Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla 2006. Juan Carlos Romero. Review, photos and online video

‘Suena a romero’. Juan Carlos Romero: guitar, music, musical director. Paco Cruzado: second guitar. Rafael de Carmen: baile. Rafael de Utrera: cante. Antonio Coronel: percussion. Bobote: clapping. Stage director: Pepa Gamboa. Stage design: Antonio Marín. Lighting: Juanma Guerra. Seville’s 14th Bienal de Flamenco 2006. Teatro Central. Seville, October 8th, 2006. 9 p.m.

As natural as romero (rosemary). That’s how Juan Carlos Romero’s guitar flows. Far from technical displays, ornamental elaborations, complex developments..., the Huelva-born guitars opts for a pleasant way of facing flamenco toque. He plays and composes up close, working things out in just the right time, offering listeners comfort. The concert – with three quarters of the seats taken, just like the previous guitar concert – became a long hour of soothing music, taken off his latest album ‘Romero’, released in 2004, with some pieces less and others more. He thus offers some ten pieces adapted to the live show and a transportable group, since on the album besides gospel voices (whose harmonic nuances inevitably come to mind if the work is known), he has three different cante timbres: Arcángel, Estrella Morente and El Vareta. The vocal weight here falls on Rafael de Utrera, who takes care both of complete cantes as well as details. He also has a second guitar, with a somewhat light role – or perhaps the sound system didn’t allow his work to be heard reliably -, Antonio Coronel on percussion, flatter than the previous night with Andrés Marín, the skilled clapping of Bobote and classical baile by Rafael de Carmen. An elegant package of lights and stage design details contribute to lighten the vision of natural static of a guitar performance, one of the star’s aims carried out by Pepa Gamboa and financed by the public coffers via the Andalusian Agency for the Development of Flamenco.

The farruca ‘El tiempo’ worked for him as a prologue. Poetic, evocative music with two well-defined speeds. It marks a climate and a personal tempo which he’ll keep up until the middle of the concert. He goes on with the taranta ‘Río Tinto’, inspired in the mines... but of Huelva. “I’ve tried to dig up the precious metal in the shape of a note”. It has a deep halo, passages of the abruptness of the earth, and finally, the shine of coveted material, which he pampers to the extreme. The group returns and the cante gushes forth. “When I look at it inside, how bitter the soleá is”. Gentle, good-natured guitar. The group – which lacks dynamics – is completed for ‘Fantasía’, embellished by the bailaor arrangements of Rafael de Carmen at a second height in the background decorated with silhouettes sitting on rush-bottomed chairs on top of orange. The concert goes by fluently, with the songs already pre-released, ready to share. Now he feels like ‘Cante libre’ and under a light bulb, he accompanies the minera the cantaor dictates to him. But he accompanies it his way, without falling into the traditional dictations of this style. And the cante grows.

Then halfway through the concert, the tone changes. The light turns bright orange and there’s an air of Cádiz. The alegrías ‘Tran tran’ bring back the outgoing guitarist, still not losing his composure. Note the delicious musical details. The song ‘La sombra’ is full of them, a tribute to Niño Miguel which isn’t just expressed by the guitar and the lyrics. The entire group except for Juan Carlos Romero do the song barefoot. And the thing is they “wanted to show the harshness of Miguel’s situation nowadays; he can be seen wandering around the streets like that, with no shoes, bartering or even singing in exchange for a few coins”. Yet another sample of sensitivity and elegance. Perhaps in the following tanguillos there was that other Niño Miguel from the past; the one of light, vitality, imagination. And from there to the circle of clapping around the guitar, which nearly becomes fiesta por bulerías. The audience applauds wildly, feeling involved in music which has made them feel welcome. As much as in the colorist rumba ‘Isla Canela’, the encore which puts the finishing touch on the third and final solo guitar performance at this festival.

And tomorrow...

Photo: Daniel Muñoz

Tribute to Maestro Granero. Teatro Lope de Vega (9 p.m.). Following the break on Monday, the Bienal goes into its last week of the program with ‘Homenaje al Maestro Granero’ on October 10th at the Teatro Lope de Vega. Dancers and choreographers linked to the dance maestro have joined forces to remember the artist, who died in Seville last spring, through some of his best works. Antonio Canales, Merche Esmeralda, Javier Latorre, and Lola Greco, among others, will perform excerpts from ‘Medea’, ‘Sinfonía española’, ‘Espartaco’, ‘Cuentos del Guadalquivir’... José Antonio, artistic coordinator of the tribute, explained that “it’ll be a night of devotion, recognition and gratitude where the emotions are on the inside; there’ll be no fireworks”. During a press conference charged with emotion, Sevillian bailaora Merche Esmeralda added that “the maestro hasn’t left. No genius in our artform disappears when he leaves. He’s there and we’re going to dedicate our affection and our respect to him. The greats need recognition”. Julio Príncipe, artistic consultant of the tribute, pointed out that “when José Granero used to work with people he considered it a state of love; he always looked for a side of the person. His profession was his refuge in life, since he had problems with existence and he has left his being in his works”.