Pericón De Cádiz

Juan Martínez Vílchez, known as Pericón de Cádiz (Cádiz, 20 September 1901 - Cádiz, 1980), was a flamenco singer who was able to recover different ''palos'' (forms) and old ''cantes''. He has left valuable recordings; his repertoire was extensive and is considered one of the last masters of singing in his land. He belonged to a select group of singers who raised the ''cantes'' of Cádiz to the highest level and allowed the recovery of the artistic and anthropological value of Flamenco.

Biography

He was born in the Plaza del Mentidero, at Calle Vea Murgía 5,Fernando Quiñone
"Las mil y una historias de Pericón de Cádiz"
prólogo al libro de José Luis Ortiz Nuevo. Instituto Andaluz de Flamenco. Junta de Andalucía in the city of Cádiz, the son of the couple formed by Adolfo and María, who were not gypsies and who had seven children.  From a humble family, he barely went to school for three or four years and soon began to work as a street vendor selling sweets and candies, and as a small singer on the horse-drawn carriages that travelled around the city.

His first performance was at the Olimpia in Seville. He took part in the shows of the Flamenco Opera, Pepe Marchena's company, and toured many provincial capitals, ending up in the Cadiz bullring, where he had great success.

In 1936 he competed in the Circo Price competition in Madrid organised by the businessman Alberto Montserrat, winning first prize for ''seguiriyas'' and ''soleares'', and was awarded 1,000 pesetas.

At the end of the war he took part in the show "Las calles de Cádiz" by Concha Piquer's company with the Niña de los Peines, Pepe Pinto, Niño Ricardo and other greats of the time. With this company he travelled all over Spain. In 1948, Pericón won a new prize in the competition held at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, and from 1952 onwards he stayed in Madrid for a long time, living the nightlife of the " tablaos" with young men and aristocrats. For thirteen years he sang in the Zambra tablao, travelling with his group to various European capitals. From the 1960s onwards he was involved in the process of dignifying and giving prestige to flamenco by intellectuals and artists.

"If you do not know the measure of the songs and their compass  

bad future you will have as a singer": said Pericón.

He even recorded several albums and some television programmes. Two programmes were devoted to Juan Martinez Vilches: "Rito y Geografía del Cante" (1974) and "Flamenco" (1976) directed by the poet and writer Fernando Quiñones. Both were broadcast on the Second Channel of Spanish Television. The songs he performed in both were: ''bulerías'', '' soleares, tanguillos, alegrías, tangos'' and '' malagueñas chicas''. He was accompanied by Felix de Utrera on the guitar and among the palmeros there was one of luxury: Curro La Gamba, husband of La Perla de Cádiz.

As for the recordings, he started recording late. His first recordings on slate discs date from the beginning of the 1940s and were made by the record companies Odeón and Columbia: ''seguidillas'', two variants of ''malagueñas, cantiñas,'' two styles of ''alegrías'', various styles of ''bulerías'', including one with ''fandango'', ''fandangos'' and ''guajiras''; accompanied in playing by Niño Ricardo and Melchor de Marchena. He participated with almost 70 years in the historical anthology of the Hispavox firm of the sixties, directed by Rafael Pastor. In this Anthology, accompanied by the guitar of Félix Utrera, Pericón showed ''cantes'' that were forgotten or that had a singer's own stamp: ''seguiriyas'' by Enrique Ortega (Caracol's great-grandfather), ''soleares'' by Morsilla (son of the Mellizo), ''bulerías'' by Antonio Herrero (a ''cantaor'' from his youth who later excelled as a ''tocaor''), ''cantes'' by Enrique Butrón (a ''cantaor'' who never became professional and created the ''alegrías'' style "Cantiñas de Romero El Tito", ''guajiras'' por ''bulerías'' from Espeleta, ''tanguillos, villancicos'', the two ''malagueñas'' from El Mellizo, the ''granaína'', the ''malagueña doble'' and ''mirabrás'' (in which Andrés Heredia played the guitar). He also took part in the Anthology of the Vergara house with five songs: ''soleares, alegrías, tangos'', the ''malagueña'' by El Mellizo and the short and long ''petenera''.

Among the flamencologists who have studied his work well are José Blas Vega and José Luis Ortíz Nuevo.

The Cádiz poet Fernando Quiñones knew him well, as he was a patient of his father, a doctor in La Viña neighbourhood. As his father liked opera, once called him Pericón:

"Don Manué, don´t think there is so much difference between Opera and Flamenco. What happens is that in Opera, you go up, and in Flamenco, you go down".

According to Quiñones "With these words, Pericón alluded to a concept about the placement of the voice, to its high and low registers, but also to certain perceptions about the natural status of both genres: the social splendour, the wealthy environment, the high life of the Opera, and the humble universe, popular, low, typical of the gypsy-Andalusian folk arts, always with one hand behind and the other in front, but even more so in those years of general and exacerbated famine".

Awards

* Circus Price (1936)
* Monumental Theatre of Madrid (1948)
* Chair of Flamencology in Jerez for his master's degree (1976).

Bibliography

ORTIZ NUEVO, José Luis: ''Las mil y una historias de Pericón de Cádiz (''The Thousand and One Stories of Pericón de Cádiz) Barataria Publishing House. Seville, 2008.

{{Authority control

Flamenco musicians
1901 births
1980 deaths