Tomatito and Michel Camilo are now adults. They have just celebrated 18 years of alliance between the strings of their piano and their guitar since they got together a good day to play together in Barcelona. They have done it with Spain forever, third disc a duet, where they realize a mature, wise and refreshing complicity. “Music without friendship is not business,” says the guitarist.
“We have broken that taboo that affirmed that between the guitar and the piano nothing could come out good,” adds Camilo. True, there was such a reservation. These are two instruments with too much ego. And with dangerous timbral similarities for fusion. But they have been able to sit them down to dialogue in pursuit of one of the most fascinating alliances that have taken place in the hands of jazz and flamenco to date.
By drawing a style of his own, plagued by complicities and sonorities others have managed to make common. “When it started to sound we felt nice, beautiful, natural,” adds the pianist. “We played a good pass to those who denied the convenience of that union.”
Then they added a repertoire. Looking for allies that would not keep them off, with those who could get musically well. Alive or dead. Tomatito tempted the pianist with his idol Astor Piazzolla or his admired Argentine colleague Luis Salinas, Camilo showed that the penetrating minimalist melodies of Erik Satie square from their French elegance in the succulent exoticism of their hands.
The same have done with Ennio Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso – “to certify the cinematographic character we wanted to give the album,” says Camilo, also by Egberto Gismonti, Django Reinhardt or formerly with Joaquín Rodrigo and his Concierto de Aranjuez . And, always, in each delivery, under the watchful eye of Chick Corea: “It was he who brought us together,” confesses the pianist. They do not forget it.
The academic dexterity of the Dominican enters the telluric discipline of the Andalusian with a common spark that both call respect. “I come from flamenco, nobody has taught me to read a score. I prepared the Concert of Aranjuez with a friend who taught me, “confesses Tomatito. Camilo has focused on Latin jazz, but usually goes into the classical repertoire. He even composed a Concerto for piano and orchestra. Two worlds quite disparate.