We recently reviewed an album sung in the Ladino language (which fuses elements of old Spanish with Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish) by Lily Henley. Inspired to celebrate the language and song tradition, Henley’s approach on her album was very contemporary, a reminder of how music moves and develops amongst communities over time and connects us all today.
There are echoes of this approach in the latest offering from Andalusian Flamenco singer Tomás de Perrate – The likes of Henley and Perrate can draw a line to their ancestors from whom they carry on song traditions. Still, for it to have any meaning today, they must be able to connect with others. It’s in their modern contemporary approach that the magic lies…
“I don’t care what the most radical traditionalist minds may think of this or any other work I do. This is my time and I intend to live it according to my way of feeling and living flamenco – my ancestors had a lot to do with the birth of this culture, and each of them created according to their feelings and their time. And I do the same.”
Tomás de Perrate grew up in Utrera, an Andalusian town where flamenco flowered since the mid-19th century. Born into a Gitano flamenco family – his father, his aunt, and his cousins (El Lebrijano and Gaspar de Utrera) were all celebrated performers, as were their parents. Perrate grew up immersed in a culture of song, dance and guitar.
Coming of age after Franco’s dictatorship ended and Spain opened up, Perrate also grew up listening to jazz, blues, Latin American, soul and rock. As a youth, he sang with jazz and rock bands.
Inevitably, the family tradition won out, and Perrate focused on flamenco – Tres Golpes is his third album (and first in eleven years) – but Tomás’ wide musical enthusiasms informed his approach to singing.
“I think that the singers of my generation were the first to grow up with music players at home, with playlists of the most diverse styles on the radio and with access to records of international music that, little by little, were arriving in Spain,” says Perrate. “Evidently, this has a transcendence in our subconscious database that allows us to understand other rhythmic patterns and other combinations of chords and tunings. Now I listen a lot for pleasure to Tom Waits and Latin jazz figures such as Arturo Sandoval, Paquito de Rivera or Michel Camilo.”
Tres Golpes developed over several years. Firstly, Perrate selected and worked on the songs. “The songs of Tres Golpes are mostly personal adaptations of old songs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which previously passed through that multicultural region known as ‘Afro-Andalusian Caribbean’ – where African slaves, Native Americans and European adventurers of all kinds, mainly Spanish and Portuguese, came together” – then self-released a demo of such. His artistic director Pedro G. Romero suggested Perrate work with Raül Refree, the producer who, through his work with Rosalía, Silvia Pérez-Cruz, and many others, almost single-handedly defined the sound of contemporary, cross-over flamenco.
Watch the album trailer below (once it starts playing, you can click on subtitles [cc] to turn on English)
When Perrate and Refree met, the two men discussed their respective musical visions: when a singer deeply rooted in tradition meets a producer with contemporary pop kudos, well, things can be challenging.
But Perrate and Refree quickly realised that they must work together – each playing to the other’s strengths: across Tres Golpes, Perrate’s deep, wracked voice is underpinned by Refree’s brilliantly imaginative studio technique.
On Tres Golpes, Refree lets the palmas (handclaps that work as percussion for flamenco) provide a huge rhythmic bed for Perrate’s harsh vocal to ride over. It bears its name from an Afro Colombian song from the Pacific coast, and here is both the song and album name.
Every note, every gesture across Tres Golpes is deeply felt, part of an artistic legacy that reaches back across the centuries.
“Flamenco singing has always been an intrinsic part of the culture of the Gypsy people,” says Perrate, “and in Utrera there were families especially relevant in this art, who, in addition, created some very personal styles that, nowadays, are fundamental to understand this artistic discipline; and the people of the town, in general, know how to recognize this fact and give value to it. Utrera is a wonderful city for a singer.”
Tres Golpes is flamenco that breaks free of the genre’s constraints to create a groundbreaking album of avant European music-making. Perrate & Refree – a voice and a producer to be reckoned with.
Tres Golpes is released on Lovemonk on 20th May, 2022.
Pre-Order via Bandcamp: https://perrate.bandcamp.com/album/tres-golpes