Manuel Vallejo
Who is Manuel Vallejo?
Manuel Jiménez Martínez de Pinillo, known artistically as Manuel Vallejo, was born on 15 October 1891 in Seville, at number 10 Calle Padilla, in the heart of the San Marcos neighborhood. His stage name comes from his second paternal surname. He began in cante at a very young age, performing under the aliases “Vallejillo” at fifteen and “El Colorao II” at his 1910 debut at the Puesto del Agua in the Alameda de Hércules, one of the liveliest flamenco spots in Seville at the time.
His first professional performances took place at the Kiosko de Pinto in the Alameda, and by 1919 he was taking part in a tribute to El Portugués at the Salón Variedades in Seville, another step in establishing his name among the city’s aficionados.
Career
He made his debut alongside Niño de las Marianas and over the course of his career surrounded himself with reference guitarists such as Niño Ricardo, Antonio Moreno, Manolo el de Huelva and Niño Pérez. He performed at the Eden Concert in Madrid, at the Café Ideal Concert in Seville in September 1922 and at the Teatro Lara in Málaga barely a month later, maintaining a steady presence on the stages of Barcelona until 1926. In 1928 he toured alongside Antonio Chacón, Niña de los Peines and José Cepero, and the following year with the dancer Carmen Amaya; in 1930 he starred in the Barcelona production “Nobleza Gitana” alongside El Sevillanito.
Recognition from his elders came at the height of his artistic maturity: on 24 August 1925 he won the Copa Pavón at the Teatro Pavón in Madrid, besting competitors such as Pepe Marchena and Angelillo before a jury chaired by Antonio Chacón. A little over a year later, on 5 October 1926, Manuel Torre bestowed on him the second Llave de Oro del Cante in history, a distinction that had previously been received only by Tomás El Nitri in 1862 and would later fall to Antonio Mairena in 1962. During the 1920s and 1930s he toured his art through Spain and Morocco, and continued performing in Seville well into the 1950s, with a notable last appearance at a theatrical tribute to Luisa Ortega.
Palos and discography
He is considered one of the most complete cantaores of his generation for his mastery of fandangos, tangos, pregón, bulerías, soleá, media granadina and seguiriyas, and was also a notable dancer of bulerías. His first records were made in Barcelona around 1925, and in 1959 he recorded fandangos, tangos, pregón and bulerías for La Voz de su Amo, accompanied by Antonio Moreno, Niño Ricardo, Manolo el de Huelva and Niño Pérez, rounding out an extensive discography built over several decades.
Legacy
He spent the last years of his life in financial hardship, running a fish shop on Calle Hombre de Piedra in Seville and frequenting the bar Las Maravillas. He died in his native city on 7 August 1960, at the age of sixty-eight, from an embolism, and was buried in the San Fernando cemetery. In 1982 a commemorative plaque was placed on his birth house at the initiative of Antonio Mairena and Manuel Centeno, and in 1991 the latter organized the events marking his centenary at the Peña Torres Macarena. Despite having been regarded in his day as the “foremost figure of flamenco cante” in Madrid, his name was relatively overshadowed by a postwar flamenco historiography centered on Roma aesthetics, until more recent studies restored him to the place he deserves as a foundational figure.