand merchant, also wrote down seguiriyas, specifically the variants of Manuel Molina (Get up, Mary), Old Man of the Island (Run and tell my boy Currito) and the change of The Josefa (To a bull in a square); pile drivers Juan the Bald, fandangos of Antonio de la Calza, Cross-eyed Amate or Lucena, and even bulerías por soleá de Antonio Lapeña, Maria la Moreno y Beans, having as escort the already mentioned Postigo and Manolo Brenes, in addition to Ricardo Minho, Manolo Domínguez El Rubio, Quique Paredes o Antonio Carrion.
Among the solearero styles that he spread, without adjusting to the musical times, although qualifying the melodic arc with calm and sweet expression in the connection of the thirds, are those of Pineapple (Don't mess with the girl, I remember my Maria, Always buying you combs o Here is what was convenient); Ramon the Ollero (Deaf as a post, The night watchmen of Triana, They say I stole a chalice, Allow yourself to be lacking o Although I still have in my bed); which is awarded to the Old Sandbox (Why is it raining so much?), two from El Sordillo (Run and tell your teacher y Who has spoken ill of me to you?), and that of La Andonda (This mountain woman deserved it).
In addition, let us note, despite this, the recreations that Márquez the Shoemaker gave them in his compact Flamenco and University. Vol. XIV (2013), in variants that he associated with seven styles, such that This is a big thing, You're saying your mother, The night watchmen of Triana, You have never had clothes, There is no revenge in love, When you knock on my door y Deaf as a post.
We are, therefore, before someone who made the soleá of the Cava de los Civiles his cante insignia, the Zurraque anthem in a suburb, Triana, which he left to move to the Seville neighborhood of San Diego, where he renounced professionalism, hiding behind the darkness of blindness.
Antonio González Garzón, Antonio el Arenero, the “happy Buddha of the Triana soleá”, as my admired friend baptized him Angel Vela NietoHe died on July 3, 2004, and his remains were laid to rest in the San Fernando Cemetery in Seville. Twenty-one years later, and without forgetting that we are celebrating the centenary of his birth, it is fitting to remember that he earned everyone's respect with his pottery soleares, but also because thanks to him, Triana melodies that had previously been indistinguishable could be heard.
