SPECIAL FEATURE. POSTHUMOUS
TRIBUTE TO GASPAR DE UTRERA, FLAMENCO CANTAOR
The Van Gogh of flamenco
Nadia Messaoudi. Seville, March 3rd, 2008
Tribute to Gaspar de Utrera.
Guest artists. Cante: José Mercé, Inés
Bacán, Fernando de la Morena, La Cañeta
de Málaga, Salazar, Tomás de Perrate, Diego
Carrasco, Paco del Pozo, Aurora Vargas, El Lebrijano.
Toque: Moraíto, Pedro M. Peña, Antonio Moya.
On piano: Dorantes. On baile: Concha Vargas and her group.
Sala Joaquín Turina. Centro Cultural CajaSol. Seville
(Spain), March 3rd, 2008. 9 p.m.
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Gaspar de Utrera (Photo
Daniel Muñoz) |
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Gaspar
de Utrera died on Tuesday, February 26th, leaving
the flamenco world in mourning. This night of homage was
prepared by his friends to pay tribute to him, but unfortunately,
it turned into a posthumous tribute. The cantaor from
the Sevillian town of Utrera (1941-2008) will go down
in history as one of the best performers of Andalusian
gypsy cante. “A good gypsy”, according to
Fernando de la Morena. “A brilliant cantaor”,
in the words of José Mercé. “A free
person and a free artist”, according to Antonio
Moya.
Tonight, they all came. In the dressing
rooms, shortly before the tribute began, the artists gathered
recalled their one thousand and one anecdotes. On stage
the gala’s master of ceremonies, journalist Alberto
García Reyes, comments that “Gaspar hasn’t
had the recognition he deserved. However, to fans and
his colleagues he was a guru, whom many call the Van Gogh
of flamenco”. To illustrate it, it’s better
to let the pictures do the talking. In a video recorded
in the late ’90s by Paco Chávez, Gaspar,
smoking his eternal pipe, appears on a big screen to tell
his vision of cante and his best anecdotes about the cows
in Holland or his adventures in Barcelona, Madrid and
Japan.
To open the tribute, José
Mercé, accompanied by Moraíto, performs
a soleá followed by an alegría. Then it’s
time for pianist Dorantes, delighting with his sensitive
music accompanied on percussion by Tete Peña. The
third artist performs the cantes which Gaspar performed
best, an exciting seguiriya. Inés
Bacán, a worthy representative of the Pinini
clan accompanied on toque by Antonio Moya, touched the
auditorium with her interpretation of this deep cante.
Gaspar de Utrera
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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Fernando de la Morena appears on stage
“with his heart up front” for a bulería
with Moraíto on toque. At that moment the tribute
turns into a party like the ones Gaspar de Utrera used
to appreciate. His friends La Cañeta de Málaga
and Salazar have come far to sing for him por bulería
and soleá. The soleá performed by Tomás
de Perrate, Gaspar’s first cousin, is reminiscent
of the deceased cantaor’s echo. Poetry arises with
Diego
Carrasco. Touched, the Jerez-born artist lifts his
head up to heaven to greet the deceased before performing
two of his songs on guitar, ‘Mariposilla verde’
and ‘El Cachorro me dijo’. A young cantaor
from Madrid attended who learned a lot from Gaspar’s
cante. Paco del Pozo humbly performed a soleá.
The climax of this night of tribute is
reached with the wisdom and freshness of Aurora Vargas,
who brought the crowd to their feet. Dressed in black,
she performed those bulerías which the cantaora
and bailaora masters. Touched, the blond gypsy with blue
eyes, Juan
Peña ‘El Lebrijano’, also Gaspar’s
first cousin, gets up on stage to perform soleá
por bulerías and seguiriya, which moved the audience.
And to end this night of flamenco art, all that was needed
was the powerful baile of Concha Vargas. The tribute was
complete and each of the guest artists devoted themselves
to paying homage up to the par of this cantaor with style
and beyond the norms.
