What I love about Flamenco can be the very thing that turns some people off. There is a beautifully chaotic and aggressive character to certain palos, which can sometimes belie the complexity of the music and unsettle the faint of heart. More than a few of the uninitiated have mistaken the sharp, accented strumming of guitars, the clapping, the shouting, and the stomping as the violent symptoms of a raucous and crude musical style.
What western ears expect from an acoustic guitar led ensemble are typically mellower compositions, even if virtuosic. And so long as the energy and skill are contained within a quasi-intellectual framework, all else is forgiven. But let that energy spill over onto the crowd, challenge their collective pulse to rise and fall with that of the music, and some listeners pull back, nonplussed that listening should be an active form of participation.
La Pantoja de Harlem is the current project of guitarist and composer Albert Alabedra.
The objective is to take what is in essence Flamenco and fuse it with other genres to create a distinct style that is dynamic and broad in scope yet true to its Flamenco roots. At its core the ensemble is made up of Noemi Perez, la Pantoja, on vocals; Ernesto, el Puma de Acoy, on violin; and Albert Alabedra, Mamifero, on guitar. Depending on availability the ranks of La Pantoja de Harlem can swell to include percussionists, dancers, and horns, but it was as a trio that I saw them for the first time at 55 Bar in the West Village on July 25.
I arrived early enough to see them warm-up and take in a little pre-performance banter. Clearly they are as much friends as they are collaborators. Albert is tall and swarthy with long hair, which is pulled back and bundled into dreadlocks. Seated in the middle was Noemi Perez, a tall curvaceous brunette with a contagious smile and eyes that widen when she talks. To her right Ernesto genially sat under a frazzle of curls with his head cocked at 45-degrees to keep his violin in place.
Whether lightly strumming chords, running through scales, or vamping on a melody– at any moment it felt like an arabesque flourish from the guitar or violin could transport us to the south of Spain. Noemi’s vocals were no different. Even singing in English (for a few songs) her voice carried that plaintive tone characteristic of Flamenco singers in their native tongue. At a croon her deep and velvety voice filled the club, hinting at her true vocal power, such that it was easy to forget there were only three musicians performing.
These forceful elements being downplayed many of their songs wouldn’t have seemed out of place at an open-mic night in Williamsburg, except that rarely did the quiet lulls last uninterrupted for very long. The song “Como Agua” (Like Water) is a good example. It starts off slowly with the guitar playing the individual notes of the chords. The vocals come in gently, complementing the music so everything flows like water through a riverbed. But like a river a single bend can take you from calm waters into turbulent ones, which is what Albert accomplishes by introducing minor chords and hammer-ons. Instead of the slow strokes that allowed the notes to ring out, a staccato and sharp finger-picking has created an undulating rhythm, which vibrates menacingly in that you are unsure where the song is now going. In the end it does return the listener to a sober and familiar place, something akin to contemporary Jazz. The listener is never made to feel uncomfortable for having been taken on an unexpected detour or relieved that it is over.
La Pantoja de Harlem are adepts at their craft, which is more than mere proficiency with their instruments or performing together. To expose an audience to unfamiliar sensations by using familiar ones with any success is to walk a fine line. But there is nothing underhanded about what they do. Their music isn’t a Trojan horse with which to trick an audience into listening to something they wouldn’t have listened to otherwise. A genuine appreciation of all kinds of music underlies their approach. But passion underlies their appreciation and is inseparable from their assimilation of other styles.
After the show I had the pleasure of sitting with the band to discuss this further.
FIG: As the composer, how do you go about recruiting musicians to work with?
Albert Alabedra: I met Noemi a long time ago, a few months after I first moved to New York. Basically the project is Noemi and I, and then we add different musicians. We’ve been playing with Ernesto for a year and half, so he is also one of the main musicians. Usually we have dancers. Everyone else is always different. They are not permanent parts of the project. We can hire a drummer, a bass player, or a sax.
FIG: What if any is your formal musical training?
Albert Alabedra: I studied Classical guitar when I was young. I also studied a little bit of Jazz, then played rock. I’ve played a lot of different styles, and at the end I studied Flamenco.
Noemi Perez: I studied Classical music: Opera. So all of my studies were about opera.
FIG: How do you go from Opera to Flamenco?
Noemi Perez: Because I am from the South of Spain, the roots are always there. I moved to New York because of Jazz music, and I was taking lessons at the Brooklyn Conservatory. My main thing was to come to New York to learn all this amazing music. So after I met Alberto…I’d never in my life seriously attempted singing Flamenco style. But little by little I got deeper into the music because those are my roots. Now I’m more comfortable doing this…especially the Flamenco fusion.
Ernesto: I did classical music in Barcelona. Then I moved to Boston. At Berkeley I did a degree in Jazz music. Then I moved to New York to study. Even though my main focus was Classical, I was always open to different kinds of music. And of course Flamenco, being Spanish.
FIG: Do you think that the interest in Flamenco was a way of keeping in touch with your roots now that you’re away from Spain.
Albert Alabedra: Yeah. We are all from Spain, including the dancers. It is a way for us to feel tied to our roots even though we mix it with American music. We do a fusion style. But of course the roots are always there. It is very obvious.
FIG : How would you describe your style?
Alberto Alabedra: Flamenco Fusion with touches of Jazz, parts of world music. I was already doing fusion in Spain. I was already mixing Flamenco. The thing that I’m doing here differently is that I’m mixing Flamenco with American styles to make it easier for the audience. It’s true that if you look at New York there is only one place for pure Flamenco La Nacional and basically Spaniards go there. I feel like they need something….
Naomi Perez: …maybe not super straight into the deep of Flamenco because after two or three tunes the audience can get bored or lost because it is really passionate and not easy to connect to for everybody.
FIG: Do you prefer a smaller or a larger set up?
Albert Alabedra: For me my favorite would be this trio plus the dancer. It’s nice with a lot of musicians, but it’s also really complicated to mix the sound to make it sound really good. There are always problems. But with the three of us, it sounds powerful. Noemi is singing but she does a lot of percussions so we don’t really need a percussionists.
FIG: I’ve heard a version of your music with a different singer. When you compose do you compose with a specific voice in mind?
Albert Alabedra: Now I’m composing with Naomi in mind because I know how she sings.
FIG: (to Noemi Perez) How do you approach singing songs that weren’t written specifically for you?
Noemi Perez: I just sing and try to feel the music. I don’t think about it like I should use more power here or less. I can only be me. Being a trio is fantastic but I also sometimes miss the band because I miss the bass and the dancers. It brings more to the audience.
FIG: What is the goal for the band?
Albert Alabedra: To play more and more. To play new places, do a tour. We haven’t toured together yet.
Noemi Perez: We want to go to Asia and South America. I think we can do it. Why not?
Albert Alabedra: The repertoire is already done. With this repertoire we can go anywhere.
FIG: How many of the songs in the set list are covers? How many are originals?
Albert Alabedra: I’d say half and half. Basically we do the covers “Killing Me Softlly” and “She Works Hard for the Money” and “My Way” because they are popular songs. You see people’s faces and they go crazy.
La Pantoja de Harlem are regulars at 55 Bar in the West Village playing every other Saturday. Check them out some time.
