El Tenazas de Morón
Who is El Tenazas de Morón?
Diego Bermúdez Cala, known as El Tenazas de Morón, was born in 1850 in Morón de la Frontera (Seville), into a family of farmers. He did not leave farm work behind until he was twenty-five, when he began singing at informal gatherings among those closest to him — a late and modest start that contrasts with the prominence he would go on to achieve.
Career
He is directly linked to the school of Silverio Franconetti and Paquirri el Guante, whose heir he is considered to be, both through the personal relationship he maintained with them and through his way of understanding the oldest, most primitive cantes. He sang before Spanish royalty, before the infantes don Carlos and doña María Luisa, and performed at the Teatro Pavón in Madrid accompanied by guitarist Javier Molina. The central milestone of his career came in 1922, when at seventy-two he won first prize at the celebrated Concurso de Cante Jondo in Granada, a contest presided over by intellectuals of the stature of Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca. After that triumph, already in old age, he toured Andalusia, a late but intense return to the stage.
Palos and discography
He was considered one of the great connoisseurs of the oldest and most primitive cantes, with the caña, the seguiriya, and the soleá as his signature styles. Because of his advanced age he left few recordings, but those that survive are enough to convey the echo of Franconetti’s school and the weight of a tradition he himself helped keep alive.
Legacy
His figure influenced intellectuals such as Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca, who saw in him the living memory of an almost vanished, primitive flamenco, which contributed to his symbolic role in the revival of cante jondo driven by the 1922 Granada competition. He died in 1933 in Puente Genil (Córdoba), a town that paid tribute to him in 2008 on the 75th anniversary of his death.