Feat: Estrella Morente, Diego El Cigala, David de Jacoba, Sorderita, Bernardo Parrilla, Ramón Porrina, Piraña
“Because alpaca implies nobility and this is the foundation that sustains royalty”. This is the explanation Carlos de Jacoba gave when choosing the title for his debut album. The Alpaca or white silver, it should be pointed out, has a high resistance to corrosion. It must remind us of the proverbial allusion to the older gypsies and the powerful way a suit made of alpaca would frame them. Well of course! Like the one that fit around Rafael de Paula when he attended the presentation of my Diario de un paulista. How he would parade in the bullring! And so it is with Carlos de Jacoba, brother of the singer who is changing the era for us in a beat while singing siguiriyas and transmitting pain to the rhythm of tangos. It’s an album of roaming gypsies and bullfighters; the echo of their steps is destined to last an eternity in the solea that he leaves us with. In truth it’s a model, so ancient and extravagant as well as refreshing in its exploration of accents. It’s a solea to get drunk in searing nostalgia, and give in immodestly, to the imbibing of the declarations in his pauses, inspired by aged wine.
With the collaboration of artists such as Estrella Morente, Diego El Cigala, David de Jacoba, Sorderita, Bernardo Parrilla, Ramón Porrina y Piraña, the production by Jesús de Rosario and arrangements by Diego Amador, two artists whose taste in adorning music sets the paradigm, Alpaca Real was an album eagerly anticipated by those of us who have followed the triumphs of Carlos de Jacoba in events like “Suma Flamenca” in Madrid or the “Festival Flamenco On Fire” in Pamplona. With its references to Camaron and Paco, the contributions of Carmela de Las Grecas and the great Benavent, or his subtle flirtations with the highest, influential, almost secretive guitarist Manzanita, this album was fueled by a vision so purely of flamenco and at the same time nourished by a certain sound that brings us back to the 80s, a time when our art regrouped its heritage and energy, to recharge an impulse that has yet to burst.
Like everything that has been composed by Carlos de Jacoba, the 8 tracks contained in Alpaca Real have been conceived with the idea that they would be recreated by a flamenco voice. The reflection is as inevitable, for example, as to wonder how much of the music that came out of Paco’s head was born from the question of how Camaron would sing it. From the guitarists love of the “cante” emerge comforting meanderings that bring us peace after the frenetic “serpeos” where his guitar traces lightning bolts in the sky, the verses of a personal gospel that presses all of our keys on the scale of flamenco’s emotion.
Enjoy the black, greenish and turquoise sounds of this guitarist who, with bright and clean karats, like they said of Cagancho after his debut in Mexico, has come to stay!
JOAQUÍN ALBAICÍN