Exhaustion takes its toll on Santiago Auserón: “My strength failed me” | Culture | EUROtoday

It occurred final Friday. During the live performance by Santiago Auserón (Zaragoza, 71 years previous) on the Real Teatro de San Fernando (Cádiz), the spectators noticed that the artist appeared to really feel dangerous: he misplaced the thread of his feedback and didn’t end the subjects. He determined to proceed however the consequence was unsatisfactory, each for the general public and for the protagonist, who was performing alone.

Auserón has canceled an upcoming efficiency in Navarra and suspends its actions till the summer season. Always honorable, he has apologized on social networks: “My strength failed. I knew I was risking it, because I had been advised to take medical leave due to hypertension due to extreme exhaustion and, despite everything, I wanted to try. It didn’t turn out well. I’m very sorry. Some technical incidents complicated things even more for me. But there are no excuses. As soon as I recover a little, I would like to reciprocate in some way to those of you who were kind enough to buy the ticket. That’s how I’m going to put it to the Department of Culture of the City Council.

The singer has given up his cache and the San Fernando City Council is refunding the amount of the tickets. It may seem like a minor incident, although it is a serious warning that has forced your team to rethink their entire activity. Since the dissolution of Radio Futura in 1992, Auserón has toured every year in various formats, under the name Juan Perro or with more fleeting projects, such as Las Malas Lenguas, a cover group shared with his brother Luis. For the second half of the year, he has scheduled dates with his latest backing band, the so-called Academia Nocturna, apart from some performances by Nerantzi, where he offers his adaptations of Greek songs, recorded with the instrumentalists Vaggelis Tzeretas and Theodoros Karellas.

That latest international adventure is not really surprising. Santiago’s career as an urban rocker changed after several stays in Cuba. His research into Cuban music pushed him to organize the Son and Flamenco Meetings in Seville, apart from editing careful compilations taken from the archive of the state company Egrem in BMG and later starring in the documentary Seed of the sound. He also rescued and produced a then forgotten figure like Compay Segundo, who thus had a tremendous end to his career. Contrary to the usual, Santiago shared his discoveries and provided contacts that made it easier for Ry Cooder to record his million-dollar Buena Vista Social Club.

Santiago Auserón has fiercely defended his creative freedom, after the failure of Radio Futura’s first LP, released by Hispavox in 1980 as a product for teenagers. His office, La Huella Sonora, has made it easier for him to combine his philosophy studies with the materialization of complex projects, such as concerts—later captured on records—with the Original Jazz Orquestra del Taller de Músics or the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia. After having worked through several multinational companies, he now self-releases his albums.

Santiago has also published books on the intersection of Spanish music with black rhythms. With his perfectionism, all these open fronts require extreme dedication. And one automatically thinks of that warning from rumbero Gato Pérez: “The machine is forced, night and day / and the singer with the musicians risk their lives.” No joke: the great Cat died at the age of 39.