Quotes of the Day

They hardly seem like the ingredients of a smash-hit record: an 85-year-old Cuban living in Stockholm, a 35-year-old Madrid Roma named after a seafood, and a Spaniard who makes great films but does not sing. Nevertheless, with a little help from their friends, pianist Bebo Valdés, flamenco singer Diego El Cigala and filmmaker Fernando Trueba have a megasuccess on their hands. Their record Lágrimas Negras (Black Tears) has gone double platinum in Spain, and looks set to go plutonium when it is released in the rest of the world in coming months.

"It has sold about 240,000 copies here, it has won five Amigos [the Spanish equivalent of the Grammys] and a New York Times critic said it was the best record of 2003, even though it's not officially released [in the U.S.] yet," says El Cigala in his husky voice. His real name is Ramòn Jiménez Salazar, but like many gitanos his nickname refers to a food — a cigala is like a small crayfish. He joked recently that Lágrimas Negras has been such a hit that he should change up to Diego El Bogavante (lobster).

Trueba, who won an Oscar for his 1992 film Belle Epoque, was the mutual friend who introduced El Cigala and Valdés, and helped producer Javier Limòn put together the album. The nine songs were recorded in studios in Madrid, New York City and Miami, often in hurried encounters between the two touring musicians. Valdés, a legendary figure in Cuban music, arranged the songs, some of which date to the 1930s. Their blend of limpid piano and smokey voice is so seamless there is no sense of accompaniment, just unison. To call it fusion would be to incur El Cigala's wrath: he finds that label "ridiculous." "What we try to make is sonido del alma [sounds of the soul]," he says.
The flamenco star speaks of Valdés with near reverence; he calls him maestro. The honorific title is thoroughly deserved. Valdés, a tall, lean man, always elegantly dressed, has a suppleness of hands and mind that defy his birth certificate.

Keenly aware of the importance of their collaboration, Trueba kept a diary of the making of Lágrimas Negras. In it he describes a concert Valdés gave in the Gusman Center in Miami, with El Cigala as a guest: "The place was full, most of them Cubans. He began with Vete de Mi [Go Away, which is on the album] and brought the house down. The next day, the historian of Cuban music, Cristòbal Díaz Ayala, told me, 'I've never seen such a case of love at first sight.' And the American press ... described El Cigala as 'the Sinatra of flamenco.' Not bad."

Like Sinatra, El Cigala has had a tempestuous life away from the stage and studio. Last year he was thrown off a flight from Madrid to Tenerife, where he was to give a concert, after a dispute with the crew. He says the row began because a stewardess couldn't accept that he, a Roma, had a business-class ticket. "It was a case of racism. It still exists in Spain," he says. "It's over now. I'd rather talk about music." He and Valdés are already talking about their next record, which will include songs by Duke Ellington. "But that won't be for a while," says El Cigala. "Lágrimas Negras still has a long life to live." During which time, the Sweden-based Cuban, the crustaceous gypsy and their payo (nongitano) film friend will no doubt continue shedding lágrimas all the way to the bank.

• ROD USHER
• Flamenco star Diego El Cigala scores a hit with a little help from his friends