Enrique Morente
Encyclopedia
Enrique Morente Cotelo, known as Enrique Morente, (25 December 1942 – 13 December 2010) was a flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....

 singer and a controversial figure within the world of contemporary flamenco. After his orthodox beginnings, he plunged into experimentalism, writing new melodies for cante (flamenco singing) and jamming with musicians of all styles, without renouncing his roots in traditional flamenco singing, which he kept on cultivating. In spite of severe criticism from the most "purist" amongst the critics and public, he was perhaps the most influential contemporary flamenco singer, who not only innovated, but it could also can be said that he created tradition: some of his cantes have been performed by other singers such as Camarón de la Isla
Camarón de la Isla
Camarón de la Isla , was the stage name of a spanish flamenco singer José Monje Cruz who is sometimes also credited as Camarón de la Isla....

, Mayte Martín
Mayte Martín
Mayte Martín . Flamenco cantaora , bolero singer, and composer. She is widely recognized as one of the most important flamenco voices of her generation...

, Carmen Linares, Miguel Poveda, Segundo Falcón and Arcángel.

Beginnings

Enrique Morente, born in the traditional quarter of Albaicín in Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

, started to sing as a seise (a member of a group of children who sing, dance and play castanet
Castanet
Castanets are a percussion instrument , used in Moorish, Ottoman, ancient Roman, Italian, Spanish, Sephardic Music, and Portuguese music. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string. They are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or...

s on certain religious festivals) He started to feel attracted to flamenco singing as a child, and had the opportunity to learn at family gatherings and to listen to established figures from Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

 like Cobitos, the family of the "Habichuelas", or Aurelio Sellés (Aurelio de Cádiz):


"The cante begins inside you when you listen to the villager’s singing, to people in their birthplace. Groups of people that meet in a tavern and start singing, and then you listen to them and start singing as well: you learn that at family parties where everybody sings and everybody drinks, and everybody dances and... Apart from that, it turns out that, of course, you need a technique, you need a school, you need to learn. In order to achieve this, what you need... the main help you can get is to have a liking for it; and then the skill to know who to learn from, and from what sources, where to find the good. Then you are on."


However, this appreciation for the popular side of flamenco does not mean that he considers flamenco as just "an art of the people". A flamenco artist, for him, needs technique and dedication:


"It is us, the professional artists of flamenco, who have to make cante flamenco, and nobody else, Flamenco, like any other art, is an art of professionals, although there are many people who peer at us, with a look as if to say: What interesting little creatures! or maybe: Oh! What music the people are playing! and so on. And people often think that maybe you have to have fingers swollen from picking potatoes to be able to play the guitar with feeling. Look, picking potatoes is every bit as worthy as playing a guitar. But I can tell you that a man -with fine, sensitive fingers is not going to be able to make a go of picking potatoes: and I can also tell you that a man with fingers swollen from picking potatoes is not going to be able to play a guitar because he hasn't got the manual dexterity and he hasn't got the dedication. This is a profession like any other which you have to dedicate yourself to completely. It is an art of professionals."


Still in his teens, Morente went to live in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 to start a professional career as a singer. There he was able to meet some old masters like Pepe de la Matrona and Bernardo el de los Lobitos, and learned as much as he could from them. Pepe de la Matrona took special interest in teaching the young singer: "This interest was raised not so much by Enrique Morente’s intonation, by his registers or by his melismatic as by his attitude towards things, his respect and his learning capacity." In Madrid, he started singing at peñas flamencas (clubs for flamenco fans). In 1964, he signed a contract with the Ballet de Marienma, with whom he then performed at the Spanish Pavilion at the New York Worlds Fair and at the Spanish Embassy in Washington DC. Later he took part in a flamenco festival at Teatro de los Alcázares de los Reyes Cristianos, sharing the bill with Juan Talega, Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, Gaspar de Utrera, Tomás Torre and Antonio Mairena
Antonio Mairena
Antonio Cruz García, known as Antonio Mairena was a famous flamenco singer. He led the movement towards the revival of traditional flamenco in the fifties and subsequent decades....

. During that year and the following one, he also toured Europe and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 with different flamenco dance companies, and was employed at several tablaos (flamenco venues) in Madrid, such as Las Cueva de Nemesio, Zambra and El Café de Chinitas.

