Apa & cant d’estil

“Overwhelming power and vibrant timbre”. Vicent Torrent, about Apa

Imagine a night in the center of a small Valencian city, before dawn, and a powerful voice, the cantaor, singing at the top of his lungs the improvised lyrics that the versaor whispers in his ear, lyrics that he has just improvised to deliver a specific message: to praise the attributes of a person, or to send a challenge from a third person, or to make a marriage proposal, or to announce the will of a divorce, or to claim against the Major …

This is the tradition of cant d’albaes, which Apa has been practicing for more than 40 years and developing his outstanding singing skills.

The traditional music in Valencia includes this tradition of the albaes, also the traditional styles of dance, such as malagueña, xota, fandango … the cants de batre that are performed a capellaa, with lyrics about agricultural work …

Josep Aparicio “Apa” has spent his entire life dedicated to performing and spreading the popular culture and mastering all these artistic forms. Vicent Torrent, founder of Al Tall, highlights his vocal quality, “high tessitura, overwhelming power and vibrant timbre” and “fantasy and imagination to build variations and improvisations ” Without a doubt, Apa is an exceptional artist, not only of the cant d’estil, but he is also one of the most powerful singers of traditional music in Europe. 

In this collection of videos you can listen Apa singing in a rehearshal, at the TV with a small band, in theatre with a complete band and at the street doing the albaes (improvised singing, done traditionally at the daybreak).