SEVILLE'S 2006 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO
VICENTE AMIGO, ‘UN MOMENTO EN EL SONIDO’

Involved guitar

Silvia Calado. Seville, September 18th, 2006
Translation: Joseph Kopec

‘Un momento en el sonido’. Vicente Amigo: guitar, music. José Manuel Hierro: second guitar. Blas Córdoba: cante. Patricio Cámara: percussion, voice. José Manuel Posada ‘Popo’: bass. Fidel Cordero: keyboards. Paquito González: percussion. Seville's 14th Bienal de Flamenco 2006. Teatro Lope de Vega. Seville, September 18th, 2006. 9 p.m.

Vicente Amigo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

A pending matter for Vicente Amigo is to compose a piece up to the beauty of the Sevillian Callejón del Agua. Yes, that place which Lole y Manuel sang to. And it turns out that his mother was born there: “She didn't tell me about it until recently and I told her that she should show off more for having been born in that lovely place”. Dedicated to her was this concert which, by then, was going into the fandango ‘Mensaje’. A special bolo, since “playing at such emblematic sites is what we artists struggle for all our lives”. When he started speaking in such a relaxed way with the audience, the Córdoba-born guitarist already had the entire theater bewitched with his magic. He'd taken each and every one of those present by the hand and led them to that vague terrain where he takes a stab at being free on the six strings. And the naturalness he makes the guitar sound with rubbed off on them.

Next, surrounded by the sextet, he got ready to reel off the songs from his latest album, ‘Un momento en el sonido’. Ever so soothingly, percussions, keyboards, basses and voices decorate the guitarist's compositions. And the thing is he never loses sight of the very best degree of legibility to reach listeners. There's ‘Campo de la verdad’ to endorse it, flamenco bulerías split by Blas Córdoba's quejío, dedicated to bullfighter José Tomás. But now the bullfighter is Vicente Amigo, his muleta is the guitar, and this is his faena. The music, “marvelous”. The audience, “marvelous”. The concert flows on a first-name basis. And that complicity matters. ‘Tangos del Arco Bajo’ continues along the path of creating ambiences where, suddenly, the feeling bursts out. Passes and dodges. Until the farruca ‘Silia y el tiempo’ arrives, a huge composition where Vicente Amigo launches a premonition of the future.

This artist is pleasing in his intimate moments, in those moments where pieces fit in like the taranta lending its name to the album. The music thus breathes in solitude. But it's only an instant. Without wishing to break up the climate, the band returns... nearly on their tiptoes. The keyboard disguises itself as an accordion. And the stage seems to sway. ‘Rocamador’ starts the crescendo leading up to bulerías. Lyrics by Blas Córdoba feed the ardor of the landscape, a place for presentations. The temperature fluctuates. From the burning of the rumba ‘Demipatí’, to the mildness of ‘Bolero a Marcos’. The guitarist is generous, says he has “put all my soul into it” and thanks those present “for having come to share emotions with us; we don't deserve so much”. And the audience is the one who wants to make their gratitude clear to him, since such beautiful emotions as the ones Vicente Amigo gives away are few and far between. ‘Oriente Mediterráneo’, all light, closes to a thunderous standing ovation marking the beat. Time for compliments and requests. But the guitarist wishes to detach himself from the ‘sheet music’ for a little while, play por bulerías, listen to cante... be flamenco and free.

Argentina / Daniel Navarro. Teatro Alameda, 10 p.m. Argentina (Photo: Luis Castilla)   Huelva-born cantaora Argentina and bailaor Daniel Navarro shared the bill to inaugurate the program at the Teatro Alameda, a venue which the 2006 Bienal has devoted to the latest generation of flamenco. Photos: Luis Castilla. 2006 Bienal Further information Interview with Argentina, cantaora

And tomorrow...   Isabel Bayón (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)     Isabel Bayón, ‘La puerta abierta’. Teatro Central, 9 p.m. The Sevillian bailaora completes the sketch she already displayed last December at Flamenco Thursdays. “I feel like tomorrow is its full-fledged premiere”, she commented at a press conference. The artist now enjoys the special collaboration of Miguel Poveda, “who I'd intended to work with since we coincided at the Grec Festival and contributes a different sensation to the show”. The stage director, Pepa Gamboa, remarks that it is a show which is “free, simple, unpretentious, which lays out the stage as a place of freedom for the performer, as well as a reflection about Andalusian people, fatalists par excellence”. Following the play ‘La mujer y el pelele’ – premiered at the previous Bienal-, Isabel Bayón wanted “something more intimate”. And that's what she offers in this renovated show where, as Gamboa announces, “we'll see a mature Isabel, not giving in an inch, who dances what she wants to”.

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