First recordings

Morente made his first recording, Cante flamenco in 1967 with guitarist Félix de Utrera. The recording received a special mention award from the Cátedra de Flamencología, and was followed by Cantes antiguos del flamenco (1969), with guitarist Niño Ricardo. His first recordings were strictly orthodox and showed deep knowledge of traditional flamenco, a rare quality for singers of his generation. During this period he also made his first contact with guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar
Manolo Sanlúcar
Manolo Sanlúcar is a flamenco composer and guitarist born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1945. He is considered one of the most important Spanish composers of present times, and together with Paco de Lucía, Serranito, and Vicente Amigo, one of the main figures in the evolution of the flamenco...

, with whom he would cooperate on several occasions. Sanlúcar accompanied him in his concert in Ateneo de Madrid, the first occasion in which a flamenco singer performed in that prestigious cultural institution.

His next record, Homenaje flamenco a Miguel Hernández (Flamenco Homage to Miguel Hernández
Miguel Hernández
Miguel Hernández Gilabert was a 20th century Spanish poet and playwright.-Biography:Hernández was born in Orihuela, in the Valencian Community, to a poor family and received little formal education; he published his first book of poetry at 23, and gained considerable fame before his death...

, 1971), initiated his frequent use of lyrics by outstanding poets. Later on, he would record flamenco songs with lyrics by Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

, John of the Cross
John of the Cross
John of the Cross , born Juan de Yepes Álvarez, was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Catholic saint, Carmelite friar and priest, born at Fontiveros, Old Castile....

, Lope de Vega
Lope de Vega
Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...

, Al-Mutamid
Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid
Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid was the third and last ruler of the taifa of Seville in Al-Andalus. He was a member of the Abbadid dynasty....

, Antonio Machado
Antonio Machado
Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....

 and Manuel Machado
Manuel Machado y Ruiz
Manuel Machado y Ruiz was a Spanish poet and a prominent member of the Generation of 98....

, Jorge Guillén
Jorge Guillén
Jorge Guillén y Álvarez was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27.-Biography:Jorge Guillén was born in Valladolid. His life paralleled that of his friend Pedro Salinas, whom he succeeded as a Spanish teaching assistant at the Collège de Sorbonne in the University of Paris from 1917 to...

, and others. Soon later, an illegal live recording was published in Holland.


"The thing that most calls your attention in his first productions is how much care he devotes to the lyrics of his cantes. This is probably the first step in his future career as as an innovator in flamenco. The poems by Miguel Hernández, for example, became immortal in his impressive 'Nana de la Cebolla' or 'El Niño Yuntero'. With the attitude he showed, in these poems, against the francoist
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

 regime, he became the favourite flamenco singer for the left-wing opposition in the country, as well as one of the first innovators."



In 1971 and 1972, he toured Mexico with guitarist Parrilla de Jerez and dancer Ana Parrilla, a tour which included his presentation at the Auditorium of the Universidad de las Américas, and performed at Lincoln Center (to which he would return to perform at again in 1973) and the Spanish Institute in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. In 1972, he was also awarded the Premio Nacional del Cante (National Award for Flamenco Singing) by the Cátedra de Flamencología in Jerez
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia...

.

Alternating tradition

Morente arrived back to orthodox flamenco singing with his recording Homenaje a Don Antonio Chacón (Homage to Antonio Chacón, 1977, which obtained the National Award for best folk music album, granted by the Ministry of Culture. In this recording, Morente vindicated the figure of singer Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...

 the creator of the granaína and a fundamental figure of flamenco in the first decades of the 20th century, who had been, nevertheless, relegated by the views of the 1950s-1970s flamencology, as a representative of the non-Romani (Gypsy) flamenco which that generation considered impure. However, in an alternation between tradition and innovation typical of Morente, the recording was immediately followed, in 1978, by Despegando ("Taking off"), this time in an innovative mood: the title itself is, in fact, a declaration of intentions.

In 1981 he toured a new show, Andalucía hoy ("Andalusia Today"), which he would later performed at the Paris Olympia
Paris Olympia
The Olympia is a music hall in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Located at No. 28, Boulevard des Capucines, its closest métro/RER stations are Madeleine, Opéra, Havre – Caumartin and Auber....

 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. In 1982, some of his recordings were chosen by flamencologist José Blas Vega to take part in the flamenco anthology Magna Antología del Cante (a complete collection of traditional styles of cante) to illustrate songs such as the tarantas
Tarantas
Tarantas may refer to* Tarantas , a style of flamenco from Almería, derived from the Andalusian fandango* Tarantella, a traditional Italian dance or song* Tarantass, a horse-drawn Russian carriage...

 from Almería
Almería
Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.-Toponym:Tradition says that the name Almería stems from the Arabic المرية Al-Mariyya: "The Mirror", comparing it to "The Mirror of the Sea"...

