SPECIAL FEATURE. ‘CONTRASTES EN
JAZZ 2’.
PEPE HABICHUELA & DAVE HOLLAND
A sir por bulerías
S.C. Madrid, May 10th, 2008
‘Contrastes en Jazz 2’.
Dave Holland: contrabass. Pepe Habichuela:
flamenco guitar. Josemi Carmona, Carlos Carmona: guitars.
Bandolero, Luis Amador: box drums. Colegio Mayor San Juan
Evangelista Jazz Club. Madrid (Spain), May 10th, 2008.
9 p.m.
Pepe Habichuela &
Dave Holland
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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Flamenco is a type of music in luck.
One of today’s great jazz figures, contrabassist
Dave Holland, has been generous enough to approach the
jondo genre. And the thing is that the devotion has been
on his behalf. Pepe
Habichuela opened the door for him and he let it happen.
This wasn’t an encounter with feedback. With unusual
respect, the English contrabass player has learned to
‘sing’ por mineras, he has contributed his
wise playing to the scores of ‘Yerbagüena’
and he has taught lessons on how to improvise por bulerías.
And before gestures like that, you have to take off your
hat and shout olé... like the audience at the Colegio
Mayor San Juan Evangelista Jazz Club in Madrid did deservingly
on several occasions throughout the concert.
It was also achieved, of course, by the
Granada-born maestro with his toque, which is the same
as always and forever. Por granaínas and por soleá,
the guitarist was shuddering. Music which flows clear
and plentiful, but with just the right pause, with the
ideal weight. And if you have to innovate in some phase,
well then, you innovate... for Pepe Habichuela is the
forerunner of modernity in the family. A consequence of
that up-front way of his is precisely his son Josemi Carmona
- former member of Ketama -, who collaborated in the concert
as a soloist and as second guitar. Following the maestros’
solos, a sweetly-made song called ‘Sumando’
was included, caressed by Holland and then broken by a
dispensable double box drum solo. There must have been
a reason that Pepe came back out on stage applauding Dave.
And then the light came on. The contrabassist
opened. A big olé for him. Pepe followed him, laying
down the law. Cabal. And the two maestros joined knowledge
to give the jondo special jondura. The fandango was an
act of communion, something clean and fresh. Pepe responded
to the ovation with a few words of gratitude, which included
the title of “sir” and “gentleman”
to refer to musician Holland. Who answered him by sprinkling
good sounds onto the intro of ‘Tangos del Cerro’,
a piece with dynamics and magnetism. The same with the
bulería off the album which Habichuela shared with
the Bollywood Strings Band. That is where he sent the
jazz contrabassist, confirming that music knows no limitations...
if the musician has the right training. His solo por bulerías
was absolutely dazzling, with the flamencos clapping out
the rhythm for him. The energy infected the entire band,
which finished the (rightly so) mythical song ‘Johnny’
amidst shouts and olés from the audience. And the
thing is that big things happen here. The encore was inevitable:
the rumba ‘Yerbagüena’,
but with a certain jam session tinge.
Dave Holland, Pepe Habichuela
& Josemi Carmona
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
