Javier Limón
Encyclopedia
Javier Limón is a record producer, singer and songwriter born and raised in Madrid
, Spain
. Limón has worked with several artists, mainly from Spain, since he incorporates elements of flamenco
rhythm to his work. Besides his work as producer has also dabbled as an interpreter and has released three studio albums, Limón, Son de Limón and Mujeres de Agua. Since 2003, Limón has done recordings in Palestine
, Bogotá
, Bristol
, Paris
, Bahía Blanca
, Buenos Aires
, New York City
and Morocco
. In 2004, Limón was awarded the Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year
for his work on Lágrimas Negras by Diego El Cigala
and Bebo Valdés
, Cositas Buenas by Paco de Lucía
, El Cantante by Andrés Calamaro
, El Pequeño Reloj by Enrique Morente
, Niño Josele by Niño Josele
and Tributo Flamenco A Don Juan Valderrama by Various Artists. Javier Limón serves as the Artistic Director of the Berklee College of Music's Mediterranean Music Institute, which operates in Valencia, Spain as well as Boston, Massachusetts.
, Estrella Morente
, Remedios Amaya
, Potito and Montse Cortés. Following this first stage, he started his career as a record producer
with Cositas Buenas
by Paco de Lucía
, Lágrimas Negras by Bebo Valdés
and Diego El Cigala
and El Pequeño Reloj by Enrique Morente. The recording process of Lágrimas Negras, which took three days to record, was filmed by Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba
. The album earned the Latin Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Album
and received a nomination for Album of the Year
. Lágrimas Negras stayed in the Spanish Album Charts for over 100 weeks. In 2009, Limón was awarded a Grammy Award
for Best Latin Jazz Album
for the album Juntos Para Siempre, another collaboration with Bebo Valdés.
, Cubase
, Logic
, mixing material in analog way, not digital, and "edit the album in the appropriate format." Limón acknowledges that in order to make music in modern times, people could "skip all the costs of intermediaries, but there's nothing like a studio where everyone can play at once, but that costs money to keep." The main idea for Limón production style is not to notice the machines involved while recording, so the final result is as close to the real thing happened at the studio. Besides flamenco, there is also other musical interests for Limón, "there's electronic stuff will be interesting to tackle. Now I'm doing some hip hop, which also interests me."
About his lyrical style, Limón prefers free metric
while writing traditional flamenco music, which is written in third
s, quartet
s and quintet
s with classic rhyme
s. "I consider that my lyrics have content. I sometimes write the lyrics before the music. And I've noticed that one of the interesting ways to enrich the flamenco composition is to write poetry that is not in octosyllabic or heroic
verse," said Limón to Flamenco World. Limón is a fan of Japanese haiku
, since he admitted that "the most beautiful flamenco poetry has been written in haikus."
, Niño Josele
, La Tana and Potito, among others, performing original scores
by Limón. Limón asked all the musicians involved on albums by Enrique Morente, Luz Casal, Andrés Calamaro
and Paco de Lucía, among others, to join the label because they were always the same. Piranha, Alain Pérez and Niño Josele were the first musicians joining the project. "It's like a team that has been widening with other artists such as Eliane Elias
, Marc Johnson, the jazz people, Carlinhos Brown
... I am puting a name on something that already exists. The album received a Latin Grammy Award
nomination for Best Flamenco Album. Concha Buika
recorded her first album
with Casa Limón and sold 150,000 units in Spain.
In 2010, Limón produced and composed Mujeres de Agua, a collaboration album with performances by Mariza
, Buika
, La Shica, Montse, Genara, Aynur
, Eleftheria
, Estrella
, Yasmin, Susi, Sandra and Carmen Linares
. Limón described the album as a "search for songs from the Mediterranean
that were undiscovered jewels." Mujeres de Agua peaked at number 14 in the Spanish album charts.
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Limón has worked with several artists, mainly from Spain, since he incorporates elements of flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
rhythm to his work. Besides his work as producer has also dabbled as an interpreter and has released three studio albums, Limón, Son de Limón and Mujeres de Agua. Since 2003, Limón has done recordings in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca
Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and seat of government of Bahía Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. In 2004, Limón was awarded the Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year
Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year
The Latin Grammy Award for Producer of the Year is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists, in the United States and internationally...
for his work on Lágrimas Negras by Diego El Cigala
Diego El Cigala
Diego Ramón Jiménez Salazar, known as El Cigala , is a famous Spanish Romani Flamenco singer...
and Bebo Valdés
Bebo Valdés
Bebo Valdés is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. He was a central figure in the golden age of Cuban music, led two famous big bands, and was one of the 'house' arrangers for the Tropicana Club.Valdés started his career as a pianist in the night clubs of Havana during the 1940s...