, several types of cartageneras
Cartageneras
Cartageneras are a flamenco palo belonging to the category of the Cantes de las minas or cantes minero-levantinos . As the rest of the songs in this category, it derives from older folkloric fandango styles...

, the fandangos by Frasquito Yerbabuena, and all the malagueñas
Malagueñas (flamenco style)
Malagueñas is one of the traditional styles of Andalusian music , derived from earlier types of fandango from the area of Málaga, classified among the Cantes de Levante. Originally a folk-song type, it became a flamenco style in the 19th century. It is not normally used for dance, as it is...

 and granaínas created by Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...

.

In 1990 in another comeback to orthodoxy, he recorded Morente-Sabicas, with guitarist Sabicas
Sabicas
Sabicas was a Flamenco guitarist, of Romani origin, who was born in 1912 in Pamplona, Spain and died in 14 April 1990 in New York....

, who was already in his eighties. In the following year, he created and recorded a flamenco mass
Mass (music)
The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...

, a type of creation that already had some precedents, like the one recorded by Antonio Mairena
Antonio Mairena
Antonio Cruz García, known as Antonio Mairena was a famous flamenco singer. He led the movement towards the revival of traditional flamenco in the fifties and subsequent decades....

, Luis Caballero, and Naranjito de Triana in 1968. However Morente's mass is totally different from any previous examples. Whereas earlier flamenco masses basically tried to use traditional flamenco singing for the liturgy, Morente's does not even have a liturgic purpose, and mixes flamenco with other genres like Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...

. About this mass, in one of his touches of humour, Morente said:



"At a given point, I thought I could dedicate it to Pope Clement
Clemente Domínguez y Gómez
Clemente Domínguez y Gómez was a self-proclaimed successor of Pope Paul VI, and was recognised as Pope Gregory XVII by supporters of the Palmarian Catholic Church Catholic breakway movement in 1978...

, the one of El Palmar de Troya
Palmarian Catholic Church
The Christian Palmarian Church of the Carmelites of the Holy Face , commonly called the Palmarian Catholic Church , is a schismatic Catholic church with its own pope, Gregory XVIII.-Origins:...

, but then I remembered that he had canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

  Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

, Primo de Rivera
Primo de Rivera
Primo de Rivera is a Spanish family prominent in politics of the 19th and 20th centuries:*Fernando Primo de Rivera, Spanish politician and soldier, 1831-1921*Miguel Primo de Rivera , dictator of Spain from 23 September 1923 to 1930...

, Carrero Blanco
Luis Carrero Blanco
Don Luis Carrero Blanco, 1st Duke of Carrero Blanco, Grandee of Spain was a Spanish admiral and long-time confidant of dictator Francisco Franco.- Biography :...

 and all those guys and, while on the one hand I thought it was funnier, on the other hand I thought the joke could be interpreted in a strange way and I didn't do it, though I was about to do it. But the record was made with a sincerity and a true intention, no matter the results, and I thought it was like ruining it a bit because of the joke.. and that was too much!"

Later works

In 1995 he appeared singing a siguiriya in Carlos Saura
Carlos Saura
Carlos Saura Atarés is a Spanish film director and photographer.-Early life:Born into a family of artists , he developed his artistic sense in childhood as a photography enthusiast.He obtained his directing diploma in Madrid in 1957 at the Institute of Cinema Research and Studies...

's film Flamenco
Flamenco (1995 film)
Flamenco is a 1995 Spanish documentary film directed by Carlos Saura with camerawork by acclaimed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. The film is entirely musical and dancing vignettes, composed and photographed on a sound stage.-Synopsis:...

and recorded his most controversial recording: Omega, together with the alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 group Lagartija Nick, with the participation of guitarists such as Tomatito
Tomatito
José Fernández Torres, known as Tomatito , is a Spanish Romani flamenco guitarist. He grew up in a musical family, including two uncles: Niño Miguel, a flamenco guitarist, and Antonio, a professional guitarist....

, Vicente Amigo
Vicente Amigo
Vicente Amigo Girol is a Spanish flamenco composer and virtuoso guitarist, born in Guadalcanal, near Seville. He has played as backing guitarist on recordings by flamenco singers El Pele, Camarón de la Isla, Vicente Soto, Luis de Córdoba and the rociero band Salmarina, and he has acted as a...

, Juan Manuel Cañizares or Miguel Ángel Cortés and percussionists like Tino di Geraldo. Flamenco and punk rock are mingled with recreations of songs by Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

, and lyrics by Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

's book Poeta en Nueva York ("A Poet in New York"), together with traditional flamenco lyrics. The work was performed at the 2008 Festival Internacional de Benicàssim
Festival Internacional de Benicàssim
The Festival Internacional de Benicàssim is an annual music festival which takes place in the village of Benicàssim, province of Castelló, Valencian Community in Spain. It focuses mainly on pop, rock and electronica artists, as well as having other elements besides music like short films,...

