The tragic and painful music of Antonio Agujetas fades away | Culture | EUROtoday

Rarely has a music been perceived as so connected to the existence of the one who emitted it. Antonio Agujetas’s life has been laborious with out palliatives and his cantaor saying contained all of the ache and misfortune suffered, a cussed future from which he appeared unable to do away with. His expression, of primitive reminiscences, was all the time heartbreaking: it couldn’t be every other manner, however, on the identical time, he was able to turning that heartbreak into artwork, as a result of he was “from a breed of singers who know how to bring their vital tragedy to life.” supremacy of magnificence”, as outlined by the poet Mauricio Gil Cano.

Antonio de los Santos Bermúdez, which was his identify, was born in 1962 into a vital dynasty, one thing that, undoubtedly, would decide him. Grandson of the legendary Agujetas Viejo and son of the nice Agujetas (Manuel de los Santos Pastor), he acknowledged himself in that heritage, as he sung: “I carry in my heart / inheritance from grandfather and father / that is why my songs are / twigs that “They come out to the trunk.” Precisely, together with his grandfather and father, while still a teenager, he recorded his first songs such as El Niño de Agujetas. Everything seemed on track, but, very soon, his life went wrong and, being very young, he ended up serving a whopping 14 years in prison.

From that moment on, we find that, from his personality, which seems fragile, an inner strength emerges that leads him to flee from his destiny and fight to star in a story of improvement that, yes, will always be full of ups and downs. Thus, during his years in prison, he did not throw in the towel, he continued singing, he won penitentiary singing competitions and, because of this, he participated in the album Two cries for freedom (1998), along with another singer called José Serrano. Seven years earlier, he had recorded another while in prison. With the mediation of a countryman musician, Salvador Román Pali, who would produce the recording, got a week’s leave to get into the studio with the privileged guitar of Moraíto Chico. He recorded 10 styles that are an exponent of his cantaora greatness and that show his art in its purest form. This album, which went almost unnoticed, was fortunately reissued in 2015 with the addition of two more songs.

With his sentence served and freed from addictions, Antonio inaugurated the new century with a period of stability and a new album that was the promise of it: That’s how I feel (2001) was recorded with the support of the Provincial Council (its deputy Juan García, a great fan, opted for the singer’s recovery) and that of the Peña Los Cernícalos of Jerez, where the singer found the warmth he needed. The guitarist was Alberto San Miguel, the same one with whom he debuted when he was only 12 years old at the Jerez Chair of Flamencology and a fundamental person in that stage of the singer, since he had him lodged in his house for years.

Agujetas never lacked support of this type. Perhaps because of his fragility and sensitivity, but, above all, because of the faith he had in his art, there were always people who wanted to help him. Thus Josema García Pelayo from Estudios La Bodega, where the album with Moraíto was reissued, produced together with Miguel Fernández, another of those supports, For our own good, with the guitar of Antonio Malena Jr. Eight songs with a certain twilight tinge: Antonio, who can be hurt by any style, is overwhelmed by the thrill of it. It should be noted that the work was recorded “from four to seven in the afternoon on December 29, 2015, four days after the death of his father, Manuel Agujetas. Antonio did not want to cancel the reservation that had been made previously,” based on the identical folder. There is little doubt that this impression is current within the singing, particularly within the seguiriya.

In the final years of his life, Antonio Agujetas didn’t cease alternating durations of restoration, which took him to front-line eventualities, with recurring falls. The harsh previous by no means stopped taking its toll on him with a number of manifestations and progressive deterioration, however, amongst these declines, there was all the time an area for his ancestral singing of historic lineage, which now stays within the palms of his sister Dolores and within the her son, Antonio, Agujetas Chico, as the very best representatives.

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