The legacy of Camarón de la Isla 30 years after his death: his best songs

Island Shrimp –José Monge Cruz – marked and continues to mark the flamingo history In our country. The artist’s talent was forged from his earliest days thanks to his mother, the basket maker Juana Cruz, according to Eph. In fact, at only seven years old, Island Shrimp, already dared to show his talent in public. And she did it on the bus that went from the island of San Fernando to Chiclana or Jerez. Ten years later, he left his performances in the car to go to Madrid to experience the golden age of flamenco tablaos. There he met another great: Paco de Lucia. In the capital, she also recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to his talent, the artist is remembered for his personality. Proof of this is the anecdote revealed by his wife, The Spark. Camarón de la Isla refused to act a private party for Mick jagger, in exchange for millions of pesetas. That’s the headline. “He answered no, that those gachés didn’t know about flamenco”. This other. Weeks later he sang for free at a festival to raise funds to help a guitarist-according to the aforementioned agency-because he liked to be treated like one of the others, as laSexta recounted on the 25th anniversary of his death.

And this was corroborated in an interview by his children. “Almost everyone knows the artist, but all that greatness in cante was in his person. He was very humble. He never went anywhere saying ‘Here I am’ or belittling anyone,” they told Efe. The artist’s memories, life and career have been compiled in the Shrimp Interpretation Center of the Island in San Fernando (Cádiz), his native town. It is there where, day after day, the artist’s voice who tells his story with the same torn sound with which he sang his songs. It was also there that on July 2, 1992 they gathered 50,000 people to honor the artist’s coffin, collects the Junta de Andalucía. The international press echoed the sad news. The same media that years before began to focus on the artist’s talent, especially after the publication of his most controversial work: La Leyenda del Tiempo.

the legend of time (1979) changed the flamingo history. He also received a lot of criticism, according to the children of Camarón de la Isla. “He was very excited and convinced of what he was doing, although there were people who even returned the album” because they did not recognize the artist, they confessed to Efe. His sales did not exceed 7,000 copies in the first months, well below the 30,000 that he used to sell at that time. Despite this, today it is considered one of the most important works of Spanish music of all time.

In this song you can hear some verses about the artist’s childhood. “I was born on the island, I grew up at the foot of a forge. My mother’s name is Juana and my father was Luis, and he made gypsy alcayatitas”. Moral summarizes the early years of Camarón de la Isla, when he imbued with love and knowledge of his father and mother about cante. He learned everything from them, he himself confessed to the writer of one of his biographies, Carlos Lencero.

• When they see you the flowers cry

This theme is one of the first collaborations of Island Shrimp with Paco de Lucia. The following year she would follow the song Every time we look at each other.

“Romance de la luna” talks about the essence of the gypsy people, yours. A group that had Camarón divinized to the point that sick children were brought to him, Efe collects.

In 1989Camarón recorded what would become the best-selling album in the history of flamenco, Soy Gitano together with Vincent Friendaccording to the Fnac website. A year earlier, in 1988, she was on the cover of Liberátion. They named him the Mick Jagger of Flamenco.

the album of rose mary was published in 1976the same year he married in The line with Maria Dolores Montoya Jimenez, La Chispa, according to the Junta de Andalucía. With her he had four children: Juan Luis, Rafaela Gema, Rocío and José.

In the mouth of a mine belongs to the first artistic stage of the singer, to the purely flamenco, to that of Paco de Lucía.

I am a walker (1974), with Paco de Lucía, was released in the same year as the singles The Virgin Mary and A Bethlehem shepherds. A year later, she received the National Prize of the Chair of Flamencology of Jerezindicates the document of the Junta de Andalucía.

Ricardo Pachon recorded the summer performances de Camarón con Tomatito in 1978 and compiled them ten years later in Flamenco Vivo.

In the year 1983 the album ‘Te lo dice Camarón’ comes out. Around this time, according to the Junta de Andalucía, the artist already brought together a total of 15,000 people at the Madrid Sports Palace.

The song is part of the album. Sand Castle (1977). With him, Camarón closes his first stage at the controls of the produced by Antonio Sanchez and the collaborations with Paco de Lucía.

The relationship between Camarón de la Isla and Paco de Lucía materializes in this song. For the second of them, both had the same musical sense, the same flamenco sensibility. “We expressed ourselves in the same way because we traveled on the same train, looking at the landscape and feeling the same emotion in the face of the same things”, recalled Paco de Lucía in his article in La Caña.

Camarón de la Isla was the first big collaboration by Paco de Lucía: it lasted eleven years. During that time they recorded a dozen albums, collect Europa Press. Bulerías is just a small example of the great work.

Like the water is the theme of reconciliation between Paco de Lucía and Camarón de la Isla, according to The country. For the second of them it meant the return to classical flamenco after trying other styles.

This topic is part of last album from the artist: Pony of rage and honey (1992). This album began to be recorded in 1991 and it took a year to complete it. That same year, it was announced that Calmarón would participate in the Carlos Saura film: Sevillanas.

flying I go It was and is the song of the summer. This rumba of tropical rhythms Authored by Kiko Veneno, it is one of the best-known songs by Camarón de la Isla.

I will live is the name of the Camarón de la Isla’s fourth album produced by Ricardo Pacho. The theme has the artistic direction of Paco de Lucía and the presence of Rubem Dantas, Carles Benavent, Jorge Pardo and Pepe de Lucía, says David Martínez Casañ in his doctoral thesis for the UPV.

Canastera was a very popular songaccording to the flamenco critic Jose Manuel Gamboa Rodriguez. Canastera’s success was such that dances were staged with her.

My girl went to the sea, is part of the “The legend of time”. It should be remembered that this album represents a turning point in the singer’s career, both for the change of producer as for the absence of Paco de Lucía, as well as for the new aesthetic initiated.

Pony of rage and honey belongs to his latest album, which bears the same name. Its recording began in the year 1992. He did it in collaboration with Tomatito and Paco de Lucía. However, she was interrupted because she was diagnosed with lung cancer, according to the Fnac website.