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SEVILLE’S 2006 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO. ‘LA NOCHE DE
PEPE HABICHUELA’
A tale with a future
Silvia Calado. Seville, October 13th,
2006
‘La noche de Pepe Habichuela’.
Pepe Habichuela and Josemi Carmona: guitar
and directors. Pitingo, Pepe Luis Carmona, Amparo Bengala:
cante. Carles Benavent: bass. David Paniagua: baile. Carlos
Habichuela, Carlos Carmona: guitar. Bandolero, Nono Carmona,
Juan Carmona: percussion. Stage director: Pepa Gamboa. Seville’s
14th Bienal de Flamenco 2006. Teatro Central. Seville, October
13th, 2006. 9 p.m.
Pepe Habichuela (Photo:
Daniel Muñoz) |
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Pepe
Habichuela’s night started off on a screen at the
back of the stage. To the sound of his guitar, Enrique Morente’s
voice could be heard as he strolled around the narrow streets
of Granada. Seeming to come out of one of them was he who
named the night, with his guitar at the ready, prepared to
shape a huge granaína. And his ancestors come to stay.
In the background, a moon has come out which deserves toque
por soleá. Wise music which instills respect, which
includes tradition, but which advances in time. And the musician
wants to invite his clan, Los Carmona of Graná. Accompanied
by his brother Carlos on second guitar, he plays ‘El
Dron’, fandangos de Huelva, but composed. The star guitar
just as easily turns cantaor and melodic as it does rhythmic
and high energy. Toque of superimposed contrasts: the old
and the fresh, the sweet and the powerful.
The film in the background, ‘Herencia
flamenca’ by Michael Meert, speaks about his deceased
brother Luis, “the beacon of Los Habichuela”.
And his son comes out at the front to sing a martinete whose
anvil is the dry body of the guitar. The sentimental for the
artistic. But Pepe Habichuela comes back in with his guitar
por seguiriyas. And he makes them rhythmic, lively. He has
three percussions, though Bandolero would be enough. Guitar
which has faith in space. The intuition to draw upon the ‘staff’
is impressive. The mighty and the beautiful. Honey and steel.
It is told on the screen at the back that Pepe Habichuela
got married to the daughter of Triana-born fandanguero Miguel
Bengala at the Church of Santa Ana. And then comes old-time
bailaora Amparo to recall it more with her heart than her
throat. That’s what family tributes are like. The concert
goes on with a piece por bulerías with guitar and percussions.
The sound doesn’t seem to be very much on the side of
what isn’t guitar. And the suspicion is confirmed in
the taranto by Pitingo, which he has to sing amidst noises
from the microphone. Even so, you can appreciate his refined,
well-fitted echo, perhaps not taken advantage of in this family
performance. Next, he moves over to the left-hand side together
with Pepe Luis Carmona, clapping and choruses por alegrías.
The guitar swells and he naturally shows off his capacity
to seek out the roots and revive them. A touch of baile by
David Paniagua, a bailaor of the crop of Antonio Canales who
seemed to be lacking a script here and quickly drifted to
‘kicks’ por bulerías.
The footage brings up his collaboration with trumpet player
Don Cherry, Antonio Carmona’s early days on box drum
(and of the box drum in flamenco), Pepe Habichuela’s
arrival in Madrid and what happened there: new flamenco. Thirty
years later, that musical ‘revolution’ materializes,
now steady and matured, on the strings of Carles
Benavent’s bass and Josemi
Carmona’s guitar, recently intertwined on the album
‘Sumando’. A bass finally sounds right. Benavent’s
music is divine; what authority, what feeling. And how timely
it would have been to schedule a concert by this duet in a
Bienal for youths, the audience this festival has yet to capture.
And all of them stay there to recreate the song which, for
the time being, represents Pepe Habichuela’s peak: ‘Yerbagüena’.
Too bad about the sound quality of the accompaniment, though
it wasn’t an isolated problem... generally speaking,
it hasn’t been a Bienal with good sound quality. Even
so, there’s no technical negligence which can outmuscle
this piece synthesizing a tale with a future, a musician’s
biography, a family’s essence. All that’s left
now is the family celebration around the cooking pot, the
tangos of Sacromonte, the party cantes, the women’s
bailes, the grandchildren’s clapping... and Pepe Habichuela.
| And tomorrow... ‘Gitanas’.
Teatro Lope de Vega, 9 p.m. The nights
of Friday, October 13th and Saturday the 14th
star the women who La
Farruca has invited to be a part of the show
‘Gitanas’. As the Sevillian bailaora
explained, “I felt like bringing together
these great artists who are still active, and
to a point, have been forgotten such as Juana
la del Revuelo, Angelita Vargas, Pilar la Faraona...
And I wanted to remember the past, when there
weren’t so many comforts and, nevertheless,
there was pure flamenco”. The show, “in
which we respect each other’s art”,
moreover includes the participation of cantaoras
Encarna Anillo, María Vizárraga
and Mara Rey. ‘Gitanas’ has already
been seen at previous flamenco events such as
the last edition of the Mont de Marsan Festival
(see
review, photos and video).
Photo: Bienal de Flamenco
de Sevilla
Further information
- Interview
with La Farruca, bailaora
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magazine@flamenco-world.com
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