FESTIVAL FLAMENCO CIUTAT VELLA 2007.
ISRAEL GALVÁN/ CALIMA
Golden future
Silvia Calado. Barcelona, May 26th, 2007
First part. ‘La edad de oro’.
Israel Galván: baile. Fernando
Terremoto: cante. Alfredo Lagos: guitar/ Second part.
Calima, ‘Azul’. David el
Rubio: vocals. Antonio el Flamencorro: vocals and guitar.
Giner el Negro: vocals and rap. Todor Tosco: trumpet.
Mihail El Michel: violin. Juanlu el Cani: bass. Chus el
Tobalo: box drum. E. Vega Muñeco: percussion. Fran
Geniaka: percussion. Laura la Bicha: baile, clapping.
14th Festival Flamenco Ciutat Vella 2007. Pati de les
Dones, Contemporary Culture Center of Barcelona (CCCB).
Barcelona, May 23rd, 2007. 10 p.m.
Israel Galván and Fernando
Terremoto (Photo Daniel Muñoz)
The fifth day of being welcomed with
Sanlúcar manzanilla. The fifth day of “La
fanfare malèfica” providing the soundtrack
while the crowd is being ushered in. The fifth day of
Festival Flamenco Ciutat Vella 2007. The fifth... and
the last. Some eight thousand people have attended the
concerts scheduled since last Tuesday at the Contemporary
Culture Center of Barcelona, becoming accomplices of a
good handful of healthy musical ‘Maldades’
(‘Evils’) related to flamenco. And if one
artist personifies that concept of transgression, of daring,
of evolution, it’s Israel Galván. Like a
few days ago in the series Noches
del Español 2007 in Madrid, he presented ‘La
edad de oro’ together with cantaor Fernando Terremoto
and guitarist Alfredo Lagos. The setting and crowd changed.
Here, they performed outdoors. And that was a burdensome
fact. The imminent risk of rain, the faraway flashes of
lightning, the wind making the stage’s metal structure
creak and the canvases flutter, the seagulls singing in
the rests... knocked up a notch the tension which this
show already has in itself.
But this natural stage was combined with
an overly loose attitude by the audience, with comings
and goings by many verging on the disrespectful. The rest
(now then, the majority) got fully involved with the discourse
by Israel
Galván, enjoying it from the very first grace
note, shouting olés at every close - no matter
how peculiar it was -, bursting out laughing at all his
pranks. The truth is that the context was tailor-made
for him: an old building turned into a forum for today’s
art. And he, building old flamenco from his perspective
as a bailaor of today. Constructing it and deconstructing
it. Offering baile as if in haiku poems made from rhythms
and body motions. And to do so, making use of silence,
of the marvelous cante by Fernando
Terremoto and the brilliant toque by Alfredo
Lagos, who not only accompany, but also have their
place as voting members. The sole condition is to let
themselves be quartered. “Words are unnecessary”,
said the festival’s director during the unanimous
standing ovation. And they’re starting to be unnecessary...
Calima (Photo Daniel Muñoz)
Just a few more lines to relate that
in the second part of the closing night, the ten members
of the Barcelona group Calima took the stage. The band,
brought together by Juanlu el Canijo, ex-bass player of
Ojos
de Brujo, also begins with flamenco, seasons it with
other influences and a bunch of instruments and shakes
it all up. There’s rap, vocals, percussions, bass
solos and a lot of rumpus, besides audiovisuals and touches
of baile. Well, quite similar to the original group. They
already have their audience here and are getting ready
for Spain’s market with an album, published by a
multinational, which is scheduled to be released this
summer. And if there’s something there’s plenty
of at this festival, it’s people’s desire
to move their bodies. Calima’s concert hadn’t
yet finished when the chill out was already filling up
with male and female dancers of the place’s native
tribe, the ‘indie-rumberos’. They ushered
in the early morning hours to the latin beat marked for
them by Dj Mingus. It was hard to believe that just a
few hours earlier, the venue was full of chairs with its
audience seated, listening to cantaora Sara Flores. With
a warm voice and flamenco texture, she performed a repertoire
of versions of songs by cantaores such as the sevillanas
‘A Pastora’ by Estrella
Morente, ‘Válgame dios’ by Niña
Pastori, ‘Nuestros sueños’ by Camarón
and ‘Enamórame’ by La Tana, among others.
Her choice is legit, though unusual in flamenco, a type
of music in which the versions are normally done of old-time
songs, of what is already considered folk heritage. Another
voice, another option on the flamenco horizon, which here
in Barcelona is even broader, freer of biases, naughtier.
Moreover, the city, already fascinating in itself, is
a real delight this time of the year. Well, you can go
from the beach to listen to flamenco cante, with the new
MACBA exhibit in between. Not to be missed.
Sara Flores (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
