It's happened many times before, too many, and we know it's not right. We've been together for two hundred years, closer than a tear, as they say. big felixAnd we have learned the lesson well: flamenco Clumsy and awkward are two incompatible categories. That's why we're not going to tear our hair out or weep like mourners. On the contrary, we'll face it with the serenity of someone who knows that when a great master of cante dies, he cante It doesn't end – this has been said many times before and it's clear it doesn't – but rather it continues, enriched and renewed, with more branches reaching upwards because the roots seek the warmth that is at the top jondoIt happened with Silverio y Juan Breva. And with el Twin and two of his disciples, Chacon y Manuel TorreIt happened with Thomas Pavon, his sister Pastora that of the Combs y Manuel Vallejo, followers of the former. Yes, and it happened with El Caracol y the PearlAnd with Marchena y Mairenawho were drinking in the back. Exactly the same as they did Camarón, La Paquera and ValderramaAnd it also happened when they left Fernanda and Chocolate, Morente and the LebrijanoJust like now, when we've said goodbye to Phosphorite.
Everyone knows, Antonio Fernandez Diaz He was born in one of the most difficult periods in Spanish history, in 1932. Hunger and hardship abounded. War and postwar period, and a boy as sharp as a tack, hungry for bread, but even more so for new horizons. He found them in something utterly ethereal, without apparent substance, pure air expelled from the mouth, modulated by the beating of the heart: the cante flamencoIt was the passion that ran through his life, from the age of eight when he began singing for a few coins in the taverns of his village, until the age of 93 when his heart stopped, already recognized with the highest awards that the son of a very humble family could imagine. Puente GenilDo the math: 85 years dedicated to the noble profession of flamenco singer. flamenco.
One would have to imagine that child – whom we would call hyperactive today – running around, learning letters and melodies from cantes in their own voice, as the minstrels did in the Middle Ages, to preserve them in their prodigious memory – of which we speak here on the occasion of his 90th birthday—and reinterpret them in a different way. And we would also have to see it when, at only 23 years old, he won all the awards in May 1956. I National Competition of CórdobaWith her voice ravaged by a recent illness and her stomach walls covered in cobwebs. And then triumph, and travel the world with only her voice and memory as her tools. And record dozens of albums, and drive the distance from the Earth to the Moon several times to attend festivals, peñaand theaters, and find an exceptional travel companion, MaribelAnd to start a family, and fight like a titan to raise them. And to tell off every fool who came near him. And not to be intimidated by those who, prejudiced, belittled his merits for not having been born in the provinces of Cádiz and Seville – undoubtedly the first epicenters of what jondo– nor a Gypsy, despite how important – indispensable! – the Roma have been in the flamencoAntonio learned from everyone, from wherever they came, from gypsies and non-gypsies, as it should be. Flamenco You can't be both clumsy and awkward at the same time.
"And not to be intimidated by those who, prejudiced, denied him merits for not having been born in the provinces of Cádiz and Seville, nor a Gypsy, given how important—indispensable!—the Roma have been in the flamencoAntonio learned from everyone, from wherever they came, from gypsies and non-gypsies, as it should be. Flamenco "You can't be both clumsy and foolish at the same time."
It has taught many lessons to artists flamencos –whether they are from cantedance or guitar – already amateurs. One is that el cante He is always above the flamenco singerThis is quite something and could be the subject of a profound treatise on aesthetics.jondo– depth. The immaterial above the material; the immanent over the contingent. In practice, this means not imitating, that is, not falling into “similarities,” but making what comes out of the throat as if it were born anew. If cante It's true, each person's truth must be unique. cante It must transcend the singer and his voice.
Another is that a person's word is law, no paperwork required. Antonio was averse to backroom deals, flattery, and empty promises—to saying yes and then, half an hour later, saying no. He would honor any commitment he made wherever he went, whether he was paid or working for free, even if the Great Flood came (remember, dear). Pepe Vargas placeholder image, on December 5, 1989 in Algeciras, at the tribute to Uncle Mollino?).
