|
2004 CAJA MADRID FESTIVAL
Segundo Falcón. La Macanita. El Pele
Between heart and throat
Candela Olivo. Madrid, February 20th, 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Artist credits. Segundo Falcón on cante with
Paco Jarana on guitar and Antonio Coronel on percussion. La Macanita on
cante with Manuel Parrilla on guitar and Chícharo and Bo on clapping. El
Pele on cante with Manuel Silveria on guitar and Güito on percussion.
Albéniz Theater. Madrid, February 20th, 2004. 9 p.m.
| |
El Pele
La Macanita
|
| |
|
The Madrilenian audience was awaiting El
Pele last night. It was not until the Córdoba-born cantaor began to
sing that the crowd warmed up and the spontaneous olés - so frequent on
previous evenings - gushed forth in the theater. And that despite the fact that
the artist came with a cold and therefore with his faculties somewhat diminished.
"If I can't with this (he points at his throat), I'm going to do it with
this (he puts his hand over his heart)". The statement of intention dazzled
the crowd, above all because it did not remain just an intention. The Córdoba-born
cantaor, who offered scarcely a few lyrics from his latest album with Vicente
Amigo, 'Canto', gave a brief but intense recital, helped by the skillful guitar
of Manuel Silveria. He started off through soleá, guiding it smoothly to
the hasty finish. That was how he performed all the cantes: delicate caracole
in all the stages, reserving himself for the end. He let another Pele be seen,
alternative to the one of the booming voice and the soaring quejíos, a
Pele of less shining metal, but warmer. The same thing happened in the seguiriya
as in the malagueña and rondeña. He solved the alegrías another
way, with the same fine results: saying the lyrics ('made in' Isidro Muñoz),
more than singing them. Without breaking the festive line of the cantiñas,
he chose bulerías to finish up. He not only did so standing, but also doing
without a microphone, as if wishing to squeeze himself. And not settling for that,
he finished solo with a batch of tonás. "Since I felt real bad, I
went out and asked everyone I saw about you". A standing ovation, of course.
The crowd had been colder in the first part, perhaps influenced by the weather.
Even with La
Macanita, who is in herself all warmth. The Jerez-born cantaora, decked out
in a colorful flowery flamenco costume, did an introduction through tientos, her
voice toasted, mellow. Time, nearly at a standstill. The change to tangos positivized
the rhythm. And she looked back and she looked at herself, with lyrics from 'La
luna de Tomasa'. "If you know that in love...". She wanted to remember
her Jerez in the soleá, splitting, scratching, her back to the party. And
she thus carried on through seguiriyas, withdrawn, simmering. Like a good actor,
she radically changed registers and attacked with the bulería, that which
is sung and danced, that beginning with age-old verses, she continues with some
choruses from her album and finishes off with a variety song, now at the foot
of the stage and completely absorbed in the role of someone love-stricken. Was
she a little inattentive? So it seemed. She left the grand finale to her clappers,
who drew it out in bailes lacking substance and bordering on the tragicomic.
Segundo Falcón |
|
| |
|
The cast's hardest role had gone to Segundo
Falcón. If he had wanted to, he would have been able to please the
old-fashioned spectators in this festival, but he chose to take risks. And he
was not understood. To begin with, he drifted away from all the rest upon surrounding
himself with music (two guitars and one percussion) not merely accompanying him.
The truth is that he took some time to relax and warm up, but that is what the
cantiñas he started the recital with were for. And right there and then
he let the wealth of this cante worker's throat be seen. The creativity of Paco
Jarana's guitar pampered him all the while. He sounded strong and sensitive
in the granaína, Frasquito Yerbagüena's fandango and the rondeña,
with beautiful hinges between one style and the next. He shied away from orthodoxy
and that enervated many, especially in the caña, which he revised at his
leisure without concealing his affection for Enrique
Morente. Nor was the devotion and creativity rewarded with which he performed
the seguiriya, full of musical nuances, modern and intense. Valor has its price.
But pleasing is as easy as pulling all the right strings, generally much simpler
ones. And there stood those fandangos that the audience applauded enthusiastically...
magazine@flamenco-world.com
|
