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Another coletilla today. (Another from Zorri. Can't wait to see that man on the Flamenco Tour in less than two weeks!)
Bulerías
(a coletilla)
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Zorri
This is a story about how doing less in bulerías can serve us well. It's the follow up to the previous post on observation. Read on, and find out how to simplify your bulerías and perhaps even your life a bit too.November 2013, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
She said she was going to show them how to dance on a losa.
Pequeña,
Y por fiesta.
Small,
And party style.
It was Ani who said that. Ana María López. She said it on a Monday morning in Jerez.
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A story on the value of observation from a past Flamenco Tour (followed by four bulerías take-aways):
Sunday night I was writing
About flamenco and Jerez and what I'm doing here and what I want to learn here.
And I set some intentions for the week.
I had a few.
One was to Observe
To observe people dancing bulerías. Especially people whose dancing I liked. In class and out. Anywhere and everywhere.
To watch them, really watch them. And to notice what was happening.
To notice how they responded to the cante.
To notice how they danced with the compás.
To notice when they did what they did.
To notice the things I liked.
To notice the things that worked.
Maybe even to notice the things I didn't like.
And to notice the things that didn't work.
On Monday morning I went to bulerías class
That was the day Ani taught the ladies about dancing on a floor tile. I'll tell you about that in the next post.
It was also the day she read my mind.
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I want to tell you about some things that help me to feel better when I'm in a funky place. I also want to show you a very cool video and share a flamenco verse with you. But first, some words I wrote last week
(my first week back home post Flamenco Tour)
Coming home I feel overwhelmed.
This is not new.
It is how I usually feel after a trip to Spain. Excited to be back but overwhelmed and sort of confused at the same time.
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On Friday I went to the Peña la Bulería. As you may recall, it is literally steps away from our apartments here in Jerez. I was feeling sleepy and my legs were not looking forward to standing on the hard marble floor after having spent a good deal of time in flamenco shoes and walking on hard streets that day, but once there I was glad I went. As usual.
A young singer named Enrique Remache was performing.
I heard many fantastic letras, like like this one, and jaleos, and took great pleasure in witnessing the reactions of the público.
The reactions
Always one of my favorite aspects of seeing flamenco in Jerez. Men looking at each other and laughing with pleasure upon hearing a particular thing sung a particular way. I won't try to explain this. Just please visit Jerez sometime in your life, and see.
I also love seeing the mix of generations at the peña shows. Teenagers to people in their 70's voluntarily going to hear flamenco.
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Will 2015 be the year to go to Spain? More on that below, but first a letra:
Bulerías
Popular
Qué dolor de mi mare
tengo la camisa sucia
no tengo quien me la lave
The sorrow of my mother
I have a dirty shirt
I have nobody to wash it for me
You can listen to it here.
Stay tuned next week for the final letra of 2014 and the final installment of this series of bulerías shared by Zorri. (Don't worry, you'll see more letras from him here and there in the future.)
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This afternoon I was working on the letra.
I translated it, wrote it out, took a picture of it, and then decided I’d better hurry up and take a quick walk before the sun went down. It was nice out, and I could finish the post later.
It began to rain minutes after I began my walk.
I guess I needed to be rained on.
The sky had given me no indication that this was going to happen. It had been sunny all day, and all I noticed were beautiful nearning sunset colors from the moment I stepped outside. So many colors and shades of brightness that I didn’t really see the grey rain clouds.
I notice lots of things,
But sometimes I miss certain things that would be most helpful to notice,
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It's week two of bulerías shared by Zorri.
Bulerías
Popular
No sé lo que te han contao
que hasta vuelve la cabeza
cuando pasa por mi lao
I don't know what they told you
that has you turn your head,
when you pass by my side
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Today another one that I got from Zorri. He is full of letras.
Literally.
This one is kind of fuerte.
Bulerías
Popular
Contigo bajé la cuesta
y ahora que quiero subirla
que trabajito me cuesta
I went down the hill with you
and now that I want to go back up,
Oh how much work it is
We all know a lot of the sentido gets lost in translation. The letras just don't have the same feeling in English. And then at times there are specific things that really cannot be translated within the verse itself.
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This is a letra that Zorri sang the other night.
Watching Zorri laugh after singing it was the best, and then hearing him laugh because, well, if you've ever heard his laugh,
It's a laugh that makes you laugh. That on top of the meaning of the letra, let's just say it made for a good laughing session.
Bulerías
Popular
Ten cuidao con ese gato
que se coma una a una
las sardinitas del plato
Be careful with that cat
because one by one it eats
the little sardines from the plate
We were supposed to go to a tablao that night, but that didn't happen.
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It is Halloween, and I just returned home from the peña. I am in Jerez.
On the way I saw a family dressed up in zombie-style Halloween costumes. Their two dogs were dressed as jack-o-lanters.
At the peña
We saw Manuel Agujetas Hijo sing with Domingo Rubichi accompanying on guitar.
Below is a letra por fandangos that he sang.
(You can hear El Chocolate singing it here.)
Fandangos
No me quites la botella
que yo me quiero emborrachar
no me quites la botella
voy a beber de verdad
y a ver si no pienso en ella
y yo la consigo olvidar
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From Jerez last fall ...
Sunday night I was writing
About flamenco and Jerez and what I'm doing here and what I want to learn here.
And I set some intentions for the week.
I had a few.
One was to Observe
To observe people dancing bulerías. In class and out. Anywhere. Especially people whose dancing I liked.
To watch them, really watch them. And to notice what was happening.
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José Mendez sang this one at the Peña Torres Macarena in Sevilla. I rushed over there after class on Wednesday night. It was crowded, and people were into it, and the show was great. Plus Zorri was there. His bulerías along with his matching outfit alone were enough to make it all worth while...