, Cositas Buenas by Paco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...
, El Cantante by Andrés Calamaro
Andrés Calamaro
Andrés Calamaro , is an Argentine musician, composer and Latin Grammy winner. His former band Los Rodríguez was a major success in Spain in the 1990s. He became one of the main icons of the Argentine rock in the last two decades and has sold over 1.3 million copies.-Abuelos de la Nada:Calamaro was...
, El Pequeño Reloj by Enrique Morente
Enrique Morente
Enrique Morente Cotelo, known as Enrique Morente, was a flamenco singer and a controversial figure within the world of contemporary flamenco...
, Niño Josele by Niño Josele
Niño Josele
Niño Josele is a Spanish guitarist, and exponent of the New Flamenco style.His first two albums show a vibrant, pure, modern flamenco style....
and Tributo Flamenco A Don Juan Valderrama by Various Artists. Javier Limón serves as the Artistic Director of the Berklee College of Music's Mediterranean Music Institute, which operates in Valencia, Spain as well as Boston, Massachusetts.
Background
After completing his musical studies in piano and guitar at the Conservatory of Madrid and at New York's Saint Francis Prep., Limón began his professional career composing flamenco songs for artists such as Enrique MorenteEnrique Morente
Enrique Morente Cotelo, known as Enrique Morente, was a flamenco singer and a controversial figure within the world of contemporary flamenco...
, Estrella Morente
Estrella Morente
Estrella Morente is a Spanish flamenco singer. She was born on August 14, 1980 in Las Gabias, Granada Province in southern Spain...
, Remedios Amaya
Remedios Amaya
Remedios Amaya is a flamenco singer and former Eurovision Song Contest contestant. Amaya's first records, Luna nueva and Seda en mi piel were an example of flamenco-rock. She reappeared in 1997, alongside Vicente Amigo, with Turu Turai .-References:...
, Potito and Montse Cortés. Following this first stage, he started his career as a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
with Cositas Buenas
Cositas Buenas
Cositas Buenas is an album featuring Paco de Lucía and directed by Paco de Lucia with the collaboration of Javier Limón. It was released in 2004 labelled "Blue Thumb Records", by Universal Music Spain S.L....
by Paco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...
, Lágrimas Negras by Bebo Valdés
Bebo Valdés
Bebo Valdés is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. He was a central figure in the golden age of Cuban music, led two famous big bands, and was one of the 'house' arrangers for the Tropicana Club.Valdés started his career as a pianist in the night clubs of Havana during the 1940s...
and Diego El Cigala
Diego El Cigala
Diego Ramón Jiménez Salazar, known as El Cigala , is a famous Spanish Romani Flamenco singer...
and El Pequeño Reloj by Enrique Morente. The recording process of Lágrimas Negras, which took three days to record, was filmed by Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba
Fernando Trueba
Fernando Trueba is a Spanish book editor, screenwriter, film director and producer.Between 1974 and 1979 worked as a film critic for Spain's leading daily newspaper EL PAIS. In 1980, founded the monthly film magazine CASABLANCA, which he edited and directed during its first two years...
. The album earned the Latin Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Album
Latin Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Album
The Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the United States and internationally...
and received a nomination for Album of the Year
Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the United States and internationally...
. Lágrimas Negras stayed in the Spanish Album Charts for over 100 weeks. In 2009, Limón was awarded a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Latin Jazz Album
Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album
The Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works in the Latin jazz music genre...
for the album Juntos Para Siempre, another collaboration with Bebo Valdés.
Musical style and production
To produce, Limón uses editing software such as Pro ToolsPro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
, Cubase
Steinberg Cubase
Cubase is a music software product developed by Steinberg for music recording, arranging and editing as part of a Digital Audio Workstation. It is one of the oldest DAWs to still enjoy widespread use...
, Logic
Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a hybrid 32 / 64 bit digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software application for the Mac OS X platform. Originally created by German software developer Emagic, Logic Pro became an Apple product when Apple bought Emagic in 2002...
, mixing material in analog way, not digital, and "edit the album in the appropriate format." Limón acknowledges that in order to make music in modern times, people could "skip all the costs of intermediaries, but there's nothing like a studio where everyone can play at once, but that costs money to keep." The main idea for Limón production style is not to notice the machines involved while recording, so the final result is as close to the real thing happened at the studio. Besides flamenco, there is also other musical interests for Limón, "there's electronic stuff will be interesting to tackle. Now I'm doing some hip hop, which also interests me."
