|
SEVILLE’S 2006 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO
ESPERANZA FERNÁNDEZ / DIEGO EL CIGALA & SALIF KEITA
Cante’s
designs
Silvia Calado. Seville, September 30th,
2006
Translation: Joseph Kopec
‘Cuatro
guitarras y una voz’. Esperanza Fernández:
cante. María Esther Guzmán: classical guitar.
Miguel Ángel Cortés, Paco Fernández:
flamenco guitars. José Antonio Rodríguez: special
collaboration, arrangements for four guitars. Tete Peña:
percussion. Miguel Vargas, José Manuel Ramos: clapping.
Seville’s 14th Bienal de Flamenco 2006. Teatro Lope
de Vega. Seville, September 30th, 2006
Esperanza Fernández (Photo:
Daniel Muñoz)
Esperanza
Fernández tackles another challenge. She now plays
the role of a mezzo-soprano and with just the accompaniment
of María Esther Guzmán’s classical guitar,
she confronts a repertoire made up of pieces by Turina, Joaquín
Nin, Albéniz and Falla. It isn’t the first time
the Sevillian cantaora has approached this music, but it is
the first time she’s done so with just a classical guitarist...
and female, at that. Merely the picture of the two Sevillian
artists on stage was anthological. And it was a reminder once
more of that persistent question about why there aren’t
any women guitarists in flamenco.
For over forty minutes, the cantaora and the guitarist resorted
to the most exquisite feeling to reel off those delights which
these Spanish national composers were inspired to write by
popular folklore, at the same time so linked to flamenco genetically.
Saeta, farruca, malagueña, seguidilla murciana, lullaby,
polo... came gushing forth in the classical guitar version
by the renowned Sevillian performer – what an ovation
she received for her performance of ‘Asturias’
by Albéniz – and by the cantaora, who in this
case wanted to be a one-hundred-percent lyrical singer. Though
her capacity is taken for granted to fend for herself before
an orchestra, a jazz big band, a dance company, a piano...
still surprising is the awareness with which she tackles these
collaborations, and above all, how she ends up working them
out. She didn’t miss a single note, or a nuance in the
volume, or the tempo, or the virtuosity... And the thing is
that this cantaora is a great musician.
4 guitarras 4. One had already been fought, so in the second
part it was time to face the remaining three, now a full-fledged
cantaora. The first one was that of her brother Paco Fernández,
a guitar brimming over with feeling together with which she
paid tribute to “Fernanda, may she be in glory, one
of flamenco’s most important pillars”. Going out
to the Utrera-born cantaora were the cantiñas de Pinini,
always in her usual repertoire, and the tremendous soleá.
Esperanza Fernández was overflowing. Por bulerías,
now with the mike at the foot of the stage, she did her utmost
in flattering remarks, sudden spurts of baile and impossible
quejíos. And the theater lifted her up with olés,
compliments, cheering. The second guitar was that of her usual
colleague Miguel
Ángel Cortés, together with whom she takes
up a seat at the far right of the stage. The Granada-born
artist’s guitar sounds crystal-clear, with a mighty
flamenco sound, but at the same time, musically elaborated.
Just the right tone for Esperanza’s voice to sketch
out cantes such as mineras and seguiriyas. And then the cantaora
had to be left, with one remaining encounter in store with
Córdoba-born guitarist José
Antonio Rodríguez por fandangos de Lucena and verdiales,
and as icing on the cake, por fandangos de Huelva with her
four bulls, with her four guitars. The flamenco hub moved
to the riverbank, at the gigantic open-air auditorium rising
up next to the monastery of the Carthusian monks where Christopher
Columbus planned part of his voyage to the New World... A
perhaps historical musical encounter was going to be experienced
there - that of Diego el Cigala with Salif Keita.
Diego el Cigala
& Salif Keita, Auditorio de la Cartuja
‘Picasso en mis ojos’.
Diego el Cigala: cante. Diego
del Morao: guitar. Sabú: percussion. Yumitus:
piano. Yelsy Heredia: contrabass. Special collaboration:
Salif Keita. Auditorio de la Cartuja, 11:30 p.m.