For Antonio, the past was simply the past, which is why he always urged us to look to the future. That's another lesson we learned from one of the most vibrant people I've ever known. As is the importance of helping those starting out, whether amateurs or established artists. All of us who have landed in the flamenco We did it with the feeling of arriving late, because of the stories we heard from our elders, which bear the mark of the mythical, as they should. But Fosforito, in a way, instilled that One had to be a child of one's time and appreciate what one has around, here and now.No more nostalgia!
His discographic legacy is available to everyone to listen to and enjoy, to learn from and unlearn from, which is the best way to learn. canteregistered with Paco de Lucía -after Camarón He is the flamenco singer with whom the genius from Algeciras recorded the most: one hundred cantes–, Marote, Habichuela, Enrique de Melchor and many others, are classics that are worth revisiting to check the mark he has left on tarantos, peteneras, soleares, seguiriyas, verdiales, farrucas villancicos, alegrías and cantiñas, tientos and tangos and many other styles that he impressed, most of the time, with his lyrics.
We could go on and on, but it's time to write a mournful account, which is what's appropriate now, since his figure has been and will continue to be celebrated, as befits the classics. Antonio had surgery a month ago... He had an arterial problem. The surgery went well, but he contracted an infection in the hospital that required him to stay for a week.When he was discharged, he went home with a course of antibiotics, which he followed to the letter, as he always did. On October 24th, I visited him and found him doing wonderfully, still a little weak but very well. He offered me a delicious sweet potato compote he had just made (I joked that my mother usually served it with apples and quince, the star fruit of Puente Genil), and we talked at length about his plans, some of which we shared, and about the optimism with which he was facing his convalescence. Many twenty-year-olds don't have the same drive that Antonio had. It was the last time I saw him.
"It's pitch black and outside you can hear the rain. The water falls slowly, skillfully, eager to soak the earth thoroughly, so that the cycle of life may continue. Master, you even had the skill to leave. May God keep you."
Yesterday, November 13th, I received the terrible news at 10 a.m. The rest is well known: the He decreed two days of official mourning and set up the chapel of rest at its main site, the Hall of Mirrorsso that family and friends could say their final goodbyes. The coffin was placed, curiously, beneath a portrait of Serafín Estébanez Calderón “El Solitario”, one of the first to start writing about flamenco –before such a name was used–, and which Fosforito frequently quoted.
At the funeral, Antonio, his eldest son, gave me some details: on Wednesday the 12th, his fever returned – which had been brought down by antibiotics – and they went to the hospital. “This one I’m really going to die for,” were the words to his firstborn son. He felt that this time the bull's horn was coming straight at him. He died at 7:30 a.m. on the 13th. The consolation is that it was quick. And that he had a long and full life.
The flamenco singer from Malaga told me this while he was at the funeral chapel. Antonio Calderón, 89 years old and a fervent admirer of the maestro, who on Monday had been playing dominoes with him as a partner in Malasaña street, in a place that some friends own. Gonzalo Rojo —who knew him like few others and who was visibly affected— told me that he had arranged to meet him and him for lunch on Wednesday. Luis Adame, the owner of the The Cordobes tablaoFrom Barcelona, a great friend of Antonio's. These things, which seem anecdotal, are not, but rather give an idea of what Antonio Fernández Díaz was a 25-year-old trapped in a 93-year-old bodyThat's how those of us who have known him have always felt.
Everyone who knew him has shared anecdotes about the maestro, and now a deep sorrow. A small group of friends also share this added grief. louis solerMy dear uncle, began to direct and coordinate a research project together with Fernando Sanjuán, Paco Cabrera and Paco RojiThe book chronicles Antonio's life and analyzes his engraved work. Alas, my uncle's illness forced me to leave the project, and I joined the group to finish what we started years ago. Proofreading galleys of the book has caught us completely off guard, and not without a hitch. Even so, there is some consolation, because the time we've all spent with Antonio has been priceless. We were fully aware that we were in the presence of someone truly special. the last great master of Cante Jondo, as he liked to call it.
It's pitch black and outside you can hear the rain. The water falls slowly, skillfully, eager to soak the earth thoroughly, so that the cycle of life may continue. Master, you even had the skill to leave. May God keep you. ♦
