Julio Jiménez Borja 'El Chaboli'
Who is El Chaboli?
Julio Jiménez Borja, known in the flamenco and nuevo flamenco world as “El Chaboli”, is a percussionist, composer and music producer. He is the son of Juan Antonio Jiménez Muñoz, “Jeros”, linked to the group Los Chichos, which places his family background within a Roma musical tradition rooted in flamenco and rumba from the 1970s and 80s.
His career has mostly developed away from the spotlight, as a backing musician and producer — a common but low-visibility profile within the flamenco and nuevo flamenco industry.
Musical career
El Chaboli was a percussionist with Ketama, one of the foundational groups of the “nuevo flamenco” movement that emerged in the 1980s, blending flamenco compás with rumba, blues and Latin music and paving the way for a whole later generation of artists in the genre.
Over time, his work shifted towards production and composition, most notably as a regular co-producer, composer and percussionist on Niña Pastori’s records, with whom he has maintained a professional and personal relationship for over two decades. That joint work makes him one of the least visible but most constant hands behind Niña Pastori’s consolidation as one of the leading voices of nuevo flamenco.
Relationship with Niña Pastori
El Chaboli and Niña Pastori met in 1998 and married in December 2002 in Cádiz. Beyond the personal relationship, their musical collaboration — him as producer/composer, her as the voice — is a good example of how, in flamenco, music and personal life often intertwine within the same families and artistic circles, a pattern repeated in other sagas of the genre.