The meaning of nostalgia can be this phrase: "How difficult to have to leave you without feeling that you no longer love me." Lyrics by José Alfredo Jiménez that has accompanied thousands of laments, evenings watered by rivers of alcohol, heart pains. Over and over again sung by many artists —perhaps the most famous version is that of the sparkling voice of Chavela Vargas? -, In the last drink is a song that refuses to die. And this week he revives again, thanks to the enthusiasm, talent and —as he himself says— impudence of the singer-songwriter and former member of the duo Sin Bandera Leonel García (Mexico City, 45 years old), who presents Amor Pasado, the end of a musical trilogy, album dedicated to traditional Mexican music. García reinterprets that tradition and gives it a personal touch, without so much mariachi and stridency, inspired more by the soft rhythms of bossa nova or jazz. The album includes Mala , an unpublished song by Jiménez, which García has set to music. He knows the risk he runs in a country where Jiménez is idolized. Still, he runs it. And accompanied by artists such as the Mexican Natalia Lafourcade and Melissa Robles, the French-Dominican Cyrille Aimée, the Spanish Maria Toledo and the Greek Elleni Arpogiou, he presents a work that brings together songs by great composers and tries to give new breath to that tradition that elevates poetic spite, heartbreak, romantic betrayal. It will have to be accompanied with a mezcal. Or a tequila, for the more traditional.
Question: "I want to see what your forgetfulness tastes like ..." It is a very hard and very beautiful phrase. Why did you decide to launch this project starting with this song?
Answer: It is a very beautiful song, one of the most representative of José Alfredo, one of the ones we sing the most at parties when there are drunkenness. When they asked me what the first song of this project could be, it seemed to me that it was this, because it is a theme that deeply represents the rest of the album.
Q: Any relation to past love sorrows?
R. We all had love sorrows with the songs of José Alfredo. He is the anthem of spite and heartbreak, that is why he is so beautiful, because much of the Mexican culture comes from this relationship, it is part of this spite so short veins, as were the songs of José Alfredo, torn and deeply sad. However, the intention on this album was to lower the revolution to the songs a little bit, removing the mariachi element a bit, so that the interpretation could be done in a softer way and that it could take on a different meaning, it could be listened to without bleed so much.
Q. I ask because we are in a difficult situation, the pandemic, the confinement, which gives rise to nostalgia. Does that happen to you? Are you nostalgic?
A. Yes, I am nostalgic. Many things evoke moments of the past in me and I easily connect with emotions that I had before and transport me to another moment. These songs particularly remind me of two moments in my life: when I was a child and went with my parents to parties and these were the songs that they sang with their guitars, their voices. It was a lot used in meetings, more than now, to do the famous bohemia and pass the guitar to each other. I am very nostalgic for those moments when I did not sleep to listen to them at parties. I think that everything was less pasteurized than now, the children did stay up more with their parents, they did take us to adult parties, where we could be a little closer to what was happening and there was not so much paranoia of what we heard or we saw and that we were going to become thugs for it. The other time I remember is that of my adolescence, when I sang these songs in meetings with my friends, which curiously appeared among songs by Montaner, Shakira or Radio Head. And when one of José Alfredo Jiménez appeared, it was always one of the most intense moments of those meetings.
P. Music by artists like José Alfredo Jiménez are ideal for these times of confinement.
R. (Laughs) Yes, for some days, when you want to get more bohemian, intense, have a mezcalito, a tequilita with a friend, talk. I like this album because it is an album that can be used much more for a meeting, a conversation, than what would be a normal album of regional Mexican music, which has mariachi and it is not so easy to put it in the background, because it takes up a lot of space . I would equate this record with [Antônio Carlos] Jobim, João Gilberto, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald or flamenco, because you can put it on to listen to it on your headphones, but also behind it to talk to someone, because it's not so invasive.
P. The album has an unpublished song by Jiménez. What surprise do you have? Is it a song of love, heartbreak, deception?
P. Normally the central theme of José Alfredo was disappointment, the fact of having failed in the expectations that were had and this song is no exception. We call it Bad and it talks about a person who did not know how to respond to the kindness of someone who gave him his love selflessly. The other person was bad, abusive of that goodness. I liked the text because it was very well written, very finished and it was very easy to make the music. I did it with great respect, with great care, with great admiration for José Alfredo.
Q. How did it get into your hands?
R. I was talking with my editor at Universal and I was telling her, more than two years ago, that I was going to make this album and I told her that the central artist I wanted to use as a hub was José Alfredo. And she told me that they had the José Alfredo catalog, unpublished works, but that they didn't have music. I said: how wonderful! I immediately told him that I was interested and to send me what he thought might be useful. I send myself five or six texts. I've been reading them and trying to be objective about which one could be better and more accessible to achieve something beautiful. It is a treasure that they put in your hands, as when in old libraries they lend you a book that usually they do not let you touch. They are treasures of the music of Mexico.
Q. How was the work of composing the arrangements of an unpublished song by a singer-songwriter as great as Jiménez?
R. It is an immense challenge, because you know the weight it has and that people know it. You know the risk you are going to take if people don't like it or it doesn't seem right. It was arming himself with courage and audacity. I did the melodic and harmonic structure first and then who did all the arrangements was [producer and guitarist] Pavel Cal along with me. What he said was: we are going to make arrangements that do not belong to your time or his, that does not resemble what he has done or that sounds too modern. We were revolutionary in a way. It is Mexican music, but with this sound still half a waltz, very fine, very soft, very far from what mariachi is and closer to what a song from the beginning of the last century could be. I think it is a song that is enjoyed for this subtlety with which it was arranged. There are only four instruments: a trumpet, a double bass, a guitar and a violin. It's like deconstructing mariachi a bit, extracting certain elements from mariachi music and mixing them with others from classical music, jazz, bossa nova and generating something different from what we are normally used to hearing.
Q. You have mentioned mariachi several times, is there something against mariachi?
A. Yes. I tell you like laughing, not from the depths, because obviously as a Mexican mariachi represents you, it is a beautiful, fun thing that gives you a lot of joy, a lot of life, but as a singer I don't like to sing with mariachi, It seems to me that it is an ensemble that requires the singer to overexert himself, to always be using his maximum oral potential to be able to stand out from all the instruments that make up the mariachi, which are many. I have nothing against mariachi, but as a singer it is not my predilection.
Q. Can this work be taken as a reinterpretation of traditional Mexican music?
A. Yes, definitely. Each person through what they have lived can reinterpret their traditions. Just as a fashion designer could use elements of the Mexican to do something different, or a chef can deconstruct mole enchiladas and make a completely different dish that tastes similar to that, musicians also have to use our life experience to reinterpret where we come from and how we sound. I think that also helps new generations and other artists dare to do it.
Q. We will have to enjoy this album with a mezcal, right?
A. (Laughter) It would be ideal. Mezcalito, tequilita, maybe a good friend or your partner, are like the ideal combination to listen to this album, which is very careful, which is very much enjoyed.