Last week he was in France and next week he will have a small tour of Brazil. Jorge Pardo, 66, is one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. His flute and sax can be heard on albums by Camarón, Paco de Lucía, Chick Corea, Pata Negra or Ray Heredia. He is one of the figures who best understood the mix between flamenco and jazz, not only collaborating with other musicians, but also signing some of his most iconic works.. In addition, he is from Madrid, born in Manuel Becerra, in the nearby Eva Perón park, he practiced with his first saxophone, back in the sixties..

When time allows, it is not difficult to see him in one of the rooms in the capital.. At the end of the month, on November 29, he will play at the Galileo Galilei with the Brazilian Guinga, in a very special concert. “Guinga's music is high-voltage music. It also belongs in some way to an important collective, generational and local heritage.. So, in some way, it has always been present,” he admits of this live show: “I'm very curious to see what comes out. And let's say it's also going to bring me closer to my Brazilian tour. So it will be a whole series of very nice coincidences.”

In fact, he recognizes that his sound has always been very close to Brazilian music. “I also lived in Brazil for a while. And I had my references, when I was very young, like Hermeto Pascual.” Pardo considers himself a modern-day musician, “in the purest sense of the word.” He likes to live in today's time. “And that's what motivates me. What I like most now is listening to new people, both flamenco guitarists, there are a lot of them, and the new generation, and with whom I understand myself better than with those of my time, or my youth”, confesses this National Prize for Current Music, awarded in 2015. “And, of course, with the legion of flutists or other instruments that are dedicated to flamenco, I love that situation”.

Madrid, the cradle of everything

When Pardo began to integrate his instrument with that of other musicians, he focused on flamenco. And he did it in his city. “Madrid has always been a reference city. It's not going to hurt my mouth to say that world. In the sense of flamenco, but understood flamenco as immersed in a global culture or connected with other cultures and urban tribes,” he reflects.. “I believe that I am, in fact, in some way, some sociologist could say that I am a child of that”. Jorge Pardo as a reference of jazz and flamenco, both understood as brothers who relate and mix with other music.

“In Madrid I have known Brazilian music, I have known Caribbean music, I have known flamenco, I have known jazz, I have known Bach, practically without leaving Madrid,” he continues.. “Then I traveled and got to know, of course, but practically without leaving Madrid I got to know all of that”. It was that Madrid that allowed him to make differences with other musicians, also to adopt his own personality, hand in hand with other musicians.. Finding his way in the Madrid nights of the eighties and nineties.

Morente, Camarón, El Bola

Pardo goes out into the street, goes to the bars, to other musicians' houses and begins to contaminate his songs and his albums with that mixture of flamenco so typical.. “Music has always fascinated me.. I have always wanted to know more and more. And with flamenco it was like that. It's one thing to be in the environment and let yourself go and soak it through your skin.. But then another is to choose and say let's see how to make a real malagueña or let's see how to make a taranto or let's see how to say a fandango and I have been one of those.”.

Jorge Pardo's life has always been linked to that of great musicians, figures who in some way have also made his way of playing and recording follow the paths that he has ended up traveling.. “It's always difficult to say names, suddenly a nebula comes to mind”, think about them. “You always get the loudest ones for everyone, yes Morente, yes Camarón, yes Paco, yes such, yes this other, but in reality there have been many important people”.

And that is where names appear such as Gerardo Núñez, Agustin Carbonell, better known as El Bola, José Antonio Galicia, El Gali, Juan Manuel Cáñizares, Montoyita, Juan Diego de Jerez. “I have always been an easy boy and I have been generous, let's say, in terms of collaborating with others,” he says.. Some of his most significant albums, A mi aire (1987), Las cicadas son casi sordas (1991), Veloz (1993), 2332 (1997), were recorded in the legendary Nuevos Medios of Mario Pacheco and Cucha Salazar.. Record that, despite being more than thirty years old, still sounds great. “At the time, yes, they were greeted by the very fans, but then they were rejected by the programmers,” he recalls..

At full capacity

And yet, Pardo continues non-stop, touring like few artists of his generation, maintaining a very clear connection with younger musicians.. Adapting to the new times, doing a lot of live shows and recording as much as possible, when time allows.. “I am at a time in my life when I have accomplished many things and, let's say, I am a free person.”. I always have been, but more and more. And in reality I do what I want,” he points out about this vital time, where he has also indulged in whims, such as being the protagonist of an interesting documentary, Trance, which accompanies him throughout the entire planet..

“In that, what I feel like, is playing, which is what I like most in this world.”. Apart from seeing my people happy and well, well, if you catch me at a concert, you catch me playing and meeting new people and with new music, new influences, new challenges to meet and earning a little money to pay my bills.”. And it ends with: “That is my paradise. So I'm going to continue with that until I have to leave this world.”. In addition to his concerts with unusual musicians, it is not difficult to find him on tour with his inseparable Melón and Bandolero.

“We are always investigating with our flamenco styles. That is one of my fantastic references, wherever we go, to France, through Europe, wherever we go, what we do is recognizable,” he explains.. And playing with Arab musicians, another of his weaknesses: “I love all those openings to partly unknown but familiar music.”.