SEGUNDO FALCÓN + CHEKARA ORCHESTRA OF TETOUAN + MAHARAHÁ ORCHESTRA OF RAJASTHAN. ‘NO MAN'S LAND’. SEVILLE'S 2004 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO

Brothers

Silvia Calado. Seville, September 7th, 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

‘Tierra de nadie’ (‘No Man's Land’). Segundo Falcón: cante. Paco Jarana and Salvador Gutiérrez: guitars. Antonio Coronel: percussion. Jeromo Segura, Vicente Gelo, Inma Rivero: choruses. Bobote and Eléctrico: rhythm and clapping. Chekara Orchestra of Tetouan: Jallal Chekara, voice and violin; Yousser el Hosseieni, lute and voice; Fathi Ben Yakoub, violin; Youssef el Mezguildi, voice; Mouhssine Koraichi, kanoon; Ahmed Ahnin, darbuka. Maharaha Orchestra of Rajasthan: Barkat Khan, voice and sarangi; Bachu Khan, voice and kartals; Husain Khan, voice; Mustak Khan, dholak. Seville's 13th Bienal de Flamenco 2004. Hotel Triana. Seville, September 7th, 2004. 10 p.m.

“Cante doesn't belong to anybody; it belongs to the people, to the world”. Segundo Falcón reaches this conclusion as a result of the research he did to create the show ‘Tierra de nadie’ ('No Man's Land'), in which he shakes hands with Indian and North African musical tradition. Following previous experiences with both of them separately, the Sevillian cantaor ventures with a pioneer three-way encounter which, in short, is “a cultural dialogue based on the kinship of Arab and Indian music to flamenco”. Moreover, so as not to take it out of context, the concert took place at the Hotel Triana, a neighborhood courtyard with the sky as its roof, in the heart of a neighborhood mothering flamenco.

Without anyone having to give up the orthodoxy of his music - since “we don't do fusion”-, the Rajasthani Khan family, the Moroccan Chekara family and a flamenco ‘family’ led by Segundo Falcón, displayed the convergence of their music with naturalness that gives the real thing, what flows, what is not forced. And the audience understood it with that same attitude, without concealing their surprise to discover that the Triana toná is the same as that of Tetouan and that of Rajasthan.

Surrounded by a solemn religious aureole, two Maharaha members began the concert seated on stage. One voice, the sarangi - a string instrument - and all the inner melancholy of cante jondo. From the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, Jallal Chekara and Yousser el Hosseieni, voices, violin and lute, showed another version of solo cante with string accompaniment. And from flamenco, Segundo Falcón, with two guitars and percussion, offered the same in the shape of a granaína and rondeña. This said, the time comes to shake hands... two ways: the flamencos, now with choruses and clapping; and the Indians, with another vocalist and the percussion of the dholak. The latter come in, with the evocative polyphony of their voices, turning out to wander along well-known rhythms, no less than with the cadence given to the bulería in Lebrija. Segundo Falcón sings lifelong lyrics, the Indian friends do the same and the hinge is a chorus they all sing together: “Tengo, tengo, tengo, yo no tengo ná” ("I have, I have, I have, I don't have 'nothin' "). And the crowd accompanies, cheers and is fascinated.

The Chekara Orchestra finishes completing itself with the kanoon (string), another violin and the darbuka (percussion). And it turns out that their sound goes through tanguillos (see online video). The flamencos respond to this through soleá, with a connection of exquisite taste and sensitivity from one beat to another. The cantaor displays all the pitch and purity of his throat evoking the flamenco tradition he so deeply knows. The Indian orchestra takes over again with ‘Holi’, with three voices and all its instrumentation. The group's patriarch wins over the crowd with his drumming (kartals) and his so... flamenco gestures. How nice it is that all of them remain on stage, enjoying and respecting one another. But if there was a shared moment of enjoyment, it was that of the seguiriya in which everyone came together. The darbuka, box drum, guitars, dholak... and Jallal sings in Arabic. In the first phase, he gets a unanimous olé. And now Segundo Falcón in Spanish and then Bachu Khan in Indian tongue. The audience understands all the quejíos, all the instruments, all the ways to reach the same place. The understanding is like magic; upon coming together in the opening the crowd goes into ecstasy. And there are still a few more things to show. The Chekara Orchestra brought a song through tangos, as familiar to our ears as ‘La Tarara’. The cadence, like a malagueña, gives cause for the cantaor to recall - as he had already done before with Silverio Franconetti and with Tío José de Paula - the legacy of El Piyayo and of Triana itself, to whom he devotes lyrics that wrench tears out of more than one neighbor. The concert comes to an end. And it does so with cantiñas - oh, yes - shared by the Indians and the flamencos, the former grasping the chorus ‘Pankira’ and the latter using La Niña de los Peines and her lyrics. The crowd calls for an encore with genuine euphoria. And they get it: a trio through tonás consisting of Jallal Chekara, Segundo Falcón and Husain Khan, the youngest son of the Indian family (twelve years old) whom a while later in the courtyard was heard to say, “Hemos formado el taco” ("We've formed the mess") in recently-learned Spanish.

Criteria for cultural policy Rafael Amargo       That Seville's Bienal de Flamenco is vetoed by many flamenco artists and that most of the premieres it produces die the very day they are born, is a very well-known fact. In the presentation to the press of the show ‘Carmen Amaya, Evocaciones’, directed by Pilar Távora and starring Juana Amaya, the matter was brought up. And it was Rafael Amargo who dared. The Granada-born bailaor - who attends this festival for the first time as Juana Amaya's guest - said “if I did a production for the Bienal, I'd go around the world promoting it for four years. What a shame that so many brilliant shows are presented here that are a début and farewell. Why aren't there any co-productions with other festivals? Why aren't these shows scheduled to run later on?” Moreover, he pointed out that “I look at the program of each Bienal... and it's always the same people”. On the thread of this reflection, stage and theater director Pilar Távora pointed out that “the policy doesn't have to make everyone happy. You have to be selective and have some criteria. Culture isn't made in offices, it's made out and about; in the offices, culture is supported. Sometimes the only criteria used are of local interest and we forget that those investments may have very important repercussions all over the world”. Meanwhile, the management of this festival goes from hand to hand, depending on the political tendency governing Seville City Council, and is not entrusted to professional managers...

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