Enrique Orozco
Who is Enrique Orozco?
Enrique Orozco Fajardo was born on March 12, 1912 in Olvera, a town in the Cádiz mountains, and from a young age developed a passion for cante that would lead him to a long career devoted almost exclusively to the mining and Málaga-rooted styles of flamenco.
Career
He made his professional debut in 1934 at the Kursaal Olimpia, and from there kept adding recognitions at the leading cante competitions: he won second prize for fandangos at the National Cante Competition at Madrid’s Circo Price, and years later took first prize at the National Cante de las Minas Festival in La Unión in 1962, plus the cartageneras prize in 1964. He toured Spain alongside Manuel Vallejo and collaborated with Pepe Marchena on the show “Alarde flamenco,” also in 1964. His reach extended abroad with performances at Parisian tablaos — among them La Puerta del Sol and El Catalán — as well as at the Théâtre des Nations and the Sorbonne in 1955. Already in full artistic maturity, he performed at the First Flamenco Summit at Madrid’s Teatro Alcalá Palace in 1982 and took part in the 1986 Seville Flamenco Biennale.
Palos and discography
His cante centred mainly on malagueñas, granaínas, tarantas, cartageneras and fandangos, styles he stamped with a very personal interpretation and for which he was especially recognised at mining and Levante cante competitions. He left a discography that began in 1935 and which, according to specialists, retains notable interest as a record of how these palos evolved over more than half a century of career.
Legacy
In 1987 he received the National Mastery Prize from the Jerez Chair of Flamencology, one of the most prestigious honours in the flamenco world, crowning a career devoted entirely to cante. Enrique Orozco died in Seville on May 30, 2004, at the age of ninety-two, and his remains rest in the San Fernando cemetery in that same city.