, under the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 Morente Omega con Lagartija Nick.

The year 2001 saw the publishing of a very much sought for record by Morente, "Enrique Morente en la Casa Museo de García Lorca de Fuentevaqueros", a collection of songs based on the poetry of Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

. The recording had been made in studio in Madrid, in 1990, and it had been commissioned by the Diputación de Granada (a government institution). Only a limited edition was made and the copies were sent as gift to particular persons. In the second hand marked, those copies reached 25,000 pesetas (150 euros).

Another interesting release of Morente, El Pequeño Reloj, saw the light in 2003. Whereas the second half of the CD a more or less random collection of songs, the first half of the record comprises a surprising series of songs which are broken in two parts: in the first part of the song, Morente's voice is superimposed on top of old 78 r.p.m recordings of old masters of the flamenco guitar like Ramón Montoya
Ramón Montoya
Ramón Montoya , Flamenco guitarist and composer.Born into a family of Gitano cattle traders, Ramón Montoya used earnings from working in the trade to buy his first guitar...

, Sabicas
Sabicas
Sabicas was a Flamenco guitarist, of Romani origin, who was born in 1912 in Pamplona, Spain and died in 14 April 1990 in New York....

 or Manolo de Huelva, while the second part is a modern development of the same palo
Palo (flamenco)
A palo is the name traditionally given in the flamenco environment for the different musical forms that constitute the traditional musical heritage of flamenco...

, with the side guitar of the young and innovative guitarist Niño Josele.

Although Morente could not read musical notation
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...

 he composed music for theatre plays, films and television, such as the work Las Arrecogidas del Beaterio de Santa María Egipcíaca", the music for Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...

with José Luis Gómez.

He has tried the mixture between flamenco and classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 in works like
Fantasía de cante jondo para voz y orquesta (Cante jondo
Cante jondo
Cante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...

 Fantasy (music) for voice and orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

, together with pianist Antonio Robledo, guitarists Juan Habichuela and Gerardo Núñez and the Madrid Symphony Orchestra
Madrid Symphony Orchestra
The Madrid Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1903, is the oldest existing Spanish symphony orchestra not linked to an opera house in Spain.-History:...

, conducted by Luis Izquierdo, 1986) or with
Allegro Soleá, which he presented at Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

's Flamenco Biennal in 1990. Along the lines of the mixture of flamenco with other types of music, he collaborated in the show
Macama Jonda by José Heredia Maya, together with the Tetuan Andalusian Orchestra and Abdessadeq Cheqara
Abdessadeq Cheqara
Abdessadeq Cheqara , was a Moroccan singer of traditional Andalusian classical music and Moroccan folk music . Known as the grand master of al-Ala , he was also a violin and oud virtuoso.- Life :Abdessadeq Cheqara was born in Tetuan, Morocco, a city noted for its Andalusian influences...

, or with the Bulgarian Voices choir Angelite. In Morente's aforementioned recording
Omega, he mixed flamenco singing with punk rock, music by Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

, and lyrics by Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

. In the show
África-Cuba-Cai he mixed flamenco with music from Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

, and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 (
Cai is the way Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

 is pronounced in Andalusian Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

). The show also underlinks the historic links between Cuban and flamenco music: "That's always been close to flamenco, since way back, because the ships in Cádiz went to Cuba, some came and others stayed over there, we've always had that.". It is difficult to think of any kind of music which has not interested Morente. After one of his concerts with Cheqara Orkesta of Tetuan, he declared: "…if I had to put out a CD for every culture I mixed with I'd be putting out about 7 or 8 CDs a year. It wouldn't be bad - if I got paid for it by the record company then I could build myself a home."

Owing to his innovative approach, Morente was widely criticized by the more extreme traditionalist sectors of flamenco's critical faculty and public, though it had been said that "Needless to say, all this cost Morente a real torment, since flamenco is still a very closed world, in which the slightest attempt for novelty is taken as a deadly sin of heresy.". Although Morente's work is now widely recognized by most critics, and has inspired many singers of the young generation like Mayte Martín
Mayte Martín
Mayte Martín . Flamenco cantaora , bolero singer, and composer. She is widely recognized as one of the most important flamenco voices of her generation...

 or Arcángel, there is still a section of traditionalist critics and public that still disparage his work:


"Aficionados were scratching their heads after the show, trying to figure out exactly, which forms--if any--Morente was working in much of the time. 'Remember the old days when you could actually recognize what flamenco forms were being performed?'"


