2005 FLAMENCO PA TOS FESTIVAL. SON DE LA FRONTERA. TANA. GÜITO

Last night of magic

Silvia Calado. Madrid, June 23rd, 2005

2005 Flamenco Pa Tos Festival. Son de la Frontera. La Tana. El Güito. Medical Association. Madrid, June 23rd, 2005. 9 p.m.

Son de la Frontera (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The sixth edition of the Flamenco Pa Tos Festival concludes with a generous dose of flamenco. The effects of this intensive session of around four hours are sure to be long-lasting. Each and every artist included on the bill offered a nearly complete performance. Beginning was Son de la Frontera, the group recreating the legacy of Diego del Gastor, adding the Cuban tres. Raúl Rodríguez, Paco de Amparo, Moi de Morón, Pepe Torres and Manuel Flores, two years after making their début at this same venue, offered an energetic concert feeding on renewed tradition. Bailaor Pepe Torres was in charge of getting things started with baile and rhythm. Bulerías. The tres and guitar kick off their lively dialogue between metal and nylon. The cante utters some lyrics. Raúl Rodríguez arches his back over the instrument from the other side of the ocean and the air starts to vibrate. Tense. Intense. A rock attitude. Flamenco soul. Now there are two guitars and the baile is through soleá. Serene. Old cante. Rest. The usual flamenco group style. And full steam ahead with bulerías. So much so, that the audience ended up on its feet. There were still the vintage alegrías of a West Indian air not included on the début album ‘Son de la Frontera’, those tangos that bring out the fun side of flamenco and another party through bulerías, this time decorated with the clapper's street pataítas and the most famous flourish by Diego del Gastor, who was there “with his music, with his heart and with his truth”.

La Tana would arrive following the break, perfectly accompanied by Daniel Méndez on guitar and Piraña on box drum. The cantaora, who starts off her career endorsed by Paco de Lucía, performed a thoroughly festive repertoire, the same one making up her first album, ‘Tú, ven a mí’. Although she began with soleares, she soon changed to a bulería tempo; the same thing as with the seguiriya ‘Tus consejos’. La Tana sings high, forcing machines into maximum overdrive. Reminiscent of Remedios, Montse Cortés, the most extreme Camarón. And tangos and bulerías and the little rumba that gives the album its name. Between cantes, she talked to the audience, who appreciated her simplicity, her congeniality. When she came up to the front of the stage, brimming over with vocal and bodily strength and no microphone, she ended up conquering a crowd which she had already more than won over.

The festival's finishing touch would be provided by El Güito. The bailaor recovered the star of his repertoire: the soleá. A museum piece the maestro still spreads around stages, faithful to himself. Rest, austerity, simplicity, elegance, time at a standstill. The crowd gave it a standing ovation. And next, it was the turn of those following his school. Three bailaores started the seguiriya, and a restrained Maripaz Lucena finished it off. The maestro's mark. The male trio returned to dance alegrías, with the same neat, straightforward method. And it turned out to be the end. It was past 1 a.m., and the audience was so exhausted that they didn't demand the customary encore. So concluded the sixth Flamenco Pa Tos Festival, a solid, warm guarantee of an “exquisite” program. Even Guillermo Fesser, half of the organizing duo, confessed he's become a flamenco enthusiast after six years. And who wouldn't take a liking to flamenco at this special event that puts “the crowd at the same level as the artists”? And all of it, at the moderate price of fifteen euros and the satisfaction that it is going to help finance the Gomaespuma Foundation's charity projects.

magazine@flamenco-world.com