Love for music since when?

In our house music has always been very important. The mother was a soloist and singer of the Orpheon. Her father also sang and they both danced. Basque music and folklore have always been very close in the family. And the Basque people did the same. The father is Euskaldun berri, the younger brothers have gone to the ikastola and the others we have learned in the Euskaltegi.

We are ten brothers and among us we have txistularis, an atabalari, members of the Orpheon, who have passed through the San Fermin choir… We have always lived in a musical environment.

Since I was a little curative and also some piano and oboe essays, but nothing else left me to study Txistu at the Conservatory of Pamplona. Then I entered the dances group Iruña Taldea and so began my journey. Although very young, 16 years old, I started at the Municipal Band of Txistularis in Pamplona and since then I have been there.

The Economic and Finance Minister of Navarre, Mikel Aranburu, has his own cousin who is also municipal Txistulari, right?

Ballerina. He is in the group and is always ready when we need help, but he had to leave the responsibility to attend all the proceedings and is now more occupied with the new post.

What are your must-have musical dates for every year?

Carnivals of Lantz, of Ituren and Zubieta, Sanfermines, and San Pelayo and Zarautz Basque Parties. These are the first days I frame when I make my holiday calendar.

What is it for a txistulari from Pamplona to play in the Municipal Band of Txistularis or in the Carnivals of Lantz, reach the highest level?

I think so. We started going to Lantz about 20 years ago, hiring Mintxo Salaberri and me. In addition to a very nice few days, it is an honour to participate in an emblematic act of folklore. One year, during the carnival season, I had the opportunity to go to the Basque Center in San Francisco, but I told them not to be able to go to Lantz.

Do you think that the celebration of the Carnival remains as attractive as it was in the past?

In some years, more people are coming and in others less, depending on weather conditions, especially. However, in general, I think that when I started, there was more mass crowding.

And they also call you to go to Ituren and Zubieta?

No. I'm going there on my own, because they're friends. 26 years ago I was there a year ago as a nurse and since then I'm going to play every year.

The same thing in Zarautz?

Yes. In Zarautz I also have friends and every year I go to Sanpelayo and Basque Parties very happy.

In addition to the txistu, you play other instruments, and you sing. How many groups are you in now?

I'm still like Txistulari in Iruña Dantza Taldea, but I'm not going to all the trials as before. Now there are other Txistularis and I'm a sporadic collaborator. I also work in the Txistularis Municipal Band, and there we do, we have the tests and the obligations all year round. The other group of my time is Jarauta 69. In recent years I have worked with a group of Iparralde squares, Kiki Bordatxo, and we recently made a group of Cuban sones with friends from here and from Tafalla: Sonora Sonera. I blow the trumpet and sing. And then I do other things on my own.

Why Cuban music?

Some friends were in Cuba, and because we liked the music there, we decided to run the test. We started that way, and we've been around for about ten years. We will soon be like those mythical older Cuban groups!

Is Latin music fashionable?

Yes, but our style is not very attractive for those who want to dance salsa and bachata. Sometimes they ask us for more moving pieces, but we like this and we touch this.

Jarauta 69 is currently an institution in Navarra.

With the jar, we've been around 30 years. We started off on Jarauta Street, number 69, and even though we moved immediately to 65, we stopped with that name. As a joke we say that at that time people said 69 and smiled maliciously. Now, instead, we say that the number has been said and that people have started to think that it's because of the age of the peers. Basque songs, jazz, balkan music, cuban music, salsa, latin rhythms, mexicans… we have songs of many styles and we always try to put some new piece, but people usually prefer old songs. Amapola and the Mexican Return, for example, are two of our stops.

With so many groups, organizing your schedule won’t be easy…

No! In case the tests of two teams match, you have to choose one. If you fix it without me, I go with the others.

And also, I work. You are a nurse.

Yes, I am a nurse in Mutua Navarra. We take care of accidents at work. The advantage is that we move in shifts and adapt very well between us to organize work shifts.

Are your holiday days for music?

No. I also very much like travelling, but it is true that the first days that I frame when organizing my holiday calendar are the ones that I need for the performances.

And have you never thought of being a professional musician?

Perhaps in my time it was not the studies that are now available and it was more difficult to dedicate professionally to it. On the other hand, in the first houses, in the families, when someone said he wanted to be a professional musician, he was considered almost crazy. Now, fortunately, the point of view has changed a great deal. However, I sometimes think that if I had considered music as a profession, I would probably now have fewer hobbies. For me, music is an escape route, I do very well.

Have you made a lot of trips with the txistu and the trumpet under your arm?

I've been to several places in Europe and America. With the txistu we played in Sicily, Poland, Germany, England, Ireland, Argentina, Chile… with Kiki Bordatxo in California and with another group in Quebec.

It also gives you the opportunity to meet people. A lot of people greet you banging on the street, for example, in the Sanfermin procession.

Yeah, and because I'm pretty closed, it's good for me to be playing so I don't have to talk. Sometimes I tell myself that I am an asocial man with a broad social life.

So, do you hide behind the whistle?

Easier behind the bombardment…

How many instruments do you touch?

Those of the txistus family, the txistu and the flute, then I started on my own with the bombshell and the trumpet.

Does the txistu have a Basque label?

The Txistu is from here, but there are many instruments of this family: In Aragon it is chiflo, in Salamanca and in Extremadura they call it gaita, in Andalusia pito sprinkero, in Provence galoubet… All are flutes of three holes.

What about the ttun-ttun?

We did a little course in Zuberoa, and then I learned playing. These are, in particular, pieces for dances.

Do you have good relationships with Iparralde musicians?

Yes, with my team and with Mixel Etxekopar, for example. Recently, when they came to make a part of their Geopoetical Atlas, they stayed to sleep in my house and the same when I go there, I always have their house doors open.

Do you learn a lot from each other?

I do believe it from him, but I do not believe it. Mixel works on a different level, on a special level. It's very imaginative and very creative.

To what extent are new things being done in folklore?

Folklore is something alive and constantly changing. So it's OK to create new things. Now there are interesting moves to renew folklore: In the Ribera, for example, novel paloteers are being carried out in recent years. Another example can be the one made here in Pamplona by the Danzantes de San Lorenzo: new dance pieces with an old style. Very interesting.

In the Municipal Band of txistularis no, right? Do you have a fixed repertoire there?

Yes. In the procession, dances, targets… everything is the same. But the new pieces are made for txistu and the Txistularis Association publishes many new sheet music. Among them you see everything, even contemporary pieces.

Besides the Sanfermines, what do you do the official txistularis of Pamplona?

From November to July we played the targets every Sunday to wake up to the city. Most of us walk through the Casco Viejo, but when they are festivities in the neighborhoods we approach them. Throughout the year we have some tours and dance at noon. During the second half of June and August and in September, on Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoon we perform dance performances in the Plaza del Castillo. Important dates are also Union Privilege Day, San Fermín Txiki targets and San Saturnino Day celebrations. Tests are performed once or twice a week.

How do you see the txistu quarry?

Many young people are seen in music schools and dance groups.

What do you see in the performances from the kiosk of the Plaza del Castillo?

At one time they looked younger, perhaps because they used to meet their friends there. Now, instead, most of them are dance veterans, who have participated in courses and dance groups, and they go wrong.

Is folklore closely related to a political attitude here?

The people on the right may be fond of dance, but in reality you see that most of us are Basque.

What is the best and the worst in musical activity?

I'm very comfortable playing music and I love to see people happy. Worst, hours, little sleep, especially. I'm known that I can play even sleeping.