Dancing with the warm winds
From the mix of American, African and Hispanic cultures some of the richest rhythms were born and they arrive to the current days with an incredible force. Spanish songwriter and singer Juan Perro aka Santiago Auserón is one of the major figures exploring the tradition of that wonderful cross of cultures and now it’s the time for sarabande, a dance with an uncertain origin that arrived to Spain from America and since then became very popular across Europe. The first written notice is from 1539, from Panama, when the name zarabanda appeared in a poem written by Fernando Guzmán Mexía, but some theories put its origin in a dance born in Andalusia in its Muslim period as a derivate of an African dance with a deep Gipsy, Jewish and Moorish influence.
Santiago Auserón started his musical career in the early eighties as a former member of Radio Futura, one of the front bands in the cultural movement then called La Movida Madrileña. In 1980 Radio Futura released their first album Música moderna (1980, Hispavox) and the only one with Herminio Molero as the lead composer and creator of the band’s name. But the initial quintet became a quartet with Santiago Auserón, Luis Auserón, Solrac Vázquez and Enrique Sierra, due to creative disagreements, in fact, the final Radio Futura never have considered that first album as a part of the Radio Futura’s discography. In 1982 they released the single La estatua del jardín botánico, a major classic, and their first album La ley del desierto/La ley del mar (1984, Ariola).
But Radio Futura arrived to the end in 1991 as a trio with the album Tierra para bailar (1991, Ariola) and since then Santiago Auserón decided to be known as Juan Perro, taken the name from one of the albums of Radio Futura, La canción de Juan Perro (1987, Ariola). He has been exploring the Cuban music, rediscovering the figure of Compay Segundo before Ray Cooder filmed by Wim Wenders achieved to recompose the old Buenavista Social Club. But he has also worked the Brazilian music as a great admirer of Caetano Veloso, and the old Hispanic songs from the Moorish, the Gipsy and the Jewish traditions.
Now it’s time for a new project with Juan Perro & Zarabanda presented live including music and dance. Working on the music direction with Joan Vinyals and a choreography created by Kata Kanona, the experience of crossing cultures and times will guarantee a splendid time for all.
Photo by Miguel Ángel Barahona.© 2012 Miguel Ángel Barahona
Courtesy of Festival Grec de Barcelona
All rights reserved