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2004 JEREZ FLAMENCO FESTIVAL
Manolete. Chocolate. Ana Salazar
Cruise speed
Silvia Calado. Jerez, February 29th, 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Translation: Joseph Kopec
Artist credits. First half. 'Mi camino'. Manolete:
direction and baile. Judea Maya, Susi Parra, Mara Martínez, Kelian Losada,
Rafael Martos: dance corps. Joni Cortés, Pepe Jiménez: cante. Felipe
Maya, Basilio García: guitar. Bernardo Parrilla: violin. Second half. Chocolate:
cante. Antonio Carrión: guitar. Villamarta Theater. Jerez (Cádiz,
Spain), February 29th, 2004. 9 p.m.
From Bodega de San Ginés to Sala La Compañía, from Sala
La Compañía to the Villamarta Theater, from the Villamarta Theater
to Bodega Los Apóstoles, from Bodega Los Apóstoles to... The festival
goes on from morning to late night, from one end of Jerez to the other. At mid-day,
at the headquarters of the Jerez Wine (Sherry) Regulatory Council, the Spanish
Ballet of Murcia presented to the media 'Penélope', a show choreographed
by Javier Latorre and with music by Carles Benavent. Next, flamenco's
candidacy for the 2004 Prince of Asturias Arts Awards was made official. While
this was happening in the peaceful Bodega de San Ginés, maestros like Matilde
Coral, Belén Maya, Angelita Gómez and Javier Barón were making
students sweat in the different classrooms arranged by the festival, to the beat
of romances, bulerías, alegrías... Those who still had the strength
went in the afternoon to the festival's new venue, Sala La Compañía,
a former Jesuit church now turned into a theater. If the previous day it was José
de Udaeta with 'El secreto de la castañuela' who set foot in the sacred
place, Danza en Compañía did so on Sunday with the show 'Alma morena'.
This young group residing in Madrid offered the crowd filling the building's nave
a double program: the first one, refreshed Spanish classical; and the second one,
a thematic work set in the pictorial work of Julio Romero de Torres, which draws
from Spanish and flamenco. The altar's perimeter was too small for them.
Left: Manolete
Right: Danza en Compañía, Chocolate with Antonio Carrión
It was nearly necessary to run along the old quarter's back streets to reach
the Villamarta in time, which had a bill split in two that night. Manolete
renamed his usual offer as 'Mi camino'. The veteran Granada-born bailaor offered
what has been his star number for years, the farruca redesigned based on the model
of Los
Pelaos; and a baile through alegrías. The maestro relapsed into his
sober, vigorous, solemn, unhurried dance of selected resources and measured rests.
His is a baile of expert details to be savored. The rest of the show was filled
in by an out-of-training dance corps and livened up by a cante and toque group,
whose core was sustained by the violin of Bernardo Parrilla. Chocolate
retorted, perhaps with more concentration and more strength, with the recital
we saw him in last week at the Caja
Madrid Festival. He began with the malagueña, continued through tarantos,
went on through soleá and seguiriyas, "cantes of Cagancho, of Triana",
he did the serrana "which I don't want to be lost", and finished with
a very long string of fandangos "of my creation, which are a protest".
Antonio Carrión kept up the guitar at his pace; slowly, calmly, so that
those over seventy years of voice would find company.
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Ana Salazar |
A slice of Paris
There was scarcely time for a bite to eat. Ana
Salazar was already waiting at the González Byass wine bar to share
her half-bred offer with the audience: a flamenco tribute to Edith Piaf, the lady
of French chanson. The Cádiz-born cantaora and bailaora did her utmost
to shape a repertoire as extroverted as it is intimate, in the folds of the band
directed by Guillermo
McGill, producer of 'Ana
Salazar canta a Edith Piaf'. Accordion, guitar, mandola, contrabass, piano
and percussion wrapped up (and at times drowned out, due perhaps to the hall's
peculiar acoustics) the artist's syrupy little voice, with her rests, her energetic
surges in rhythm, her flash dance, her stage know-how. And the spectators received
her with open arms and goose bumps, thanking her for her confessed sincerity,
nerves and gratitude. 'Padam', 'Comme moi', 'Las hojas muertas', 'El acordeonista'...
were revisited through bulerías, tangos, tanguillos, through themselves
and through velvety jondura. "That such a pretty girl, who's over there in
the corner..." there amidst wine casks, now in the wee hours.
| 2004 Prince of Asturias Awards
The Jerez Festival inaugurated this year's round-tables
with a genuine event: presenting the candidates for the 2004 Prince of Asturias
Awards under the slogan 'Flamenco artists, artists for humankind. By initiative
of the Villamarta Theater Foundation - and having consulted some thirty institutions,
organizations and personalities of this art - competing for these prestigious
awards is a group of artists representing flamenco, headed by Pilar López
as acting president. In the cante category, as Manuel Ríos Ruiz explained,
La Paquera de Jerez, Chocolate, Enrique Morente and Carmen
Linares have been proposed. The guitarists who are candidates are Paco de
Lucía, Manolo
Sanlúcar, Paco Cepero and Juan Habichuela, as detailed by José
Manuel Gamboa, who pointed out that "flamenco guitar has been a phenomenon
introduced worldwide". Rosalía Gómez drew a biographical sketch
of the bailaor candidates Mario Maya, Matilde Coral and Cristina Hoyos, stressing
that "baile has given flamenco its visibility". May the jury decide.
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