2010 CAJAMADRID FLAMENCO FESTIVAL
TRIBUTE TO LOS PELAOS • DIEGO EL CIGALA
Flamenco - too - is Madrid
Silvia Calado. Madrid, February 17th, 2010
Toni el Pelao and La
Uchi. Festival Caja Madrid 2010 (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
|
Tribute to Los Pelaos of Madrid. Toni el Pelao:
baile, directing. La Uchi: baile. José
Anillo, Pepe Jiménez: cante. Luismi Manzano, Juan
Serrano: guitar/ Diego el Cigala: cante.
Diego del Morao: guitar. Jumitus: piano. Yelsi Heredia:
contrabass. Jerry González: trumpet. Piraña:
percussion. 18th CajaMadrid Flamenco Festival. Teatro Circo
Price. Madrid, February 17th, 2010. 9 p.m.
Madrid hasn’t only been a receiver
of flamenco, but also a transmitter. It was and continues
to be so. The Spanish capital is missing the localist pride
which other cities have, and it’s really hard for
it to brag and defend its own. There’s room for all
of us here, no matter where we’re from. But the day
had to come, and more of them will have to do so, when Madrid
vindicated its own, boasting of it and looking after it.
That is what finally happened on the third day of the Caja
Madrid Flamenco Festival, devoted to flamenco… from
Madrid. Yesterday’s and today’s, since the bill
was shared by Toni
el Pelao & La Uchi and Diego el Cigala. The former,
historical baile, lively roots. The latter, today’s
cante, a cosmopolitan mixture. And both parts united by
the transparent thread of what has been experienced in this
city by flamenco and by flamencos for over a century.
Toni
el Pelao and La Uchi. Festival Caja Madrid 2010 (Photo
Daniel
Muñoz) |
Toni
el Pelao and La Uchi. Festival Caja Madrid 2010 (Photo
Daniel
Muñoz) |
That’s more or less the age of the
dynasty represented by Toni el Pelao, the oldest bailaor
family in flamenco... which is from Madrid. And the show
was laid out as a tribute to the legacy of El
Gato, de Faíco, de Fati and Juan el Pelao, with
its delightful caña duo, with its authentic farruca,
with its feminine alegría, with its intense romera
and with its ability to make the minimum huge, to make the
ancient new, to go to the core of emotion, to dominate the
nuances, to maximize the elegance of posture, to overgauge
the value of contention, to respect the floor which one
treads upon.
But last night was something more than
those bailes and that sacred way they have of performing
them, this time with the painstaking company of cantaores
José
Anillo and Pepe Jiménez, as well as guitarists
Luismi Manzano and Juan Serrano. A few months ago, Toni
suddenly suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm, having a
life-or-death operation. Toni won and life won. And he promised
the team of surgeons that he’d dance in front of them.
He did so last night. In the middle of the thunderous final
ovation, he hushed the crowd and gave “thanks to them
and to God for letting me return… and I think it’s
going to be for a while”.
Tears were then shed up on stage, in the
audience and also backstage. Toni and Uchi absorbed what
they had just been through right there. And right there
they remained, going through the ritual of putting away
the wardrobe while Diego el Cigala was reeling off his performance.
Which, by the way, he dedicated to Fernando Terremoto, something
which none of the artists had done so far (although the
organization did do so in the first minute of the festival).
Toni
el Pelao. Festival CajaMadrid 2010
(Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
And while the Madrilenian cantaor was singing
the toná, the taranta and then the soleá,
Ramón
el Portugués and Toni el Pelao were telling stories
backstage. They, who’ve known one another since they
were little and have also known Dieguito since he was a
boy, spoke about half a century or more of flamenco from
Madrid. Ramón threw his hands up in horror as he
recalled the positioning of Toni’s father, Juan el
Pelao, who was a leading figure his entire life exclusively
dancing the farruca. And they shook hands several times,
like fine gentlemen, when agreeing on Caracol’s genius,
on the fact that Carmen Amaya was out-of-this-world and
on how Camarón was capable of making fourteen thousand
people roar at Madrid’s Palacio de Deportes by just
warming up with a soleá.
Diego el Cigala. Festival
Caja Madrid 2010 (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
|
Little by little up on stage, Cigala took
his voice towards that latin-flamenco encounter which has
massively won over audiences here and elsewhere. Carried
on the shoulders of the Caribbean-New York trumpet
of Jerry González, Jumitus on piano, Sabú
Porrina on percussion, Diego
del Morao on guitar and the Cuban contrabass of Yelsi
Heredia, he delighted those present with his personal versions
of ‘La bien pagá’ and ‘Dos gardenias’.
And while the crowd applauded, Toni and Ramón had
reached two conclusions. One, that “flamenco is three
feelings”. The other, that flamenco history can’t
fall into oblivion. And the truth is that’s how we
feel every time artists like Toni el Pelao and La Uchi are
given their deserved place and they come out to refresh
the awful memory that we have nowadays.
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