GRENOBLE, EUROPE'S FUTURE POINT OF REFERENCE FOR THE ART OF ANDALUSIA

The second edition of 'Les Voix du Cante Flamenco' is the first festival to receive the economic support of the European Union.

Isidoro Cascajo de la Barrera

The more than 7,000 flamenco-lovers and curious individuals who showed up at any one of the 15 venues hosting the second edition of this bienal - between shows, conferences, literary cafés, cinema and expositions - lead to the conclusion that the next festival will have even greater repercussions in Europe's flamenco community. The fact is, Andalusian artists - and those not from Andalusia as well - are carving out yet another place in this cultural melting pot, and getting closer all the time.

Grenoble

The depth and form of flamenco are making a mark on the somewhat over-intellectualized European spectator who is overwhelmed by the exuberant excesses of this "folk opera form" as Calixto Sánchez calls the art which we are here to discuss. The image of "jondo" the festival organization would like to promote was well-reflected in the participation of artists, from young Ezequiel (22), to Diego Clavel (55) or Chano Lobato (74), who have set the marker well on high for two years from now.

Beginning with the order of the festival, Ezequiel showed off his abilities in the palo seco cantes: martinete, soleá, malagueñas... In the first cante it was clear he possesses a wide range of techniques, as well as a sincere delivery. All accompanied by the melodic sound of the guitar of Manolo Franco from Sevilla who pulls amazing falsetas out of his hat, and who immerses the spectator in a ring of compás that leaves you wishing for more. Ezequiel gave a few 'war cries' - without going so far as to give jaleo - giving testimony of the racial tug from the land where he was raised if not born, Jerez de la Frontera.

Manolo did triple service: in addition to the course, he played for Calixto Sánchez and Diego Clavel. With the man from Mairena he showed that his guitar is more than just six strings. Calixto's tribute to Andalusian poets was, for the most part, well-known. In a room full of folkloric paintings - and which was being used for the first time this night - he offered his cantes with accustomed sobriety. Lorca for the soleá, Bécquer for siguiriyas...moving. Flamenco opens up like a flower and Calixto pulls off the tones with knowledge and subtlety. The presentation climaxed with a siguiriya in which the audience was completely enthralled. Whether knocking at death's door or recalling Lola who went to the ports, in the verses of the Machado brothers...tangos of his friend Alberti....indescribable.

And Manolo kept charging like a bull, this time with Diego Clavel, penetrating and profound in a presentation that Laura Vital, the girl from Sanlúcar opened, along with José Luis Postigo. What can one say about Diego? He's in top form and fully mature, precisely ripe. Caña, cantiña, soleá apolá, marianas...all seldom-heard forms which become magical in his voice, a torrent of feeling and embellishment, with long, pure lead-ins. An authentic treat to touch the heart.

Rancapino (Photo: Anahí Carmody)

The festival was getting warmed up. Although the organizers want to encourage interest in jondo flamenco, disdaining the fiesta and easy applause, it's unavoidable that the European audience is most impressed and attracted to the dance, the shawls, the gesturing and the omnipresent footwork. And this was noticeable in the attendance and in the audience's predisposition, since they are much more receptive and the smile never disappears from their lips. In this case they were able to see a quality performance - something all too rare in the cuadros you see throughout Europe - Gerardo Núñez played for his wife Carmen Cortés, with the cante of Guadiana and Vicente Cortés at the guitar, Pablo Martín on bass and el Cepillo on percussion. This was the best-attended show - about 1,250 people. Carmen doesn't stop tapping her way across the ancient continent. In her specialty, the soleá, she demonstrated that fusion is possible.

The Seville foundation "Cristina Heeren", run by an American woman and which participated in the organization, was represented by the singer Javier Hidalgo and the women singers Sonia Miranda and Virginia Gámez, guitarists Raúl Cantizano and Pedro Sánchez "Naranjito hijo", and the dance of Chonchi Pérez and Maribel Ramos, all of whom were treated to the adrenaline rush provided by a first-rate unscheduled artist: Seville's Manuel Soler who donated his services. He was in Grenoble giving some percussion courses and his vocation is clear: upon leaving the Conservatoire National de Region de Grenoble he commented "My elders always lent me a hand, so why shouldn't I do the same for those who are starting out now?" He took over as orchestra conductor and in the end saved the day for a show which was wandering out of compas. He also did his bulerias bit with that special style of his, and everything fell back into its proper place.

