SEVILLE’S 2006 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO. DORANTES IN CONCERT

Open piano

Silvia Calado. Seville, October 11th, 2006

‘Dorantes en concierto’. Dorantes: piano, music. Tete Peña: percussion. Manolo Nieto: bass. Seville’s 14th Bienal de Flamenco 2006. Teatro Central. Seville, October 11th, 2006. 9 p.m.

Dorantes (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

You can tell by how concise the lineup details are. Neither string quartets, nor cantaores, nor Indian tablas... Dorantes now seeks intimacy. An aim which strives for nothing other than proximity to the listener. That’s why he put twenty seats up on stage, to be surrounded by an audience. Moreover, since there’s nothing up his sleeve, he took the top off the piano and left it as open as his own music. This concert is a new exercise in freedom, even with regards to flamenco. It’s always been at the roots of his discourse, but never so little demonstrated. Though the soleares and bulerías were sensed, the core of the show wasn’t in the soleares and bulerías. The list of recognized styles – that exercise which conservatives are so fond of – is more than surpassed in the pianist. And the thing is that his music is entirely free.

Dorantes and Manolo Nieto (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The concert kicked off with feeling, with a reminiscent piece: ‘Atardecer’. He continues with that large scope of perspectives which turns his music into pictures. He now lets us in on the compositions which will shape up his third album, promised for the end of the year. And from intimacy to the brightness of sounds which nearly tell tales. At moments, he arranges a round-trip, but he turns around and takes off down uncharted roads. He goes on with a piece of subtleties and nuances, ready to go with the flow. From his latest album, ‘Sur’, he chooses ‘La danza de las sombras’, a song with a playful melody, full of sprinkles and moments of feeling. He looks at the keys for a few seconds and plunges his hands. Flamenco appears as if por soleá, but Dorantes-style, nearly the only one who has managed to unchain piano from guitar. And the rest is free flying without hindrances or obstacles, over the ebony and ivory or over the strings themselves. How beautiful. How many olés. He tackles the home stretch of the concert accompanied by bass and box drum. And the truth is that the piano was enough. The other two instruments might not have captured the climate and discourse of this solo piano, with a little too much of everything. Together, they did something like heel tapping, then going on to the rumba ‘Barrio latino’ and finishing with ‘bulerías’ dedicated to the Peña family, represented in the audience by his father, Pedro Peña, and his uncle, El Lebrijano, among many others. A vigorous, lively piece, very nearly a game. The ovation wasn’t long in coming... or the response called ‘Orobroy’, the beginning of Dorantes.

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