José Luis Montón and Teresa del Pozo
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"Flamenco Kids" is a project born from the imagination of the teacher Teresa del Pozo and the musical creativity of the guitar player José Luis Montón. They both work together extremely well, not for nothing are they a couple, and have given us a flamenco album for kids that tells the story of a series of characters from the bay of Cadiz to the tune of bulerías, alegrías, rumbas, tangos y tanguillos. A colour blind chameleon, a dancing sea urchin, an opaque shrimp, a Moroccan crab and a damaged progy are the real stars of this handcrafted musical piece that has been finished bit by bit, unhurriedly and without pressure. A very personal effort, with a lot of love and talent, with Teresa and José Luis’s son appearing on the cover of the album. A new and interesting album that brings out the most playful and fun side of flamenco to make it more accessible to children and adults that are still young at heart.
 What does Flamenco Kids consist of?
Teresa del Pozo (TdP): It’s a project that started 5 years ago. In fact they are some characters colour blind chameleon, a dancing sea urchin, an opaque shrimp, a Moroccan crab and a damaged porgy, etc.) that I created for my pupils, to give class. At some point a nana (nursery rhyme) was sung by my mother, María Teresa, and we put music to it and thought: isn’t that pretty? We could put music to those other characters. I gave them to José Luis and the first he found the music for was the colour blind chameleon.
José Luis Montón (JLM): The idea was to do an album for adults but with lyrics for children. Teresa gave me the lyrics of her lesson plan with the idea of making an album for kids, and that was it. It started composing and of course, since I’m a flamenco guitar player I composed alegrías, bulerías… And before we realised we had a flamenco kids album about colour, getting over shyness etc all through flamenco.
Since my roots are flamenco, I did a flamenco album. I didn’t do it on purpose. That’s what I am, but a specialist in weird and different projects. JLM: a specialist in weird and different projects . |
TdP: Anyway, nowadays the majority of material for kids we import from abroad. That makes especially attractive the idea of creating a group of characters and animals from our own culture. There’s more to life than Hello Kitty.
JLM: And it’s mixed with our own music, and that way we get the little ones interested in flamenco.
And the title? "Flamenco Kids"?
JLM:We gave it a lot of thought. "Flamenco para niños" or "Flamenco para los niños y las niñas"… But we didn’t want to make it so literal, so it wouldn’t sound like a manual or a news report. And in the end we thought "kids" was such an international word, that everybody understands and for selling it abroad it was perfect.
TdP: And it put across the idea that the characters on the album we a group of friends, the "flamenco kids". Well, it was short, simple and sounded good.
Can flamenco be taught to kids then?
JLM: They learn it without realising it. They aren’t naive texts. Teresa starts with the idea that kids are kids, but they aren’t stupid. You have to be a bit more explicit than “painting by numbers”. In our experience children aren’t stupid and, in fact, kids that have never heard flamenco before learn the lyrics and sing alegrías, bulerías… You don’t have to explain the theory of bulería, they sing it without realising.JLM: Kids that have never heard flamenco before learn the lyrics and sing bulerías. |
In addition, for the live performances, we are working on a series of workshops that are all interrelated. Colours are explained and at the same time the vocalist gives a little explanation on how to keep time by clapping. Kids pick it all up at the same time, like a game.
TdP: We all have memories of songs of when we were small and we’ve never stopped to think about whether it was flamenco or jazz, classical music or soul. Kids don’t care about classification. They just learn things and it’s when you grow up that you realised that what you sung when you were small was a bulería or something else.
For me learning isn’t about classifying things but familiarising yourself with them. And the rest will come in time. Kids are sponges and using fine arts as teaching tools lets us reach richer and wider objectives . What’s more important, that they know what a bulería is or that they know which are the complementary colours? Probably neither of them are important, but they will learn both things at the same time.
José Luis Montón and the characters of "Flamenco Kids"
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JLM: Any Spaniard can remember the song from the Famosa dolls. It’s three time. It doesn’t need explaining. If that was sung by El Cigala it’s a proper bulería. Kids don’t process it, they just sing.
