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2005 JEREZ FESTIVAL.
MANOLO SANLÚCAR / JAVIER BARÓN
Growing
Silvia Calado. Jerez, February 27th, 2005
‘Tres momentos para un
concierto’ (‘Three moments for a concert’).
Manolo
Sanlúcar: guitar. Santiago Lara: second guitar.
Carmen Grilo: cante. Francisco González, Jorge Aguilar:
box drum. ‘Notas al pie’ (‘Footnotes’).
Javier
Barón: baile. Isabel Bayón: guest artist.
Juan José Amador, Pepe de Pura: cante. Juan Diego,
Javier Patino: guitar. Alexis Lefevre. Juan Ruiz: box drum.
Villamarta Theater. Jerez, February 27th, 2005. 9 p.m.
Manolo Sanlúcar (Photo:
Daniel Muñoz)
Manolo Sanlúcar and Javier Barón share the
only night with a double program in this ninth edition of
the Jerez Festival. The guitarist does not like the practice
of sharing “because I never know if they've come to
see me”, but in this case he knows that “Javier
is one of my kind, an artist who's in the artform to make
it grow”. That Manolo Sanlúcar is one of the
ones who have truly been in flamenco is obvious, but he took
care of showing so with a journey through his work which lingered
at great works such as ‘Tauromagia’ and ‘Locura
de brisa y trino’. With a nearly didactic attitude,
he framed each piece in its context. And he started off with
‘Añoranza’, “a track I composed when
I was very far away from my native land; they're very calm
alegrías”. From his work inspired by poet Miguel
Hernández, he took ‘Ruiseñor y mirlo’,
a conversation between birds in which he had Santiago Lara
as an interlocutor, who contributed exquisite second guitars
to the entire concert. The maestro recalled that ‘Tauromagia’
originated as a vindication when the European Parliament recommended
for Spain to put an end to bullfighting. ‘Maestranza’
is a great work that has now remained in Spaniards' subconscious
as bullfighting music. He dedicates ‘Tercio de varas’,
vigorous bulerías which more than pleased the audience,
to bullfighter Rafael de Paula.
Cantaora Carmen
Grilo joined the group to go back over the album ‘Locura
de brisa y trino’ and proved to have naturalized over
time the complex cantes performed in the recording by Carmen
Linares. Manolo Sanlúcar had been trying for years
to understand the musical world of that work in which he wanted
to be accompanied by Lorca's poems. “For enthusiasts,
music is divertissement; but for musicians, music is torture
that measures us up constantly. We have to choose between
what is nice and what is good, when they rarely coincide”.
‘Norma’, ‘El poeta pide a su amor que le
escriba’, ‘Gacela del amor desesperado’
and ‘Campo’ attested to the existence of that
bright constellation the author considers his greatest contribution
to flamenco. To finish the concert, very much to the crowd's
liking, Manolo Sanlúcar premiered one of the pieces
from his new composition, inspired by Baldomero Romero Ressendi's
paintings. ‘La danza de los pavos’ turns out to
be one step further along that vitalistic road the guitarist
is building to flamenco. The theater gave the maestro a standing
ovation.
Javier Barón Company (Photo:
Daniel Muñoz)
Javier Barón presented a revamped ‘Notas al
pie’. With regards to the version that could already
be seen at the 2003 Mont de Marsan Festival, the show was
fed by stage design work which contributed sobriety to the
work, the important presence of Isabel Bayón as guest
bailaora and Juan Diego and Alexis Lefevre joining the music
group. As an introduction, Javier Barón contributed
silence; that of non-baile, that of non-movement. He was disturbing
with his stillness. The music sprang up from the guitar of
Juan
Diego and his sensitive ‘Circunstancia’, as
a preliminary for the seguiriya that the Sevillian bailaor
performed at length. Esthetics, search, personality. Javier
Barón makes the juggling invisible, fights against
the evidence and imposture, feeds subtlety. Following a musical
interlude through zapateado, Isabel
Bayón came in to perform a jaleo extremeño
that she marked with her shapely figure. The crowd awoke,
bursting into applause. Another pause with levante cantes,
before the couple's baile... through tangos, a style - hard
for men - in which both artists stand out. The couple danced
fluently, all balance. They gave away maturity, sense, flavor.
And the audience showed their gratitude with a generous ovation
which was repeated following the finale through bulerías
by the entire company.
Isabel Bayón
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
Juan de Juan
Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
Juan de Juan, brand new
The day had another star bailaor. Juan
de Juan appeared in the afternoon at Sala Compañía,
within the series ‘Novísimos’ ('Brand New'),
where the previous day Israel Galván left everyone
agape with ‘La
edad de oro’ The Morón-born bailaor, brilliantly
accompanied by Guadiana on cante and Jesús de Rosario
on guitar, showed how his electric baile is gaining poise,
without yet giving up the dazzling acrobatics his age and
fitness allow him to do. He danced listening to the cante
and listening to himself, more alert to the details than to
the general noise. Seguiriya. Soleá. Bulería.
Barely an hour, just a little while. Enough to make it clear
he is a heavyweight of the flamenco dancing to come.
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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