Charlatans And Chambao: Mallorca's Festival

Mallorca doesn't have music festivals. Not the type of music festival, that is, which we associate with the likes of Glastonbury. That festival, gentrified out of all recognition, was a product of the Woodstock era. I remember it well. My first venture forth into the world of the festival was in a field belonging to farmer Ted Askey. It was known as Hollywood but was nothing like Hollywood. I was fourteen. The Grateful Dead performed in the UK for the first time. I was lucky to have survived the weekend without having contracted hypothermia. Happy days.

There are different types of festival in Mallorca. Typically, they can last for weeks. Deya's International Music Festival, which started last week, goes on for months: a concert most Thursdays at the marvellous Son Marroig. Refined it is, classical it is; Ted Askey's farm it most certainly is not. Another, Pollensa's, is shorter - throughout August - but is equally civilised. The classical world locates itself in the cloister of the Sant Domingo Convent.

Because of the time they take and because also of the style of music, these are not festivals in the grand tradition of muddy fields of an English summer. On mainland Spain, there are such events. Benicàssim is probably the prime example. To be held from 13 to 16 July, this year's acts feature Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kasabian, Foals, Deadmau5, Biffy Clyro, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Liam Gallagher. That's what one calls a proper festival line-up. And there's little possibility of any hypothermia or indeed mud.

The Mallorca Live Festival, to be held at the old Aquapark in Magalluf, is about as close as it gets. Two evenings/nights over this weekend and with no camping-out overnight, it may not strictly speaking conform to the criteria for the genuine festival, but let's not quibble too much. There is at least a festival.

One thing that festivals reveal is how enduring groups are. Or how often they re-form and revive. It wasn't a festival, but the lamented Mallorca Rocks Hotel used to do this. New Order, Madness: names almost ancient turned up in Magalluf. This weekend's festival takes us back to the days of Madchester. Although they weren't from Manchester (Tim Burgess was originally from Salford, it might be noted, however), The Charlatans were bracketed with that era. In their current incarnation, they'll be performing material from their new album, Different Days. It has a distinct nod in the direction of Manchester and the Hacienda. The Smiths' Johnny Marr features, as does New Order's Stephen Morris. There again, so also does Paul Weller: Woking was certainly not Manchester.

While The Charlatans and Placebo, who sort of reinvented glam in the 1990s, will have UK indie lovers salivating, the Spanish contingent shouldn't be overlooked. Most notable among the domestic acts, where I'm concerned, is Chambao. If the name means nothing, it may be that you can recall a promotional advert for Andalusian tourism. It was a vibrant and startling video. The music came from Chambao. The song was Ahí Estás Tú, which is arguably what the group is still best known for.

The group has undergone changes over the years. Singer Lamari, who has fought cancer, is the only survivor from the original line-up of a group which did more than perhaps any other to define "flamenco chill". They did so to such an extent that Sony's first Flamenco Chill compilation featured them heavily. The second compilation is the better known. Chambao were on that as well, as also were the Fundación Eivissa, a DJ/producer duo, associated with the club scene as much as with chill. The two teamed up on occasion. The strings remix of Chambao's Verde Mar was and remains an astonishingly powerful crossover of flamenco chill, folk and electronica.

So, Mallorca has its festival. It may not be in the grand tradition, but it is certainly welcomed. One day maybe there will be one, though where it might be held is a question. And also when it might be held. An oddity about this weekend's festival is that one of the two stages is called Stage Mallorca Better in Winter, presumably a promo for the Balearic government's campaign. Winter doesn't quite hack it where a festival is concerned. The other stage, Sol House, does.

Flamenco Chills: Paco de Lucia

A notable music event took place at Palma's Auditorium last night. Paco de Lucia played.

De Lucia is the world's leading virtuoso of the modern or "new" flamenco guitar. Internationally he is one of Spain's best-known musicians. He has broadened the scope of flamenco, crossed over into different styles, fused it with rock and jazz. He has popularised flamenco in a way that no one else has. Which is why he's not to everyone's taste.

Like many forms of music there are the purists and the experimenters. Flamenco, at its purest, both sung and played, is something it is unlikely that visitors to Mallorca would ever encounter. Partly this is because it is not the music of Mallorca, and partly because at its purest it is impenetrable to all but the true aficionado. Without wishing to sound like a Philistine, vocal flamenco can be an appalling wail and caterwaul. There's no doubting the vocal agility required to perform it, but respecting it and liking it are two entirely different things.

Flamenco's origins are debated, but it is principally a music of Andalucia, whence de Lucia comes. In an interview with "Ultima Hora" he described flamenco as being one of five or six "essential genres of music". It is certainly instantly recognisable, the rhythmic hand clapping being one its most obvious aspects. Before de Lucia came along though, it was a minority-interest music in international terms. Fundamentalist flamenco is still very much alive, but its sung variety remains excruciating to a point at which it is too painful to listen to.

When de Lucia teamed up with the likes of John McLaughlin from the jazz world, he did to flamenco what Miles Davis had done to jazz itself by embracing other musical styles or what Dylan did to folk by picking up an electric guitar. He appalled the purists, but he set in motion the popularisation and greater accessibility of the music.

This modern, new flamenco has spawned numerous artists, the names of whom will probably be unfamiliar. While they have retained the essentials of the flamenco "cante", they have taken other influences in making the music melodic in a way that the fundamental form is not. Just one example is José Mercé. Explaining the crossover into other musical areas, he has said that "more than fusion, this period of flamenco is one of the greatest confusion". Typical of his work is "La Vida Sale". The singing can still be hard-going, but the fusion is with an altogether lighter Cuban rumba.

The innovativeness of de Lucia, Mercé and others has made flamenco more widely accepted, but the music has really broken out thanks to a newer movement of flamenco jazz and thanks also to dance and chill-out. The music has moved light years away from its purest form, but the roots remain in the work of Chambao (the ones who did the Andalucian advert song - "Ahí Estás Tú") and the DJs David Ferrero and Pedro del Moral, otherwise known as the Fundación Eivissa. "Doñana" is one of theirs. It starts with a flamenco guitar and adds an electronic suggestion of waves crashing onto rocks and the powerful and poignant vocals of Beatriz Nuñez, backed by a Latin rhythm and interspersed with flamenco "cante". The result is astonishing.

None of this would have been possible without de Lucia. It was his genius that set it in all motion, creating a current-day music of almost impossible vitality, as was the case with the music for the Andalucia advert. And that was what I call promotion.

De Lucia has been a "face" of local tourism promotion. In a way, despite his having a home on the island, he was a strange choice, given that flamenco is not the music of Mallorca. But in its fused form it has become so, as much as it has become an international music. The tourism agency could do far worse than to consider commissioning de Lucia and/or contemporary DJs and producers to compose something as startling and dynamic as the Chambao song.

When they came up with the Rafael Nadal ad, the accompanying music was drippy and wet. It had nothing to do with Mallorca, the Balearics or indeed Spain. Flamenco is anything but wet. It is remarkably powerful, and in its current incarnations its appeal has gone global. De Lucia is correct: it is one of the world's essential musical genres. And it's right here.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.