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Recordings
Although
his presence is not especially outstanding on his first collaboration with el
Pele ("La fuente de lo jondo," 1986), it is easy to appreciate his synchronization
with the rhythmic playing of the maestro Isidro, as one of the components of the
group of Manolo Sanlúcar in "Tauromagia" (1988).
Vicente’s
work begins to stand out with Camarón ("Soy Gitano," 1989), the same year
in which he brought down the house in the Gran Teatro de Córdoba (in 1989
Vicente Amigo effortlessly won the Ramón Montoya award for solo flamenco
guitar in the "XII Concurso Nacional de Arte Flamenco of Córdoba."
His live performance is included in the recording "Colectivo XII concurso nacional
de arte flamenco. Córdoba Vol. I and II," published by the Caja Provincial
de Ahorros de Córdoba, 1992). Recording with José Monje "Camarón"
and his triumphant victory in Córdoba firmly established him as a young
artist with solid experience. He then made a recording with el Pele that would
show us his way of reworking the innovations that Camarón and Paco had
introduced in traditional flamenco ("El Pele and Vicente Amigo: Poeta de esquinas
blandas," Area Creativa, 1990). This quality is also heard in some of the tracks
of another collaboration with Vicente Soto "Sordera" (Vicente Soto "Sordera" with
Moraíto Chico and Vicente Amigo: Hondo espejo gitano, Senador, 1989).
Pepe
de Lucía calls on him for the promotional recording of a promising young
gitano from Triana El Potito, in a production that seems to do away with another
unwritten rule of the art form: that of a singer performing with only one guitarist
(El Potito with Paco de Lucía, Tomatito, Juan Manuel Cañizares,
Rafael Riqueni, Vicente Amigo, José María Banderas, José
Antonio Rodríguez, Manolo Franco, Enrique de Melchor, Isidro Muñoz,
Moraíto Chico: "Andando por los caminos," CBS, 1990). The brother
of Paco de Lucía chooses alegrías as the style in which Vicente
will accompany Potito.
Although
he was born in Seville and grew up in Córdoba, Vicente’s style is representative
of the rhythmic Cádiz playing style. In the midst of great expectation,
especially that of guitarists, Vicente makes his first solo recording: "De mí
corazón al aire" (1991). Luis de Córdoba calls on him for the guitar
work in an excellent recording that places roots in a modern light ("Que ni pintao,"
1992 ). He continues to collaborate whenever his friends call him, as in the first
solo recording of Tino di Geraldo, or in a recording that once again united several
of today’s top guitarists, but was oddly unappreciated by aficionados: "Como lo
siento" by Vicente Soto "Sordera".
His
consolidation as a solo performer coincides with a change of image in his recording
"Vivencias Imaginadas" (1995).
Pepe
de Lucía once again gathers together several solo players, this time for
his own solo recording ("El orgullo de mi padre, 1996), and, in an anthology recorded
that same year, "La mujer en el cante" by Carmen Linares, he hires the best players
at that time. Collaborating with several guitarists on a single production seems
to be a marketing strategy designed to strengthen the normally weak recording
sales of flamenco singers. Just when everyone was expecting another solo guitar
recording, Vicente surprised aficionados and the music world with "Poeta" (1998),
a concert for guitar and orchestra overseen and conducted by the great Cuban composer
Leo Brower. This work premiered under the title of "Concierto Flamenco para un
marinero en Tierra" at the Córdoba Guitar Festival, on July 1st, 1992.
The program included a text by Juan Blanco that detailed the creative process
leading up to the work, and points out that the change in title "is because
the author is convinced that it expresses the essence of the work much more clearly.
"Marinero en Tierra" might deal strictly with a specific work of Alberti,
but the idea of this concert is much wider-ranging, as is the life and work of
the poet."
Norberto
Torres Cortés
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