Pepe Habichuela
Who is Pepe Habichuela?
José Antonio Carmona Carmona, known as Pepe Habichuela, was born in 1944 in Granada and grew up in the caves of the Sacromonte, cradle of one of flamenco’s most influential guitar dynasties, the Habichuela-Carmona family. He is the younger brother of Juan Habichuela, who called him to Madrid in 1963 to launch a professional career together, and the father of José Miguel Carmona, guitarist of the group Ketama.
Career
His training was organic, forged since childhood in the flamenco atmosphere of the Sacromonte rather than in an academy, and his first professional steps came accompanying Pepe Marchena and Juanito Valderrama, before debuting in 1964 at the Madrid tablao Torres Bermejas. In the seventies he began a close and decisive collaboration with the singer Enrique Morente, with whom he recorded two albums that opened new harmonic paths within flamenco, “Despegando” and “Homenaje a D. Antonio Chacón”.
He also worked alongside Mario Maya, El Güito and Carmen Mora, and in 2000 embarked on the fusion project “Indica Brasilica” with British musician Nitin Sawhney, also collaborating throughout his career with jazz figures such as Jaco Pastorius and Don Cherry.
Style and discography
His playing is defined by detail and nuance rather than technical display, an expressive yet restrained style capable of balancing the most traditional knowledge with an ever-renewed harmonic creativity. His albums include “A Mandeli” (1983), “Habichuela en Rama” (1997), recorded together with his son José Miguel, and “De Graná” (2008), in collaboration with singer Marina Heredia.
Legacy
Pepe Habichuela is today the patriarch of a saga of musicians, the Habichuela-Carmona family, whose influence reaches as far as the group Ketama through his son, and he continues performing at leading festivals, such as his appearance at the 2008 Hay Festival Alhambra alongside Enrique Morente, standing as living testimony to one of the most respected schools of Granada flamenco guitar.