Ojos de Brujo conjures up flamenco that rocks

Ramon Gimenez, a founding member of Barcelona’s brilliant flamenco fusion band Ojos de Brujo, drags himself into the lobby of a hotel on a seedy stretch of Sunset Boulevard near the Hollywood Freeway. It’s midmorning Thursday, but he’s still jet-lagged from a transatlantic flight the night before and now feels sluggish from his big American-style breakfast at a nearby Denny’s.

The guitarist and mastermind -- don’t call him leader -- of this egalitarian musical collective, which makes its West Coast concert debut tonight at the Egyptian Theatre, pulls a baseball cap over his blurry eyes. He looks ready for a nap, not an interview. But the thirtysomething musician soon starts talking about his strict Gypsy grandfather and a culture clash over his boyhood passion for break dancing.

“You look like a dummy,” harrumphed the old traditionalist about his grandson’s Americanized moves. “That’s abnormal.”

The memory is like smelling salts for Gimenez, who is suddenly wide awake, describing how he also wore Bon Jovi-style boots during his rocker days and listened to his father’s James Brown and Otis Redding records until his grandfather made him sell them. Instead, the boy was forced to study orthodox flamenco under his grandfather’s watchful tutelage.

“To be Gypsy, you had to be flamenco,” says Gimenez. “It was a matter of identity. I was upset at first, but later I came to appreciate what he had done, to be honest.”

What the uncompromising old Gypsy had done was give Gimenez the musical foundation for one of the most exciting and original new bands to come out of Spain in recent years. Ojos de Brujo, or Eyes of the Wizard, has won international acclaim for its fresh, organic fusion of flamenco with hip-hop, funk, Afro-Cuban and Middle Eastern music.

The band’s second album, “Bari,” marks a creative milestone in the ongoing evolution of flamenco, itself a historic melding of Gypsy, Jewish and African musical elements. The album strikes such an ideal stylistic amalgam that the result is something totally new, a natural hybrid that defies deconstruction.

Since its release in Spain two years ago, the spirited work has converted waves of new fans whose enthusiasm turns the group’s live performances into electrifying events. It was released earlier this year by World Village in the U.S., where the public still clings to cheesy stereotypes of flamenco.

A small and reserved Los Angeles audience didn’t know what to make of the band during a brief, private performance Thursday night for the opening of the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival, a three-day showcase of film, art and music from around the world.

The band, minus three members, did its best under bad conditions, squeezed into a corner of a courtyard, the sound echoing off stone columns. Tonight’s public performance by the full group, including a female flamenco dancer, will be on a larger stage with better acoustics.

The soul and center of the group is singer-songwriter Marina “La Canillas” Abad, who says her songs are born like a baby, fully formed with lyrics and melody. She strikes a bewitching figure in exotic Gypsy garb of black and gold, all tassels, bangles, ruffles and frills. She wears big silver hoop earrings and ties a scarf on her head like a turban, trying unsuccessfully to tame wild shocks of black hair.

She’s not a real Gypsy, though the onetime actress could fool you with those alluring green eyes that change colors with the light. Her looks and her lyrics, probing and poetic, embody the mystery and magic conjured by the band’s name.

Abad was in full Gypsy gear during a lunchtime interview at a Cuban restaurant before the private show. She was joined by Gimenez and Cuba-trained percussionist Xavi Turull, the band’s rhythmic linchpin.

The group interacts easily, longtime friends who came together as a band about eight years ago, sharing a passion for flamenco, an interest in all kinds of music and a desire to experiment with it all. The members of Ojos don’t always see eye to eye. But they unanimously guard their independence.

They started their own label, La Fabrica de Colores, to avoid corporate pressures to compromise their art. And they have turned down sponsorships for their tours, although that can mean living with unglamorous accommodations on the road.

“The great effort of Ojos de Brujo is the most difficult, to stay out of the clutches of any multinational, any beer company or even Coca-Cola,” says Gimenez. “They have come to us in our worst financial moments and offered us money to be repackaged. But the road to success through Coca-Cola would destroy us as artists because we would lose our honesty, and our lyrics would become tremendous lies.”

At the same time, they all bemoan the stifling traditionalism of pure flamenco, which tends to resist change. As a result, they agree, the genre has stagnated.

“It’s like the man who loves his wife very much but who keeps her locked up at home because, careful, somebody might see her,” says Abad. “But you could have a different type of relationship where you take her everywhere and let her do what she wants, because the better she is the better you are.

“It’s the same with music. You don’t need to protect anything. If it’s good, it’ll grow without ever losing its roots. To be alive, music needs to evolve. You can’t just keep it in a drawer.”

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Ojos de Brujo

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: 9:45 p.m. today

Price: $6 members, $9 nonmembers; includes admission to screening of a 50-minute series of international music videos. Only ticketholders for the film will be admitted to the band’s performance immediately following the screening.

Contact: (323) 466-FILM (3456)