2007 CAJA MADRID FLAMENCO
FESTIVAL. DIEGO CLAVEL / CARMEN LINARES
Classical cante from yesterday
and today
S.C. Madrid, January 30th, 2007
First part: Sabiduría (Wisdom).
Diego Clavel: cante. Second part: De
aire y madera (Of air and wood). Carmen Linares:
cante. Juan Carlos Romero, Paco Cruzado: guitars. Edu
Lozano: baile. Antonio Coronel: percussion. Ana González
and Javier González: choruses and clapping. 15th
Caja Madrid Flamenco Festival 2007. Teatro Albéniz
(Madrid), January 30th, 2007. 8:30 p.m.
Diego Clavel and Antonio
Carrión (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
Madrid has another date with the jondo
art. The Caja Madrid Flamenco Festival begins its fifteenth
edition, which will bring an abundant display of today’s
classical flamenco to the Teatro Albéniz until
Saturday, February 3rd. Now then, as it is the event’s
trademark, the stress is on cante. And thus was confirmed
by the lineup on the first night, split up between cantaor
Diego
Clavel and cantaora Carmen Linares. The cantaor from
Puebla de Cazalla gave a master class on old-time cante
alone with Antonio Carrión on guitar. The Jaén-born
artist presented a group performance which updates traditional
cante musically and formally with simplicity and elegance.
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Carmen Linares
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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Diego Clavel takes a seat at the center
of the stage with the ease of someone who is gathering
with friends. Good-natured and humble, he shared details
out loud with the entire audience which one never dares
to ask ‘Mr. Perfect’ next to you. He announced
that he would sing the caña, but as Romualdo Molina
once recommended to him, starting it off por soleá,
a soleá de Triana attributed to Pinea. He continued
with a string of cantiñas, sticking in the soleá
- “which sounds more like cantiñas to me”
- by Jerez-born Carapiedra. The malagueñas were
by Maestro Ojana, “which I heard from Vallejo”,
and one of the five by Antonio Chacón, “and
there are some out there who say he had seven and this
is the one he’d taken from El Canario”. And
he ended with the fandango abandolao by Juan Breva. “Since
I don’t like to be a bore, I’m going to continue
por tientos and I’ll finish por soleá and
seguiriya. In the soleá, as he let on, he didn’t
leave Alcalá. And the seguiriya... may ‘Mr.
Perfect’ say who it was by. It turns out that he
taught this entire illustrated encyclopedic class accompanied
by the expertise of Antonio Carrión, prudent and
firm, at times searching for something more than just
reliability in his voice. In fact, all the riskiest details
were showered with olés.
And the thing is that the crowd at this
festival openly leans towards the rawest format. They
were cold with Carmen
Linares, who without betraying traditional cante,
brought a new concert format: ‘De aire y madera’.
A simple but necessary staging wrapped up the performance,
done with her usual repertoire, but differently. And having
a great deal to do with that change is guitarist Juan
Carlos Romero, many of whose compositions were included
in the show. And it was lovely to see the maestra borrow
pieces by young disciples such as Miguel Poveda, from
whom she did the soleá ‘Náufragos
del hambre’ off the new album ‘Tierra
de calma’ which he presents tomorrow, and by
Arcángel, from whom she wonderfully performed the
song ‘Canto de los desengaños’ off
his album ‘La calle perdía’. That says
a lot about the artist, at least as an enthusiast.
Antonio Coronel
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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Getting back to toque, it might have
something to do with the icy reaction of the audience,
so little used to such ethereal, so extremely subtle accompaniment.
But the result together with Carmen Linares’ voice
was of exquisite taste. Moreover, the cantaora’s
voice is in a state of such maturity that it is full of
soothing wisdom. And it is so both in the group pieces,
as when it remains alone with the guitar, delving deep
into cantes such as the seguiriya by Tomás el Nitri
‘En Lima murió’ off her latest album,
‘Un ramito de locura’. And she endows the
cante, whichever one she does, with grandeur and prestige
well beyond the ordinary. And that is seen not just in
the vocal work, but even in the way she presents it. In
this ‘De aire y madera’, it’s bailaor
Edu Lozano (guest in the latest show by Eva Yerbabuena)
who is in charge of ‘turning on’ each instrument,
from the solitude of his skillful heel tapping, from his
concentrated figure. And the group takes shape little
by little: percussion, clapping, guitar... and the lady’s
cante in the suggestive cabal tone.
