The relationship between Joan Manuel Serrat and his supervisor José Emilio Navarro, Berry, is among the longest-lived marriages on the Spanish music scene. A working relationship that started in 1972 when Berry joined the singer-songwriter’s tour in Latin America of the album ‘Para la libertad’ as a sound engineer, a tribute to Miguel Hernández. Half a century later they’ve turn into household: “He’s my older brother,” Berry explains to NIUS throughout rehearsals previous to the final three concert events of the farewell tour ‘El vicio de cantar 1965-1922’ on the Palau Sant Jordi in his native Barcelona.
Berry acknowledges that the workforce lives lately with “a combination of emotions” however paraphrases the phrases of the singer-songwriter, who doesn’t need a unhappy farewell: “When he goes on stage, he asks that this be a celebration and that is the place we’re, that every part ends nicely with out longing or unhappy issues”, guarantees the additionally supervisor of Joaquín Sabina.
Joan Manuel Serrat, who will probably be 79 years previous this December 27, culminates a mammoth farewell tour. There have been near 80 concert events over eight months, which started on April 27 on the Beacon Theater in New York and ends this Friday, December 23 within the Catalan capital. “We are very drained. We need to cease,” admits Berry. A workforce of 24 folks has accompanied the singer-songwriter in Latin America and a few 40 in Spain. Some are from the previous guard, just like the pianist Ricard Miralles, additionally liable for preparations and conducting.
An expert “inflexible in his work”
The tour has left them unforgettable photographs. “We have performed within the Zócalo of Mexico City to say goodbye to the nation, in Buenos Aires we’ve given concert events in stadiums for 60,000 folks, however we would not have time to course of it the best way we’re going. When all that is over we’ll bear in mind one of the best moments”, displays the consultant.
What will Serrat do from the twenty fourth? “I do not know, he hasn’t carried out anything in his life however sing,” Berry replies. He retains the shut character of the younger ‘noi del Poblesec’ in keeping with his consultant: “He has not modified that a lot. He has all the time been an excellent skilled who has devoted himself physique and soul to music. Professionally he’s very inflexible in his work, he’s all the time attentive to do one of the best he can,” he explains.
An instance of his professionalism is that he has spent this Tuesday rehearsing on the Palau Sant Jordi: “After so a few years of profession, he goes to every theater day-after-day to check the sound. I’ve labored with many artists and never all of them do it,” explains Berry. . “There are singers who dwell from artistry and singers who dwell for this. Joan Manuel belongs to the second group. It is a degree of duty that not everybody has,” she acknowledges.
the adventures of exile
Serrat and Berry’s adventures are a number of, though as a long-standing consultant he retains them to himself. He remembers the exile of the singer-songwriter in Mexico, between September 1975 and August 1976: “Exile is difficult for everybody, it provides a really arduous feeling of being uprooted, however since we had work we had been doing it,” remembers Berry. Musicians and technicians traveled to America to accompany the singer, who couldn’t set foot in Spain. Nor might he set foot in international locations like Chile, the place the Pinochet dictatorship had prohibited him from getting into: “Joan Manuel determined to purchase a ‘motorhome’ and we toured Mexico as puppeteers. We carried out in every city with a stage. And once we noticed some Mayan ruins, we might cease to go to them,” he remembers.
The amnesty of August 1976 allowed Serrat to return to his land and his legacy. He has acquired the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X el Sabio for his contribution to tradition and has been acknowledged with quite a few honorary doctorates: “He has been fortunate sufficient to be acknowledged whereas alive. He has acquired the best civil decorations in Spain”, account however Berry additionally believes that now could be the time to say goodbye: “You need to know when to go away and dedicate your self to dwelling, that we have already got an age,” he replies.
Like Serrat, Berry has additionally exceeded the authorized retirement age: “I’m 74 years previous, it has been 10 years since I’ve been retired. I’ve not carried out so as a result of after so a few years with Joan Manuel I wished to retire with him,” he replies. He nonetheless has a job pending earlier than retiring: “Joaquín Sabina’s tour,” he explains. It will probably be ‘Against all odds’, which Serrat’s buddy may also begin three years after he fell on stage.