Alberto Pérez (musician)

He took his first steps in the music world in the choir of the Sagrada Familia (1956) and the so-called Rondalla Seguntina (1961), where he set foot on a stage and went on tours for the first time. At 16 he formed a pop group called "Somos" ("This is us") for which he composed his first songs and recorded his first demo tape. While doing military service in Madrid (1968–70), he got to know musicians from Guinea and for the first time had the chance to experiment with non-European music. He moved permanently to Madrid (1972), studied Spanish Philology (Linguistics) at the Complutense University and music, harmony and counterpoint at the Royal School of Music. In those years he travelled extensively around different European countries, where he worked as a 'troubadour' and theatre musician.[1]

In 1981 he formed "La Mandrágora" together with Joaquín Sabina and Javier Krahe, a trio to which he brought his romantic touch as well as a sense of showmanship, and with whom he would make a record of the same name that is still being re-released.[2]

In 1984 he was invited to take part in the Spanish television programme "Si yo fuera presidente" for which he created a character inspired in the vocalists and crooners of the 1940s and 1950s who sung a selection of around 100 famous if long-forgotten songs. He formed the Alberto Pérez Orchestra that he would conduct for 12 years. His record "Amar y Vivir" (To Love and To Live) belongs to that period.[1]

In 1989 he accepted a proposal from Spanish Radio 3 to produce and host a programme about the history and evolution of Afrocuban music. It would be the origin of "Corazón Loco", a radio space that Alberto Pérez would conduct with a guitar in his hands and conversing with the listeners. Although with the unexplained closure of Radio 3 so too the programme had to end.[1]

Meeting Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio – with whom Alberto Pérez would have a fifteen-year-long friendship till Chicho's death in 2003 – was fruitful in the way of a collection of 20 dance songs, of various genre, that were composed as stylistic exercises. This enterprise would keep them busy for over two years and would eventually take form in "Sobre la pista" (1990) and "Tiempo de baile" (1997), produced and interpreted by Alberto Pérez himself and in which musicians from different generations and nationalities took part. Another project they both worked on was composing the soundtrack to the film Buenaventura Durruti, anarchist (1999), this time performed by Chicho.[3]

He met Alberto Vergara in 1994 while on a tour in Morocco and managed to arrange and perform, using only vocals and vibraphone, an overview of the history of the 'bolero'. Their collaboration lasted for about two years until the return of the Venezuelan vibraphonist, Alberto Vergara, to his home country.[1]

After his experience with the vibraphonist, Alberto Vergara, Pérez set about developing a new guitar-playing technique so as to be able to interpret some of his dance songs, as it were, in troubadour fashion. He put it to the test in a show called "Más allá de la Mandrágora", that is, "Beyond the Mandrágora" (1995), which most unexpectedly brought him back to the solo singing tours, leading him to give up his role as orchestra conductor.[4]

In 1997 Pérez and the writer Carmen Martín Gaite launched the record company "Avizor Records", with a view to giving publicity to new poets and musicians. The project was solely funded with earnings made from their own recitals and it lasted until Carmen's death in 2000.[1]

In 2005 he set up the show "Alberto Pérez y su Orquesta Volátil" –entirely done a cappella- in order to pay tribute to his friend Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio. This half-spoken, half-sung proposal with elements from the troubadour tradition would take Pérez on theatre tours.[5]

• His channel at Vimeo

• Orquesta volátil at MySpace

• Photographies at Flickr