The European audience's enthusiasm is very clear: they like flamenco even though they don't understand everything, "but that's what it's all about my friend, that they get the message!" as Chano Lobato pointed out. So perhaps flamenco is not just the stuff of critics and 'specialists', and it has a life of its own, because "the important thing is that they feel it and are moved, and not someone else's idea of how it ought to be" added Chano wearing a natty neckerchief. Although the festival was having great success, a few organizational glitches began to show up at times: from the publicity and promotion, to the low quality of the sound in some of the shows, and the production in general. The fact is, it's very difficult to pull off a festival of this category with insufficient means: everything was done by some ten volunteers who didn't get a cent, and the consequences were noticeable. The president, Dominique Jégou, had a fainting spell due to overwork causing him to spend a day hospitalized, and several young people were left in charge with adverse effects for the development of 'Les Voix du Cante Flamenco'. They themselves realized the shortcomings which were obvious. The most affected was the family Miño Montes, with their adopted children - who are already grandparents - El Eléctrico and Bobote, the uncle - because the ambience made it that way - Enrique Soto and the couple's natural son Pedro Ricardo Miño. The concert was a bit of a waste, there are no other words to describe it. Pepa's footwork could not be clearly heard, and Enrique sounded like a member of the peanut gallery commenting from the dressing-room: "this sounds like a street raffle, but from the seventies". Palmeros and dancers from the Tres Mil Viviendas neighborhood provided a touch of humor and style. The Tres Mil by the way is becoming more and more famous outside Seville and this augurs well for the pure gypsy style in its natural state. Beyond reproach is the musical quality of father and son "although the piano also carries some weight..." said Ricardo junior, because of its solera. The dialogue between guitar and piano made sense and had feeling. And it's because Ricardo Miño sounds like himself. He has his own style, he plays with the strings and the wood. He knows. He seeks sounds whose existence others fail to recognize.

The festival headed down the home stretch with Cristo Cortés y Los Flamencos who were doing double service. A show which broke the festival's general flow as far as quality, since it was a flamenco cuadro whose repertoire is based on rumbas, bulerías and lots of out of compás palmas, as in the dancing, and lots of heelwork...as always.

Marina Heredia from Granada interpreted her latest record 'Me duele, me duele'. She started out with difficult cantes: a martinete sung with sincerity and feeling which was the best thing to come out of her throat. Afterwards she lost her way among some songs, ending with rumbas and bulerías to the guitar compás of José Quevedo 'el Bolita' and José Carlos Gómez. The final touch with traditional airs of Cádiz accompanied by a Granada sound, with none other than Chano Lobato, Rancapino and Juan Carmona Habichuela. They had to come out three times - the more than 300 spectators were witness to the fact that age doesn't affect the voice of the man from Cádiz, and that Rancapino transmits racial purity. The audience enjoyed the gay cante of Cádiz as offered by today's maximum exponent, and the depth and seriousness of someone in the know like the man from Chiclana. And you'd never think that between the three of them there were so many collective years since they were on stage for two and a half hours.

Grenoble's theater saw the finale of the second edition of 'Les Voix du Cante Flamenco'. Originally the festival was to have closed on Sunday, November 25th with Arcángel, José Manuel Cañizares, Antonio Coronel, Roberto Fabbriciani, Ernesto Moliari, Marcus Weiss and Yukiko Sugawara, but according to Dominique Jeou, this was impossible due to financial problems. The thing is "we can't take on all the expense because we need more support, there aren't sufficient funds" she stated. Despite the fact that the European Union had conceded the help, "they don't give us half the money until mid-January 2002, and we couldn't get backing, which put us over-budget." Aside from the shows themselves, we must point out and be grateful for the efforts to reflect a dignified vision of gypsy art with conferences that were given throughout the 15 day duration of the festival. All the forms were dealt with: origins, poetry, the ups and downs of the gypsy background, as well as films and round-tables. An outstanding idea in need of greater economic support and professionalism - one condition is dependant upon the other. But in any case, it was a wonderful well-focused job in light of the 70,000 Euros (nearly 12 million pesetas) provided by the European Union for the art of flamenco, for the artists and for flamenco-lovers in the French Alps. Andalusia is projecting its image to the world - a show of respect and spreading the gospel of its art.