Gerardo Núñez and Carmen Cortés in the presentation of the Flamenco Festival
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The guitarist Gerardo Núñez and the dancer Carmen Cortés are married and live in Jerez. Both combine their personal projects with ones they can work together on. Their latest artistic venture has been the Flamenco Festival. First in New York (22 February 2007) and then in London (1 and 2 March 2007), Gerardo Núñez and Carmen Cortés offered the international audience a taste of their flamenco vision, a vision in which the traditional and the modern combine to perfection. They talked to us about all of this at the presentation of the festival in Madrid.
 What does coming to an international event like the Flamenco Festival mean to you?
Gerardo Núñez: It's something very important, it's like appearing in the Ventas bullring for bullfighters. It's an internationally famous event. New York is a first rate venue and any press article or review about your performance is bound to have an international echo.
Carmen Cortés: I feel the same way. A festival with this level of advertising and publicity is good for flamenco and good for us as artists.
What is your first performance at the Flamenco Festival going to be like?
Gerardo Núñez: We are performing in New York and London. In New York we do a show together called "Andando el tiempo" which is on my latest album. That show we are going to do in both cities.
Carmen Cortés: I'm also going to present my new production "Mujeres de Lorca" in London.
Gerardo Núñez
Gerado Núñez
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What is "Andando el tiempo" like?
"Andando el tiempo" is a music, song and dance show. It features songs from my latest album choreographed by Carmen. It's a show that has been very influenced by all the types of music we've been listening to and that we've liked.
The flamenco we are doing at the moment has a lot of roots and is very open, we use a lot of improvisation and music score, a series of chords that the musicians can use to improvise. Maybe it's a system we've borrowed
from our experience with jazz musicians. Let's say it's very open and at the same time very flamenco.
What is the best thing about your new album?
"Andando el tiempo" is an album where I have included my latest compositions and musical experiences.It's very much a guitar album, which has very few other musicians except certain guest stars such as Paolo Fresu or Perico Sambeat and my stalwarts Cepillo and Pablo Martín.
It's a record to be listened to, it's very musical. It hooks people that don't usually listen to flamenco.
Has your style of playing evolved?
I feel older than when I started. Obviously concepts change with time. Now rather than to impress with virtuosity, it's just a question of composing, creating music and art and hope that people enjoy it.
My music is very open with a lot of influences. |
I play flamenco. I don't play jazz or consider myself a jazz musician. The only thing is that my music is very open with a lot of influences. I always have my feet firmly in Jerez and in flamenco, and everything comes from that. Flamenco is very young, it's a sponge that is absorbing and it's alive. When I fid something I like I incorporate it and make it flamenco
Any new projects?
Many, the only thing is that we have to go bit by bit. There's a project with Renaud Gracía-Font a double bass player from París. Another project is Gerardo Núñez With the Hamburg Symphonic orchestra. And then there's my work as Gerardo Núñez guitarist.
Another important project is the construction of an amphitheatre in Trebujena, near Jerez, through the Carmen Cortés and Gerardo Núñez Foundation. We have embarked on a bohemian adventure where we can build a public space for concerts and cultural activities, we are very excited.
We get a lot of hits on our web page from guitar students, Any advice?
Anybody who wants to start should approach it with humility, respect and patience. More than anything to have patience and find a good teacher, because flamenco is not institutionalised and every teacher has a different way of doing things. It's important to find someone with a good personality.
Carmen Cortés
Carmen Cortés
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Tell us about your London show "Mujeres de Lorca"?
"Mujeres de Lorca", as the title suggests, is about the female characters in Lorca's dramas. We've tried to take different fragments and use shoes as a common theme.
Flamenco shoes are the dancer's voice, through them we make ourselves heard on stage by dancing. In this sense the show wants the voices of Lorca, the women and flamenco to be heard.
What are Lorca's women like?
Lorca was very slat-of-the-earth. Lorca's female characters were very traditional but also fighters. Actually I think Spanish women, Andalusian women are like that. She is traditional in
the sense that she keeps her family and home together but also a fighter in the sense that she doesn't let people walk all over her.
How did you approach dancing in this production?
My dance is traditional but very stylish. I don't think about if a step is flamenco or not, I simply go with my feelings, through the movements, arm, leg or body moves. The concept is an open one but you can see I am flamenco to the core.
Which flamenco style are you happier with?
My best dance at the moment is the soleá, I'm also comfortable with the seguiriya. Dances that let you listen to the singing and use it. It all depends on how it is played and sung. Depending how the music and song come out marks if the dance is more passionate or more up beat. My best dance at the moment is the soleá, I'm also comfortable with the seguiriya.We have to learn from what our elders have left us and create from there. |
What advice do you have for some who is learning to dance?
To see as much as possible. To try and find inspiration in traditional all time flamenco. The great thing about flamenco is that each artist adds something new. To learn from modern stuff is not the best way to take flamenco forward.
We have to learn from what our elders have left us and create from there. Flamenco is a living art form and everybody contributes with something new everyday. We all have to do that, those that have been, those that are coming and those that will come.
To be able to dance well to singing you have to know how to sing. I don't mean you have to have an incredible voice, but you have to know how it is done. It's the only way you can understand singing and dance well to it, if not the only thing you can do is wait for the singing to stop and then start stamping your feet. The same goes for guitar.
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