Over here in The Netherlands we are very fortunate to have a yearly
series of shows in "Muziekcentrum Vredenburg" in the city of Utrecht.
Vicente was among the fine artists in "Festival de Flamenco
1994", the final show of the series that year.
Dutch flamenco guitarist and personal friend of Vicente, Ruud Stoop,
and Jean Pierre Geelen, a journalist with an interest in flamenco, spoke
to Vicente in the dressing room after his performance.
Minutes of applause and exitement of over a thousand people attending
the show slowly subsided after Vicente had finaly left the stage. It had
been a rare event, signified by the impressive playing of Vicente Amigo.
Those who expected new pieces may have been somewhat disapointed, but
it was an unforgetable experience to hear Vicente play almost all of the
pieces from "De mi corazon al aire". Technicaly perfect and with an emotional
charge that left the listener humbled.
He himself concidered the performance, which he did with his "grupo",
very succesfull. "It has never been as good as this before in Holland"
says Amigo. "I immideately had full attention. When I did a performance
here with El Pele a few years ago I felt less motivated. I was only there
to accompany El Pele. Is was good to finaly have fully presented myself."
He says he doesn't know much about the flamenco scene in the Netherlands.
"But I feel the warm response from the audience. There must be some awareness
of good flamenco. That isn't allways the case. But here I am being recieved
with warmth and affection"
Apparently unmoved by the overwealming response he had just recieved from the audience, he tells us it does bother him somewhat. It turns out Vicente increasingly suffers from uncertainty. "I am more frequently tense and nervous before a performance. This was less so in the past. When I was 15 years old, I wasn't aware of anything, I was just playing. But nowadays I know less and less of what the audience expects from me. As I get older I start to think about these things more. Then I get nervous. Fear to fail. It's only human, just like any other guitarist."
It seems as if Vicente is now starting to experience the downside of being put on stage at such a young age. The impression he made in The Netherlands and else where when he was only fifteen years old, now returns on him, "I am not only that musical miracle that some take me for. I only got a little further than others" he says now. Allthough in Vredenburg it hardly showed, he says he is startign to feel more preasure from the audience. "I grow, and the public expects more, it seems. I feel that as a responsibility. When I was fifteen I had nothing to loose. I often think about that, sometimes to much. Then I start to worry. Best is not to think about it at all. Just to get on stage and play." "Maybe this sounds strange, but the high expectations of the audience causes a feeling of shame about what it is that I do. There are these hundreds of people that come to look and listen to me. I better have something to offer them. It is some undertaking to go sit there and play what I created myself. De only way to get through this is to make sure you have more guts than you have fear."
Apart from performances ("more often abroad that in Spain") Vicente
is working on a new CD. He tells us it will be a CD with guitar and orchestra.
The idea came to me at the Festival Internacional de la Guitarra in Cordoba.
"It is dedicated to the poet Rafael Alberti from Cadiz. He is the last
poet remaining from the generation of Garcia Lorca. I tried to sketch some
of the moments from Alberti's life with my music." Soon Vicente will go
on tour in Spain with this, with the orchestra from Cordoba. "The music
for the orchestra is created by Dutch composer Leo Brouwer. Because I don't
read nor write music, I sang the melodies to him. Brouwer wrote these down
and used it as a basis for the orchestra. These days Leo Brouwer lives
in Cordoba and is director of the Cordoba orchestra.
There are three singers involved in the production: Enrique Morente,
José Mercé and Carmen Linares." The CD-version will be "a
little more exotic" than the live performance. On the CD will be "some
African percussion and other embelishments". The album should be released
in october this year. "But experience teaches us it can take longer than
planned." Which label label will publish the CD is not yet known. "We are
currently doing the recordings independently. We'll see what company is
interested." "I don't know if it will be released in The Netherlands.
I hope so. If it is up to me it will be released everywhere. But the record
companies have their own ideas. They are willing to invest a lot when they
expect short term profit. I their mind flamenco has to small an audience.
I think they make an error in judgement: they forget flamenco keeps selling
for a long time. Recordings of Ramon Montoya are still being sold. So,
it is investment in the long term. I don't expect us 'minority musicians'
to ever agree with the companies."
About flamenco in Spain he says: "Technicaly the guitar got on a very
high level, where it is should be. This happened quite fast over the past
twenty years. But most important for me is the cante. That is where it
all starts. What I try to do with my guitar is singing. But I am not a
singer, nor a frustrated singer like Paco De Lucía says he is. I
am just a guitarist, full of passion for my guitar. But singing is the
foundation. Every guitarist has to be in love with the cante." Flamenco
singing is in a delicate position right now he emphasizes. "There are many
new young singers. The problem is that all to often they skip the older
generation. I must object to that. They can sing well but they don't have
the basics that are at the origin. They don't care about the older singers.
I hope we'll soon see someone who takes flamenco seriously again, to put
it that way. I do that myself. I listen a lot to the older generation.
That is where I get the basics. I don't want to stray from the road of
flamenco. I grew up at a time when much flamenco was made with links to
pop, jazz, latin, salsa. I didn't follow that road. I stick to flamenco
as I feel it should sound. The only thing I want to add are palmas and
the occasional cajon. Simple things, not to many embelishments. It is the
musical message that counts, not what you build around it. You make as
many arrangements as you want and add as many instruments as you want,
but that's not the point. The message should be pure flamenco. Additions
don't make it more flamenco than it was.
The death of singer Camarón de la Isla last year ('93) left a void that can't be filled. Amigo: 'Maybe this sounds strange but I think he died at the right time. He sang everything that he could have sung. For us it is a pitty of course, because he was that good, but from a historical point of view he died at a very good time." In spite of his pessimism regarding the young generation, Amigo does see some new talents. Recently in Madrid I heard someone singing: Dieguito. I thought he was wonderfull. For me it was the first time I heard him (Dieguito already did a few performances in Holland with the Paco Peña Flamenco Company). I would realy like to work with him. There's something 'animal' about him, something very pure. I feel the same about El Pele, he also has that animal in him. That is what I want to work with. José Merce is another example. Also very good is Duquende, a great singer from Barcelona." At the end of the conversation Vicente gives us a message: "It is very good there are people that organize festivals such as this. I would like to say to everybody: do as your feelings tell you to do."
Interview by Jean-Pierre Geelen & Ruud Stoop
(quick&dirty translation by david bos)