Diego el Cigala and
Salif Keita (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
Around five thousand people gathered
at the Auditorio de la Cartuja, answering flamenco’s
call. And that’s news. There are few flamencos
nowadays capable of such a large draw. Diego
el Cigala, following his world tour with ‘Lágrimas
negras’, is one of them. Never before had
he been to Seville’s Bienal de Flamenco,
sometimes so engrossed in what’s from here.
Moreover, he might be the only one at this point
in time able to bring together such a varied audience,
and especially, the younger crowd. Hardly had
Diego
del Morao begun to warm up his guitar and
Sabú to caress the box drum por bulerías,
when a large section of the audience took up the
floor between the stage and the bleachers. And
that, for flamenco, is news. Whatever the ambience
might have been, the Madrilenian cantaor was sure
that he was going to start in jondo terrain. And
he kicked things off por tonás and seguiriyas,
with traditional coplas. Seated on his bar stool,
wearing an elegant black suit, he received the
first ovation from the audience. Por soleá,
he then relied on his latest album, ‘Picasso
en mis ojos’, though he ended up preferring
long-time lyrics, which are as smooth as silk:
“I was a stone and I lost my balance and
I was cast into the sea and after so long, I found
my balance again”. With the introductions
out of the way, he gave thanks “to this
blessed land of so much art and so much duende”.
And then with Yelsy Heredia on contrabass and
Yumitus on piano, he went back over his last few
albums: from ‘La paloma’ to ‘La
bien pagá’, from cantes de levante
to ‘Chanelando’, from the Cuban rumba
to, once again, the Spanish copla. Perfect fellowship
between the quartet, always inspirational for
the cantaor, who is obsessed with good music.
And the crowd, totally involved, chorusing and
clapping when it was fitting. Following the encore
por bulerías, it was time for the climax
of the performance. With a smile from ear to ear
and then some, he invited the great African music
maestro Salif Keita up on stage. They’d
hardly known each other for a day, enough time
for both of them to try out a love song by the
African which El Cigala had previously listened
to and chosen to fit into flamenco tangos. The
two of them were seated facing the audience, with
the cantaor’s musicians and the two vocalists
of the African band, Salif Keita dressed in white,
with his guitar... and the magic started to flow.
The two voices took turns, yielded to one another,
embellished each other. And the brotherly union
flowed naturally. And the thing is that, as the
Madrilenian artist remarked, both of them make
“music of the land, of the people”.
Flamenco welcomed popular African music to its
main festival. And there was Salif Keita with
the audience on its feet, rock-style, shaking
up Seville with his concert ‘M’Bemba’
until three o’clock in the morning. And
we just have to hope that Salif Keita’s
collaboration with flamenco, with Diego el Cigala,
goes further, much further.
Further information
- Interview
with Diego el Cigala, cantaor
Online store
- CD:
Diego el Cigala. Picasso en mis ojos
|
|
And tomorrow...
Tomás
de Perrate
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
|
Tomás de Perrate,
‘Perraterías’. Teatro Central,
9 p.m. The Utrera-born cantaor turns
his album ‘Perraterías’ into
a show with the help of his producer, Ricardo
Pachón. Tomás de Perrate wants to
combine cantes with guitar with baile numbers
by Pepe Torres – a member of Son de la Frontera
– and with a concert in group form, since
as he explained, “he wants to present a
classical way of doing something electric”.
On stage, he’ll have Antonio Moya on guitar,
Ricardo Moreno on electric guitar, Javier Vargas
on bass, Ricardo Pachón Jr. on drums, and
Vicente Peña and Gaspar Fernández
on choruses and clapping. The cantaor announced
that there will also be “a number with my
family, since this album includes things of ours,
of Los Perrate. And in passing, there’ll
be a tribute to my Aunt María la Perrata”.
Further information
- Interview
with Tomás de Perrate, cantaor
Online store
- CD:
Tomás de Perrate. Perraterías
|
|
magazine@flamenco-world.com
|
