Roberto Jimenez | Valladolid (EFE).- Grandson of the Guadiana, that river that plays hide-and-seek, the Riánsares fertilizes the fertile plain of Corral de Almaguer (Toledo), homeland and homestead of Israel Fernández, a cantaor who does not hide when he assumes the leading role that assigns him as one of the main sources of current flamenco singing.
“I don’t think about it much, it’s something I carry naturally… it’s a way of life. I try to convey what I feel and experience daily: flamenco has me trapped, ”she explains in an interview with Agencia EFE during a break in her summer tour of the main festivals and venues in Spain.
Córdoba, Almería, Valladolid, Madrid, London and Chiclana (Cádiz), their next commitments during this month of July, speak of the variety and universality of an art – flamenco singing, dancing and toque – that in the opinion of Israel Fernández (Corral de Almaguer, Toledo, 1989) is going through a stage of revitalization.
“What I see in my concerts is very beautiful, there is a lot of youth”, he has analyzed the renewal of the public, something that in a certain way also happens with the new generation of performers: “Unity is strength and we are all in the same car, enjoying and with great enthusiasm to try to take flamenco to the best port”, he adds.
Flamenco and its destiny
In a constant technological revolution, with artificial intelligence, virtual reality and distance as the main milestones, where is flamenco headed? What value is attached to it? What accommodation can find such an ancestral form of expression within a digital ecosystem?
Among other keys to this survival in an apparently contrary environment, Fernández alludes precisely to the “force of the roots” to frame what he has defined as an art “with a lot of transmission… it is a poison that if it catches you it does not let go”. apostille.
In his case, it happened fifteen years ago when, in 2008, he decided to go one step further and cover with professionalism a hobby that sprang up in the bosom of a gypsy family, of Andalusian origin and settled for decades in Corral de Almaguer, where the person who hung up for a long time resides. the poster of ‘promise’ to assume that of main actor.
Flamenco has also been nourished by this pluralistic nomadism and culture to strengthen itself, despite having been treated as “a music ‘chased’” for centuries, another of the definitions with which Israel Fernández tries to delimit what he himself feels “as a gift from God” which, at the same time, requires certain conditions.
Classicism as a pedestal
The cante, the toque and the baile combine classicism as a premise of durability and license to be able to walk other paths, mixtures or persist in what for decades has been called fusion and then opened the traditional debate between purity or mixture that still tail.
“What you have to have is a hobby, but above all a base and knowledge of classical cante to then drift towards something fresher, done with truth and affection because you have to make friends with all types of music”, argues someone who respects their elders without prejudice to exploring new paths.
This is what Israel Fernández, a musician and composer as well as a performer, has done, traits that he has left very marked since 2020 with the publication of “Amor”, his fourth album that he wrote and composed, and even with the expressive variants that he introduced in “La innocence” (2021), including the electronic pop of “El Guincho”, one of his guests.
Shrimp and Paco de Lucia
Now it is easier to explore without causing any schism or stigmatizing any attempt to open up, as happened almost half a century ago with “La leyenda del tiempo” (1979), when flamenco became friends with other styles (blues and jazz), a revolution misunderstood at the time. and that Camarón and Paco de Lucía championed.
“What to say about them? They are unique, unrepeatable. There are no words to explain them”, analyzes Israel from a distance, grateful and indebted to that transgression that half a century later he continues as one more link in that unorthodox exercise of freedom.
Israel Fernández recognizes himself as a “really very fond” artist who “listens and enjoys everyone, but not to study them, eh?”, he hastened to clarify before citing Niña de los Peines as another of his references, a cantaora from the cradle and of gypsy lineage like himself. EFE