The circle of life

(Photo by Antonio Ojeda Guerrero a.k.a. Antonio III. of Antonio IV. and Antonio V. in June 2017 in La Jara, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain)

As children we listen to the music our parents listen to; only after a certain age we choose for ourselves. To give you an idea about my musical upbringing, meaning what my parents listened to when I was little, we listened to for instance ABBA, Queen, Elton John from the internationals music palette and to LGT, Koncz Zsuzsa and Zorán from the Hungarian. Despite being a scientist, my father has a sensitive soul and has always enjoyed playing and listening to music, not to mention his talent in singing. Even today he sings in a choir in my home town Szombathely, having concerts on local events on both sides of the Austro-Hungarian border.

He has always been a big fan of Zorán, a Hungarian singer and composer with Serbian origin. Zorán and his brother Dusán have formed an outstanding artistic couple for decades: Dusán writing the lyrics for the songs written and performed by Zorán. I must have listened to thousands of their songs as a child, among them to “Volt egy tánc”. Even though I didn’t quite understand what Zorán sang about until I was older, I have totally been mesmerised by the music.

The music. I was in my twenties, when I first listened to Leonard Cohen’s Take this waltz and god, was it a big shock! I told my friends: “I know this song, this is from Zorán, a Hungarian singer.” They laughed and lightened me up that the original is from Cohen, and “the Hungarian guy must have created his own version.”. Really??? Oh wow, that is possible, of course, but what a discovery after having thought throughout my entire lifetime it was Zorán’s song…

The other shock came when I found out that the lyrics of Cohen’s Take this waltz are from  Federico García Lorca’s “A Poet in New York”. It was part of Cohen’s tribute to Lorca (as Lorca was one of his favourite poets) and the song was released as a single, then also included in his album “I’m your man” later on.

But versions do exist, and recently, I found another one. The ONE, I should say. The flamenco version: “Pequeño vals vienés” What would be the world like without a flamenco version, right? And who else could have done it, than the one and only Enrique Morente. I have recently written about him in another post, explaining and praising his art, talent and curiosity. Always interested in new stuff, always wanting to create something different, but with the foundations of flamenco, that he knows so well and is so good at! So here is his version. This song forms part of his album “Omega” with alternative rock group Lagartija Nick, and it is considered one of the most controversial works of Enrique’s career. It counts with the participation of many flamencos, such as Tomatito, Vicente Amigo or Miguel Ángel Cortés, whereby “flamenco and punk rock are mingled with the recreation of Cohen’s song and lyrics from Federico García Lorca’s book “A Poet in New York”. Surprise, surprise. So basically the singer from Granada brought the song back to where it was originally from, where Lorca was from: Granada! What a genius, Enrique Morente.

In the Spanish documentary “Omega” (link to the full version on Youtube) Leonard Cohen shares, how he loved that Enrique made a version of his song. I wonder if he said the same about Zorán’s version. Did he know about it at all?! I can only hope he did…

This is how the circle closes: Zorán – Leonard Cohen – Enrique Morente. The circle of MY life. Starting with me in Hungary, travelling through the international music scene, getting to Spain and to flamenco, and hence back to me again. Olé!