TdP: That’s the beauty of such projects, creating characters that we can recognise ourselves in, either by identifying with them or by rejecting them. And that’s what’s in the album for kids, fun characters and a very clear moral.
And has the music also been simplified?
JLM: It was an album for kids that I tried to give the same musical quality and base as one for adults, but freeing it of artifices and making it less dense so that the musical information wouldn’t cloud the message . I didn’t want to stick to three chords. I wanted the musicians to be good and for the recording conditions to be the best.
It’s my album but I don’t want to show how well I play. You always want to play your best but it’s not about showing off, about saying look at what I pull off on the guitar. It’s about playing beautiful music that supports the message your trying to convey.
It’s like any other art form , something that needs a lot of explaining isn’t going to work even with adults. That’s why, even in music for adults, the concept that I’ve arrived at is, and not because it’s mine is it any better, the more I learn the less I add. All of my so-called musical experience and maturity leads me to take away more than I add. The trend should be to focus more on the essence of things. It’s about synthesising more than simplifying.JLM: The trend should be to focus more on the essence of things . |
TdP: To reach something simple and for it to convey. We took a great deal of care with the pronunciation because there’s a lot of games played with language and sound that means that sometimes making the lyrics understandable is less important than transmitting emotion. On this we try to do both things. As well as transmitting feeling the lyrics had to be understandable, because kids like to understand things.
JLM: It was also necessary to make sure the music wasn’t too long between lyrics. A two minute long instrumental bit doesn’t make much sense when you’re trying to explain to a kid the problems of a colour blind chameleon, however good it is. When your inner child disconnects from what it’s listening to then something is wrong, both for a kid and a grown up.
Among the songs on the album one that stands out is the “El camarón opaco” (Opaque shrimp). Is it a coincidence or a tribute to Camarón de la Isla?
JLM: Pure coincidence. The song talks about a shrimp who instead of being translucent, like all shrimps, reflects light. He’s very shy about being seen. Others go unnoticed, but he can be seen. And he’s very embarrassed.
When I finished it I discovered that there was a similarity with Camarón de la Isla, who was also timid and reflected light a lot, even though he tried not to, he was always noticed. That’s when I decided that the most gipsy voice on the album, Carmina Cortés’s, would go on this track. It’s been a combination of coincidence and work, that’s how these things happen.
The "Flamenco Kids" gang
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All of the characters, the colour blind chameleon, the Moroccan crab, the dancing hedgehog, they are all cartoon characters, was that the idea?
TdP: Yessssssss. They even have faces. I have 2D animations of the chameleon girl and boy to accompany the musicians by clapping along in live performances when they play alegrías. Now we are looking for funds to continue because I think this gang of characters can tell interesting stories.
JLM: I could be amazing, like a kind of Spanish "Madagascar". In fact the animators are doing 3D choreographies for the tracks of two of the characters, the dancing hedgehog and the Moroccan crab. But it’s so expensive that we need some financial help from the State or a private company.
Maybe because it’s for a young public or because the Cadiz spirit gets everywhere, it really bright and fun.
JLM: Flamenco is very wide ranging, there are many emotions intermixed. It’s not all laments and sadness; there is also a lot of joy. It’s been a bit left to one side, because it seems that if it’s not sad it isn’t deep or serious. I don’t believe that at all. There are great works of music that are happy and joyful.JLM: Flamenco’s not all laments and sadness . |
I don’t understand why everything has to be tragic, blades, blood, sweat and death with flamenco… Why is sadness stronger than joy? One wouldn’t exist without the other.
"Flamenco kids" is a totally self-produced. Is this your most personal album?
JLM: It could be. One of the most committed at least. It’s made totally to my taste, the start to finish. It’s really handmade between friends, without rushes or pressure. Although my aim isn’t to show off as a guitar player, it’s my riskiest side, my most fun side, without any complexes .
When I saw the finished product, I opened it and listened to it I was really happy. That’s the first time for me, all my other work there’s always been reservations … It’s been the first time that I’ve been so happy about a job well done.
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