FESTIVAL FLAMENCO CIUTAT VELLA 2007
ULTRA HIGH FLAMENCO/ SON DE LA FRONTERA
Farewell to the individual
Silvia Calado. Barcelona, May 25th, 2007
First part. Ultra High Flamenco
(UHF). Pablo Martín: contrabass. José
Quevedo ‘Bolita’: guitar. Alexis Lefèvre:
violin. Cepillo, Paquito González: percussion/
Second part. Son de la Frontera. Raúl
Rodríguez: Cuban tres, guitar. Paco de Amparo:
guitar. Moi de Morón: cante, compás. Pepe
Torres: baile, compás. Manuel Flores: compás.
14th Festival Flamenco Ciutat Vella 2007. Pati de les
Dones, Contemporary Culture Center of Barcelona (CCCB).
Barcelona, May 23rd, 2007. 10 p.m.
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Son de la Frontera,
Paco de Amparo and Pepe Torres
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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Flamenco’s trend towards individualism
is starting to be broken. There are more and more collective
shows entering the fray. On today’s scene, the most
solid one is that of Son
de la Frontera, who focused and closed the bill of
Festival Ciutat Vella 2007’s fourth day. The band
from Morón brought their second album ‘Cal’
to Barcelona, the city where “we got started as
a band four years ago”. And Raúl Rodríguez,
the group’s tres player, couldn’t have expressed
any better what this concert meant: “We continue
along our way; we’re happy to be able to keep on
doing what we love and to be able to keep on loving what
we do”. All the love turned into music. The concert
kicked off with great rhythm por bulerías, straight
to the point. Clapping, guitar, Cuban tres. And the rusty
echo of Moi de Morón ‘adapting’. The
five of them going along as one, compact and powerful.
Vintage alegrías. Pampering the legacy. The compás
moves on to the ports, turning to tanguillos. The guitar
and the tres are one; they’re complete mutual understanding.
And they use this strength for the bulerías in
which the most popular falsetas by Diego
del Gastor appear.
Thought the audience is now restless
- the concert is over two hours long - and to the left
of the stage another crowd is checking out the chill out
to hear Carles Mestre & La Sinfónica de Gavá,
Son de la Frontera isn’t disturbed in the concentration
required by the tarantas paying tribute to Antonio Maya
Flores ‘El Mellizo’ and Manuel
Torre. As lime is melted, so the two strings liquefy
the song. Slowly, feeling themselves. And the deep dialogue
pierces the stands. The impressive guitar of Paco de Amparo
introduces the soleá. A usual soleá which
Pepe Torres dances. Simple and effective. Stress on the
composure and rhythm. And the audience flips out. The
intensity curve once again falls back with a soothing
song leading up to the epilogue, ‘Bulerías
de la cal’. And it all finishes just the way it
starts. Tremendous rhythm, straight to the point, all
as one, shooting out that flamenco which belongs to the
people.
Ultra High Flamenco (UHF)
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
And if the close was by the ‘veterans’,
the opening was taken care of by a band which is just
getting started. Ultra High Flamenco ‘UHF’,
consisting of five musicians who have in common the accompaniment
of artists such as Marina Heredia, made its third public
appearance, following its début in Helsinki. Contrabassist
Pablo
Martín and percussionist Cepillo - who usually
form a trio with Gerardo Núñez -, violinist
Alexis Lefèvre, Jerez-born guitarist José
Quevedo ‘Bolita’ and percussionist Paquito
González have joined forces on common grounds with
flamenco as their link. But many other influences pervade
the show, which is more about releases than songs. The
repertoire consists of pieces made together such as the
bulerías ‘Carretera del soniquete’
and others composed by some member of the group like the
tangos ‘Alter ego’ by Pablo Martín
(included on the album ‘Doméstica’)
and the rumba ‘La baratita’ by Bolita. And
they work as nearly wide-open spaces in which all the
instruments find freedom of movement. The ease can be
felt of not being constrained to the accompaniment, to
the touch, to the little arrangement, especially in the
case of Alexis
Lefèvre, who shows his true self. Here one
converses, flies and even laughs. Nor missing is the well-wrought
‘comic-musical’ duo of Pablo and Cepillo
which provides so much comic relief in Gerardo Núñez’s
concerts.
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Las Migas (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
In short, there are many fresh, rich
ingredients for cooking. Now the specific recipes and
dishes need to be worked out. And that has to happen on
stages and before the audience, who exceedingly enjoyed
the shared music yesterday. The festival had no fewer
than four groups on the bill. And one of them was ever
so curious. In the evening, the hall was jam-packed by
Las Migas, a female band with vocals, guitars, violin,
accordion and percussion. Flamenco unites them, though
they break away from the jondo in favor of lyricism, instrumental
and vocal soothing of traditional styles, of classics
such as ‘La tarara’ and songs of their own.
That’s their show and here in their hometown, they
already have a name for themselves and a following. Sharing
apparently isn’t evil.
Click
the images to enlarge |
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| Raúl
Rodríguez
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
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Pablo
Martín and Alexis Lefèvre
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
José
Quevedo and Alexis Lefèvre
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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| Alexis
Lefèvre
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
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Pablo
Martín
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
Paco
de Amparo
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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