About his lyrical style, Limón prefers free metric
Meter (poetry)
In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...
while writing traditional flamenco music, which is written in third
Third
Third may refer to:*3 , such as the 3rd of something -see also Ordinal number *Fraction , such as 1/3*1/60 of a second, or 1/3,600 of a minute *Third World, economically underdeveloped nations...
s, quartet
Quartet
In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
s and quintet
Quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members.It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
s with classic rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
s. "I consider that my lyrics have content. I sometimes write the lyrics before the music. And I've noticed that one of the interesting ways to enrich the flamenco composition is to write poetry that is not in octosyllabic or heroic
Heroic verse
Heroic verse consists of the rhymed iambic line or heroic couplet. The term is used in English exclusively.In ancient literature, heroic verse was synonymous with the dactylic hexameter. It was in this measure that those typically heroic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey and the Aeneid were written...
verse," said Limón to Flamenco World. Limón is a fan of Japanese haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
, since he admitted that "the most beautiful flamenco poetry has been written in haikus."
Casa Limón
Limón started his own record label, Casa Limón, with the help of a sponsor (a brand of beer named 1906). Limón wanted total creative independence, without pursuing record sales, but to become a well-made product reference. The first album released by the label, Limón (2003), was based on multiculturality and setting down roots. The album includes special appareances by Paco de LucíaPaco de Lucía
Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...
, Niño Josele
Niño Josele
Niño Josele is a Spanish guitarist, and exponent of the New Flamenco style.His first two albums show a vibrant, pure, modern flamenco style....
, La Tana and Potito, among others, performing original scores
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
by Limón. Limón asked all the musicians involved on albums by Enrique Morente, Luz Casal, Andrés Calamaro
Andrés Calamaro
Andrés Calamaro , is an Argentine musician, composer and Latin Grammy winner. His former band Los Rodríguez was a major success in Spain in the 1990s. He became one of the main icons of the Argentine rock in the last two decades and has sold over 1.3 million copies.-Abuelos de la Nada:Calamaro was...
and Paco de Lucía, among others, to join the label because they were always the same. Piranha, Alain Pérez and Niño Josele were the first musicians joining the project. "It's like a team that has been widening with other artists such as Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter.-Biography:...
, Marc Johnson, the jazz people, Carlinhos Brown
Carlinhos Brown
Carlinhos Brown is a Brazilian musician from Salvador, Bahia. He was born in Candeal Pequeno, a small neighbourhood in the Brotas area of Salvador de Bahia...
... I am puting a name on something that already exists. The album received a Latin Grammy Award
Latin Grammy Awards of 2006
The 7th Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held for the first time in New York City, NY. The awards show was held at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, November 2, 2006. Shakira was the big winner winning Album of the Year, one of four awards that she won...
nomination for Best Flamenco Album. Concha Buika
Concha Buika
Concha Buika is a Spanish singer. Her album Niña de Fuego was nominated for the 2008 Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year.Buika's family is originally from Equatorial Guinea...
recorded her first album
Buika (album)
Buika is the 2005 debut album of Spanish singer Concha Buika. It fuses jazz, traditional Spanish music, electronica, funk and several other elements.-Track listing:All songs written by Concha Buika except where otherwise specified....
with Casa Limón and sold 150,000 units in Spain.
In 2010, Limón produced and composed Mujeres de Agua, a collaboration album with performances by Mariza
Mariza
Mariza is the stage name of a popular fado singer. She was born Marisa dos Reis Nunes on 16 December 1973 in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique. At the time, Mozambique was known as the Portuguese Overseas Province of Mozambique....
, Buika
Concha Buika
Concha Buika is a Spanish singer. Her album Niña de Fuego was nominated for the 2008 Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year.Buika's family is originally from Equatorial Guinea...
, La Shica, Montse, Genara, Aynur
Aynur Dogan
Aynur Doğan is a contemporary Kurdish singer and musician from Turkey. She was born in Çemişgezek, a small mountain town in Tunceli Province in southeastern Turkey. Her family fled to İstanbul in 1992 during the conflict between the Turkish military and the Kurdistan Workers Party...
, Eleftheria
Eleftheria Arvanitaki
Eleftheria Arvanitaki is a Greek folk singer. She originates from the island of Icaria...
, Estrella
Estrella Morente
Estrella Morente is a Spanish flamenco singer. She was born on August 14, 1980 in Las Gabias, Granada Province in southern Spain...
, Yasmin, Susi, Sandra and Carmen Linares
Carmen Linares
Carmen Linares is the stage name of Carmen Pacheco Rodríguez. Born in 1951 in Linares, Jaén Province, she is known as one of the finest flamenco singers in Spain.She came to Madrid with her family in 1965...
. Limón described the album as a "search for songs from the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
that were undiscovered jewels." Mujeres de Agua peaked at number 14 in the Spanish album charts.
Discography
- Limón (2005)
- Son de Limón (2008)
- Mujeres de Agua (2010)