At the recently concluded Jodhpur Flamenco and Gpsy Festival, over 40 musicians and dancers came together to participate in a unique cultural exchange. Held over three days, the festival sought to present the similarities of content and form between Flameco musicians and dancers from Spain and local artistes - Langa musicians and Kalbelia dancers.
The thought of putting two groups of performers with different languages, instruments and performative idioms on the same stage might appear to be a curatorial quirk, but it is underpinned by the fact of a shared history. Flamenco is a dance and music form that originated from the Gypsy communities of Andalusia in Spain. But there is evidence, especially linguistic, that suggests the Gypsies, also known as Romanis, emigrated to Europe from North India, particularly Rajasthan. The festival is the beginning of what is intended to be a sustained collaboration between Flamenco musicians and local artistes. At the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, there are plans to establish a centre for Gypsy and Flamenco studies, where the connections between the two will be interrogated.
Josemi Carmona and Agustin Carbonell, also known as El Bola, are two well-known Flamenco guitarists who took part in the festival. The former is the son of renowned Flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela, and is praised for having charted out his own path in toque, the art of the Flamenco guitar, assimilting several influences while staying true to his roots. He has also collaborated with the great Paco De Lucia, who passed away recently, and counts it among his greatest musical experiences. The latter is also credited with having pushed the art of Flamenco guitar in new directions, and identified with a style that is free of frills.
The two guitarists spoke to us about their experiment in Jodhpur.
On the commonalities between Flamenco and Langa musicians
Josemi Carmona: Music, like the people practicing it, has different personalities. But I found the personality of Langa and Flamenco musicians similar. The spirit is the same. The way we sing comes from the same place. The harmonic scales are also similar.
El Bola: I wanted to find the relationship between both of them. They have different rhythms but they are both very rich, compatible and easy to combine.
On the nature of the collaboration
El Bola: It's not fusion, its creation. There is no mathematical formula for fusion. What is important is the respect for and knowledge about the music.
Carmona: It is like a meeting, where a lot of things come together. If this festival continues, there is going to be a total fusion. Fusion is very funny, you learn from other musicians, and the results can be very good. But I love the pure as much as the fusion.
On overcoming the barriers of language
El Bola: In the beginning I had to be very patient to listen to their music, and learn the musical language and formulae. I didn't speak, I just listened. After learning the formulae, I had to bring them into the flamenco language. I tried to find a common musical language, without doing any harm musically to flamenco. That's how creation works.
Carmona: Music is the language already, so you don't need to know how to speak. I have collaborated in the past with musicians from around the world from America, and you don't need to speak their language. Music is the language, it is also the translator.
On what the two sets of performers learned from each other
El Bola: There is a middle point for both of them. At the moment, the most important thing is what will happen for the future. The younger generation of Langa musicians will have listened to the flamenco language, so it can create something else. The whole idea is to keep this an ongoing process.
Carmona: There is nothing clear with music. You realise when you are at home and playing, what you took. You are in your home, playing something and you realise 'this is coming from there'. Its a process.
