fine albums: Moncho

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2026/06/26

moncho: paraules d'amor

album rating: ★★★★☆

Genre

Bolero and Catalan song. Moncho's first album entirely in Catalan presents eleven boleros and ballads drawn from the canon of the Catalan "Nova Cançó", sung with the passionate, sentimentally dense vocal style that defined his decades-long mastery of the bolero genre, set against the sophisticated arrangements that producer Josep Mas "Kitflus" brought to his recordings of the period.

Release

Released on September 21, 1993, by Horus Records, Spain. It was Moncho's first album recorded entirely in Catalan, opening with two songs written expressly for the occasion: "Massa per mi" by Joan Manuel Serrat and the previously unreleased "No sóc res sense tu" by Albert Pla.

Production

Produced by Josep Mas "Kitflus," whose arrival at Horus Records in the early 1990s brought renewed artistic ambition to Moncho's recordings of the period. The sessions featured contributions from celebrated session musicians including Carles Benavent, Toni Carmona, and Pedro Javier González.

Reception

"Paraules d'amor" achieved considerable diffusion in Catalonia and was received as a significant artistic event, confirmed by its successful presentation at the Palau de la Música Catalana - one of Barcelona's most prestigious concert venues. The album drew on a repertoire that included songs by Serrat, Raimon, and Albert Pla, situating Moncho's distinctive bolero voice within the canon of modern Catalan song. It remains regarded as a landmark in his discography for the cultural crossover it achieved between Romani bolero tradition and Catalan popular song.

Moncho

Ramon Calabuch i Batista (July 26, 1940, Barcelona – December 28, 2018, Mataró), known professionally as Moncho, was a Catalan Romani singer who became one of Spain's most beloved interpreters of the bolero. He began his recording career in the late 1960s, building a reputation on emotionally dense interpretations of boleros by Armando Manzanero, Benny Moré, and others. His revitalisation in the 1990s under producer Josep Mas led to three Catalan-language albums, of which Paraules d'amor was the first. He later recorded On és la gent? (2003) and I tant que sí (2005), and in 2007 released the celebrated tribute album "El tío Moncho with guest artists" including Diego El Cigala, Niña Pastori, and Tomatito. In 2010 he celebrated fifty years in music with a special concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana alongside Joan Manuel Serrat, Joan Isaac, Sergio Dalma, and Antonio Carmona.

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rosó

2025/08/09

moncho: on és la gent?

album rating: ★★★★☆

a) Genre

Bolero / Nova cançó catalana / Cancion de autor. On es la gent? (Where are the people?) is Moncho's second album sung entirely in the Catalan language, following his debut Catalan-language release Paraules d'amor (1993). The album presents Moncho's trademark warm baritone bolero style -- shaped by Cuban and Caribbean antillean bolero traditions -- applied to a repertoire of Catalan-language songs drawn from the Nova Cançó movement and associated songwriters, including Joan Isaac, Joan Manuel Serrat, Albert Pla, and Paloma Ramirez. It represents a deliberate and meaningful bridge between the Latin bolero tradition and the Catalan popular song canon.

b) Release

Original release: K Industria (Spain, 2003). K Industria was a Barcelona-based independent label specialising in Catalan-language music and culture. The album was released in CD format. No major international editions or subsequent reissues on new formats have been documented in available sources. The album's songs were later compiled alongside material from Paraules d'amor into the double compilation Les Cançons en Catala (Discmedi, 2007), making them more widely available.

c) Production

Specific individual producer credits for this album are not documented in available sources. Moncho's Catalan-language productions have typically involved collaborators from the Barcelona music scene; his documented collaborators across various albums include musicians and arrangers Josep Mas 'Kitflus', Antoni-Olaf Sabater, Ricard Miralles, and Francesc Burrull, though specific credits for this release have not been confirmed. The title track, 'On es la gent?', was written by Joan Isaac; the album also includes Catalan-language adaptations by Joan Isaac of several songs, including a version of Serrat's 'Penelope' (adapted with Augusto Algueró), and songs by Albert Pla and others.

d) Recording

Specific recording studio details for this album are not documented in available sources.

e) Reception

The album's artistic significance lies primarily in its role as part of Moncho's broader project of bringing the bolero tradition into dialogue with Catalan-language song. The title track, 'On es la gent?', became sufficiently celebrated that Moncho and Joan Isaac performed it live as a duet in 2004, recorded on Isaac's album Nomes han passat 50 anys. The compilation Les Cançons en Catalá (2007) suggests sufficient commercial and cultural interest to warrant making the Catalan-language recordings more widely available. The album is noted within Catalan music circles as a significant contribution to the Nova Cançó and bolero en catala sub-genre.

Moncho

Ramon Calabuch Batista (born 26 July 1940, Gracia district, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain -- died 28 December 2018, Mataro, Catalonia, Spain), known professionally as Moncho, was a Spanish bolero singer of Catalan Roma heritage, widely known as 'El rey del bolero' (The King of Bolero) and 'El gitano del bolero'. He grew up in the Gracia neighbourhood of Barcelona, the son of a Catalan Roma family, surrounded by the rumba catalana scene; neighbours and acquaintances included Peret and Antonio Gonzalez 'El Pescailla', husband of Lola Flores. He was drawn from the beginning to the bolero as his primary artistic medium, attracted particularly to the Antillean and Caribbean bolero tradition. At the age of 16 he was invited by the ensemble Ramon Evaristo y Orquesta Antillana to sing at a neighbourhood festival in Gracia; this led to his first professional contract. His formative admiration was for Chilean bolero singer Lucho Gatica, whom he sought to emulate in his early career. He deliberately surrounded himself with American and Latin-American musicians to deepen his knowledge of the bolero's roots. He achieved his first major international exposure through his voice on Bigas Luna's film Jamon, Jamon (1992, starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem), in which his recording of 'Hazme otra vez' -- a bolero written especially for him by Concha Valdes Miranda -- was used on the soundtrack. His principal career achievement as a bolero singer in Catalan came with Paraules d'amor (1993), the first of his two Catalan-language albums, presented at the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona; Joan Manuel Serrat -- a close friend and admirer -- composed 'Massa per mi' especially for Moncho for inclusion on that album. The bolero 'Llevatela' was composed specifically for his voice by the celebrated Mexican songwriter Armando Manzanero, one of the genre's most prestigious endorsements. Moncho recorded in total 34 albums of boleros in Castilian and Catalan over a career spanning more than forty years.

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