Sometimes fate strikes a family in a particularly cruel way. Just a week ago, we mourned the passing of an outstanding singer and man of integrity. Ramon the Portuguese, and today it is time to do it, with increased pain, with his son Sabú Suárez Escobar, one of the great percussionists of our time and an early promoter of the cajón flamenco, the instrument that he mastered like his brothers Ramón and Israel the Piranha.
Born in the Madrid neighborhood of San Blas, Sabu Porrina He grew up, like his brothers, having the box as his favorite toy. That artifact that just a few years before had been brought Paco de Lucía y Rubem Dantas from Peru was immediately welcomed by a generation of young people flamencos who went crazy with the possibilities it offered. Names like Antonio Carmona, Slum, Bandit o lucky losada They were quick to assimilate it for the flamenco as if they had been playing it all their lives. Among them were also, and with what virtuosity, the Suárez brothers.
Sabu remembered himself playing at just eight years old, playing for worship, weddings, and family celebrations. Ramón and Lucky were his earliest teachers; he debuted with his father at a recital in Suristán, but he was always sharp. Antonio Canales who, seeing him play at one of those private parties, uttered the magic words: "The boy is coming with us." Sabu also recalled, laughing, that at the age of thirteen, when he went to get his passport to go work in Japan, he discovered that his name wasn't listed in the family book because his parents had forgotten to register him. Good old Ramón El Portugués ran to Pradillo, gave ten thousand pesetas to an official, and Sabu was registered immediately, but he ended up traveling with his brother's passport. Juan José Package, who in time would be a splendid guitarist.
«The same Sabu who was unable to distinguish music from life, for for him and his family they were always one and the same. That life was cut short too soon, staining the great house of the Porrinas and the common house of the flamenco»
His career, like that of his brothers, was marked by collaborations with top-tier artists: Paco de Lucía, Tomatito, Ketama, Diego El Cigala, Joaquín Cortés or Canales himself, among others, required his wonderful qualities as a percussionist, always creative, flamenco on all four sides and at the same time imbued with the best influences of jazz and Latin music, which he loved. Little monkey y Tata Güines, with whom he played many times, as well as Giovanni Hidalgo o Angá, were some of the percussion giants who inspired him along with the flamencos among whom he grew up. “It was an honor for me to carry Tata’s suitcase,” he said, smiling modestly.
Regular of the Madrid cafe berlin, which he considered his second home, and before that the Candle y Patas House, was invariably distinguished by his simplicity, his good humor and his camaraderie with all the colleagues with whom he shared the stage, rehearsal space or recording studio.
“When you play from the top of your head, you don't miss a beat; you're like a Pro Tools player. But when you play from the heart, you can make mistakes, because you want to let yourself go. But you have to be human, not a machine: if you're not human, you can't transmit.” It was one of the vital philosophies of a musician who wanted to give the best of his art with truth and honesty, in a constant search for magic.
The same Sabu who was unable to distinguish music from life, for to him and his family they were always one and the same. That life was cut short too soon, staining the great house of the Porrinas and the common house of the flamenco, who cries inconsolably for a goodbye that is too cruel, inconsolable.