Ethnic bias is often not alien to these criticisms. A good number of flamenco critics and public were introduced into flamenco at the time of the "reappraisal period" led by singers like Antonio Mairena
Antonio Mairena
Antonio Cruz García, known as Antonio Mairena was a famous flamenco singer. He led the movement towards the revival of traditional flamenco in the fifties and subsequent decades....

 and critics like González Climent or Ricardo Molina, in whose views, pure flamenco singing would be a patrimony of Romanis, which non-Romanis could only try to imitate in vain without ever reaching its essence. In the same review quoted above we can read: "And once you have experienced truly great Romani singing of this sort, the erudition of an artist like Morente pales like a candle flame next to a blazing torch." These views on Morente,though very common in the seventies and eighties, have almost died down. The controversy between tradition and innovation, Romani and non-Romani singing and other topics, so common twenty years ago, is now relatively confined to a limited section of the public, while most flamenco fans and critics acknowledge Morente's deep artistic intelligence and commitment:


"This comes from the man who never sings the same way twice, who tirelessly seeks that new inflection, that unheard-of scale, the change of tone that best matches the desired feeling and intentions at a given moment. The easy option would be the other one. To do what Enrique does you need extreme intellectual abilities and extreme emotional commitment. He takes the perfectly-laid, common foundations, defined by tradition, and on them builds with all the conceivable potential of flamenco."


In December 2010 it was reported that Morente had fallen into a coma after an ulcer operation, and had been declared brain dead
Brain death
Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. It should not be confused with a persistent vegetative state...

. He died in Madrid on December 13, 2010.

Awards

First prize at the contest Málaga Cantaora (1967)

Premio Nacional de Cante (Flamenco Singing National Award) granted by Cátedra de Flamencología y Estudios Folklóricos Andaluces de Jerez de la Frontera (1972)

National Award for best folk recording, awarded by the Ministry of Culture (1978)

En 1989 es nombrado Socio de Honor del Club de Música y Jazz San Juan Evangelista

Honorary Membership of the San Juan Evangelista Jazz and Music Club (1989)

Premio Nacional de Música
Premio Nacional de Música
The Premio Nacional de Música forms part of the annual National Awards in Spain....

 (Music National Award), Ministry of Culture, awarded to a flamenco singer for the first time (1994)

Golden medal of the Cátedra de Flamencología de Jerez de la Frontera (1995)

Compás del Cante (1995)

“Galardón de Honor de los Premios de la Música”, awarded by the Ministry of Culture (1998)

Pastora Pavón ("Niña de los Peines") Award, awarded by the autonomous government of Andalusia (2004)

Medal of Andalusia, awarded by the autonomous government of Andalusia (2005)

National Critics award for best DVD and best flamenco singing record for Morente sueña la Alhambra (2006)

National Award of Music for best flamenco recording for Morente sueña la Alhambra (2006)

Morato de Oro, awarded by Peña El Morato (2006)

Best flamenco recording, Deflamenco.com Awards (2006)

Filmography

  • Flamenco. Directed by Carlos Saura
    Carlos Saura
    Carlos Saura Atarés is a Spanish film director and photographer.-Early life:Born into a family of artists , he developed his artistic sense in childhood as a photography enthusiast.He obtained his directing diploma in Madrid in 1957 at the Institute of Cinema Research and Studies...

     (1995)
  • Morente sueña La Alhambra. Directed by José Sánchez-Montes (2005)
  • Iberia. Directed by Carlos Saura (2005)
  • Morente. Directed by Emilio R. Barrachina (2011)

Discography

  • Cante flamenco (1967)
  • Cantes antiguos del flamenco (1969)
  • Homenaje flamenco a Miguel Hernández (1971)
  • Se hace camino al andar (1975)
  • Homenaje a Don Antonio Chacón (1977)
  • Despegando (1977)
  • Morente en vivo, Díscolo, (1981), illegal recording live
  • Sacromonte (1982)
  • Cruz y Luna (1983)
  • Esencias flamencas (1988)
  • Morente - Sabicas (1990)
  • Enrique Morente en la Casa Museo de Federico García Lorca de Fuentevaqueros (1990); Republished (2001)
  • Misa flamenca (1991)
  • Negra, si tú supieras (1992)
  • Alegro, Soleá y Fantasía del Cante Jondo (1995)
  • Omega (1996)
  • Morente – Lorca (1998)
  • El pequeño reloj (2003)
  • Morente sueña la Alhambra (2005), Mute Records
    Mute Records
    Mute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...

  • Pablo de Málaga (2008)

External links

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