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The maestro talks about the
master class for guitar he recently offered at the Málaga
en Flamenco festival.
Interview: Málaga en Flamenco
The masterful teaching of Manolo Sanlúcar
played an important role in Málaga en Flamenco
where the guitarist offered a master class, Curso Superior
de Guitarra, to just over fifteen highly competent guitarists.
One of the greatest artists Spain has given the world
in recent years talks about the this experience and
many other topics in an interview granted to Málaga
en Flamenco.
How would you evaluate the
experience of holding the Curso Superior de Guitarra
in Málaga in Flamenco?
The bottom line is very positive. I really enjoyed it
a lot because I found people with a very high level
and who were anxious to learn. I was genuinely surprised
to find so many with such a high degree of competence
because if you compare Córdoba for example, of
the more than 50 people who sign up for the course,
you wouldn’t find 15 with the level I found here.
This type of course is very valuable for them because
there’s no flamenco conservatory where they can
receive this kind of instruction, so it’s very
enriching. Most of them learn by ear, listening to recordings
or because some family member plays guitar. Flamenco
is a very broad culture and little analyzed in school,
which is why you hear so much about “feeling”,
because they haven’t got any musical preparation.
Oddly enough, for a culture that has survived by way
of oral transmission, it’s one of the most rigorously
constructed.
“I found people
with a very high level and who were anxious to learn”
What did the students value
most, considering that many of them are professional
guitarists themselves?
They were very grateful for everything and extremely
attentive. I gave them everything I was able to give.
I consider myself a very fortunate person with a great
capacity for hard work. In the beginning I had the moral
support of Pastora Pavón, La Niña de los
Peines. When I turned 14 I was playing on stage for
Pepe Marchena and that was many years ago. I went along
putting all the pieces together inside my head, getting
it straightened out. What I mean to say is that in flamenco
everything that’s been learned up to now has been
because of the family, where you grew up was where they
played or sang, for example Paco de Lucía who
was practically born into a conservatory which was his
family. Others had no choice but to stick to what they
knew, as in my case, to become artists, such as Vicente
Amigo who was with me for seven years, or Niño
de Pura. So it’s extremely rewarding for me to
give these courses with young guitarists. Since 1970
I’ve been offering two different courses for specialized
students in any part of the world, and this connects
me permanently with everything that’s going on
out there.
What do you most like to see
in a musician’s artistic level?
The best position you can be in is to be an artist and
earn your living at it. A life of observation and work.
I think it was Segovia who said that 10% of creativity
is inspiration and 90% is expiration. When the work
is well-done that’s when you get a Paco de Lucía,
and no matter what they say, I want you to know that
Paco de Lucía is one of the guitarists who’s
spent the most time delving into the foundations.
“They talk about
feeling because they don’t have musical preparation”
With the revolution flamenco
guitar has undergone in recent years, what’s your
opinion of the younger generation? Is it more difficult
for them to contribute something new without moving
away from flamenco?
With every passing day, the new generation moves further
away from tradition. This is a dangerous situation,
we’ve entered into a world where commerce is king
and many of these people have insufficient preparation
to differentiate between musical cultures. There have
been mixtures that have no structure, not even from
their own musical culture. Nowadays we see aberrations
such as what occurred at the Córdoba Flamenco
Conservatory where the program included the obligatory
subject of Jazz Harmony, and this is part of the educational
program because two or three artists had the idea of
doing fusion. The school which represents our music
can’t make that obligatory, because then young
people think it’s part of our culture. It has
to be a personal choice if they acquire that knowledge.
We can’t have young people thinking jazz harmony
is part of our culture. We don’t need it, and
yet we need everything. Generally speaking, this is
just poor judgment and a dearth of well-informed teachers.
Young people go astray and then it’s very difficult
to bring them back when they’re 40. It’s
true there’s a group of young guitarists with
technique, but there continues to be a great gap in
the preparation.
What is your opinion of a festival
which is concerned about the teaching of flamenco in
addition to the shows?
It’s a very good thing, courses like this one
in Málaga en Flamenco should be emulated and
set up in every province of Andalusia and each year
a specialized course of this nature should be offered,
and also some less demanding subjects. I’m not
looking for fancy universities and ritzy conservatories,
let the classical people have that, since they’ve
got all the rest. All I ask is a decent study room where
a guitar teacher can communicate his knowledge to anyone
who is interested in it – no one should have to travel
to Madrid or Córdoba or Málaga to receive
a few random classes.
“With every
passing day, the new generation moves further away from
tradition”
In the presentation of this
course you asked for institutional support for flamenco
that would be comparable to that which is given to other
kinds of music, and that flamenco should enter into
all the conservatories. In your opinion, what continues
to keep this from being accomplished?
We flamenco artists have one big misconception –
we think we’re being helped when they organize
concerts for us, but it must be understood that the
best way for the government to help us is by opening
conservatories. This has to be changed.
In Córdoba you also
give this kind of course. Does this mean you’re
now going to get more involved in teaching and cut back
on the performing aspect?
Other people aren’t interested in doing this.
To be an artist you need raw talent, but to be a teacher
you need dedication. I feel just as much an artist as
the next one but I consider teaching extremely important.
It takes preparation to be able to best develop artistic
expression.
Do you find one thing more
satisfying than the other?
Neither one is more satisfying…I throw myself into
everything I do. I like doing both things but I need
to make records because that’s what keeps an artist’s
name current.
And are you working on any
new record now?
Yes, I’m halfway through putting together a new
recording that’s going to be a tribute to the
Seville painter Baldomero Romero Ressendi. It’s
nothing new for me because I like to bring different
kinds of artistic expression together and I’d
already had some experience putting music to verse with
poets like Miguel Hernández and Lorca.
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