Pepe el de la Matrona

Biography

José Núñez Meléndez was born in Sevilla in 1887 and died in Madrid in 1980 He grew up in Triana, something which had a decisive influence on his singing Although, Pepe el de la Matrona was never an artist of the masses, this shouldn´t detract from the fact that at fifteen years of age he was already singing with Juan Breva through Granada and Almería Soon he met Antonio Chacón, in the period when Pepe lived in calle Relator and the man from Jerez lived in Trajano In the Pasaje del Duque festivals he learnt songs from Chacón until in 1906 he went to work in Café del Gato, where he was accompanied by Ramón Montoya and Luis Molina Later he went on to the Café El Naranjero, which belonged to La Cartagenera He returned to Sevilla and Miguel Borrull, father, convinced him to sing once more in the capital in Fornos´ premises Form here he went on to Los Gabrieles and Villa Rosa In 1914 he spent nine months in La Habana, from where he returned in 1917 Later he went to Nueva York, Veracruz and Puerto Rico After the civil war, he returned to the Villa Rosa in Madrid and participated in 1954, in the Antología del cante flamenco performed by the guitarist Perico el del Lunar for the record company Hispavox From this moment he had a little more success and travelled around the world as a key figure This artistic importance led him to record numerous albums and he is considered one of the great artists of flamenco history