Chico has been on the international stage for almost 50 years, with or without the Gipsy Kings. In Arles, meeting with a generous artist, “happy to live”, now part of popular musical heritage.
He returned late the day before from Dubai where he gave a concert and left the next day to record a TV show in Paris. But he still took the trouble to buy croissants, despite being tired and having limited time on this short day off. Chico is like that. Attentive to others.
The interview begins by a crackling fire, one frosty Mistral morning, in his house in Arles where, on the walls, he has hung photos of his successes and his encounters. The place tells through its details, its oriental origins and its gypsy passions. Its simplicity too. Chico speaks like he plays. Quickly. With a singular mixture of lightness and seriousness.
“It was Ahmed who introduced me to music. Blues, Latin songs… He was very curious”he begins. He cites this much-loved brother from the start of the conversation as if to assign him his central place and honor his memory. Ahmed was murdered by mistake by the Mossad in front of his pregnant wife on July 21, 1973, in Norway where he lived. He had been confused with Ali Hassan Salameh, suspected of being one of those responsible for the Munich massacre. An indelible tragedy. Could it be otherwise? “My brother was my example. He introduced me to Manitas de Plata before I even knew the Reyes family”he continues.
First meetings with the Reyes in the Roquette district of Arles
His gypsy acquaintances began as a teenager at the corner of rue des Douaniers and rue des Pilotes, in the Roquette district of Arles, formed around large tables and bonded to the rhythm of palmas. This is how the life of Chico the gadjo begins. Before that he was Jahloul Bouchikhi, son – “forever” – of an Algerian mother and a Moroccan father who came to seek a life of respite and work in the Arlesian city.
“With the Reyes, I discovered an incredible noisy tribe. At the end of the meals, they took out the guitars and sang simply for the pleasure of sharing”. Chico learns by mimicry. “One day I realized that I was playing. Maybe it was a gift from God”. At that time, the good god was called Manitas de Plata. The gypsy with “little silver hands” lives under the influence of international celebrity. “Manitas, he is the way, the light”. It was with him and the Reyes brothers that he made his first scene and his first television appearance. And when he was nothing more than a cacochyme musician, Chico took him on his Tours. For Manitas, it is “full of gratitude”.
BB, “the big sister”
As for Enrico Macias and Brigitte Bardot. They changed his life and that of the Gypsy Kings, at the end of the seventies, in the bohemian years of Saint-Tropez. “One day Enrico saw us playing in Saint-Tropez and asked us to open for him. For ten days at the Olympia, it was crazy”. And the click. Chico no longer had any doubts. He and his friends had to make a living on stage.
Brigitte is “the big sister”. The one for whom they played at the birthday party and who took a liking to Chico and his friends, going so far as to accompany them dressed in a wig, and dance at the private parties they gave. With BB, they still call each other. “She’s part of the family.”. And family is sacred to Chico.
The name Gipsy Kings
Chico is the originator of the name Gipsy Kings. “Gypsy for gypsy and kings for Reyes,” he explains. But he had difficulty imposing this name on the group, the family and music professionals. “My mother-in-law Clémentine told me “you could keep the name Reyes in homage to my poor husband”. People couldn't pronounce it. The professionals at Phonogram told me you're not English, you don't rock. But I held on and managed to impose the name of the Gipsy Kings.
Success was slow in coming. The first album in 1981 remains at the bottom of the bins. It was in 1987 that the guitars of the Gipsy Kings resonated across the world, that the airwaves broadcast their frenzied flamencos to the point of tickling the ears of another king: Mickaël Jackson, who would have become a fan.
Andalusian complaints turn into complaints
“Our music is universal”he gives as an explanation for this success which then surpasses them. Tours linked to the frantic pace of their agreements turn into disagreements. The falling out, in retrospect, seemed inevitable. The crazy management of the group and the crooked producers silence their guitars and scream at the Gypsy. Between them, Andalusian complaints turn into complaints. In a book (published last October*), Chico sets things straight with his former friends without bitterness and above all settles his scores with the producers, even if he denies it. He forgave but he did not forget. “People said nonsense, that I left with the fund. The worst part was that I had to justify these lies”.
Bardot, Clémentine and the others
Women play an important place in Chico's life. Not just Marthe, his ex-wife and mother of four of his children, or Brigitte Bardot. There is also Baroness de Rotschild “who educated us” or her ex-mother-in-law Clémentine who meant a lot. “Woman is the basis of man. We always believe that it is men who lead life while it is women. Respecting them means respecting our mothers, our sisters.”
For nearly 30 years, he remained angry with the Reyes family. Even though he had married their sister, Marthe, with whom he had four children. “For a few months, we found ourselves with Nicolas Reyes, my ex-brother-in-law. He and the others realized that it was all for nothing, that I just wanted to save them.” Reconciliation should make it possible to “clean up the place. There are at least ten bands that tour under the name Gipsy Kings and they have no right to do so! Who would imagine ten Rolling Stones bands?” From there to considering finding yourself on stage… “Life is so full of surprises. Why not…”
Ambassador for peace for 25 years
Irony of life, Chico was, for 25 years, ambassador for peace for UNESCO, without having been able to do so in his own family. A strange fate all the same when you know the adventures which preceded his mission as a messenger of peace. One day he found himself singing for the first anniversary of the Oslo Peace Accords. At the end of the concert, Itzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat take the stage; the two representatives of the tragic story of his brother Ahmed, shake his hand. The moment is immortalized. “This photo is the image of forgiveness”. This moment should never have happened: “That day it was the old friends who were supposed to go and they failed!”
All these adventures made him what he is today: “Each encounter is like a link that forms a chain of life, the chain of my life”linked to Arles “in a visceral way”. There he opened Le Patio de Camargue, a performance venue where he performs once a month to a sold-out audience.
A project with Netflix
Fraquito joined Chico and the Gypsies for some time. “Chico is a really good person,” he is quick to say. With him, he has just completed a tour of churches. They will then fly to Japan in February where they will play for ten days in Tokyo. In a few months, France Télévisions will broadcast a documentary in three episodes on the history of the Gipsy Kings. Finally, Chico's extraordinary life attracted Netflix, which is working on a docu-fiction. His son Mario could well play the role of his father.
Today, the next generation of gypsies is Mario, his 20-year-old son. “He is handsome, kind, respectful. He is an example in every way. It seems like he was chosen”. Chico is happy because he steals the show. Today he doesn't care about his fame. He just wants to continue to share emotions with his music. “You know, deep down I'm nobody. I'm Chico, which means little boy… who's happy to be alive”.
