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FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2008. ‘FLAMENCO
WORLD MUSIC’, JESÚS TORRES, ENCARNA ANILLO
& DAVID LAGOS
In the foreground … at last
Silvia Calado. Jerez, February 26th, 2008
‘Flamenco World Music’.
Jesús Torres: guitar, music. Arcadio
Marín: second guitar. Antonio Coronel: percussion.
Inmaculada Rivero: cante. Carlos Grilo, Lúa: clapping/
Encarna Anillo: cante. Juan Requena,
Juan Diego: guitar. Chispa: percussion. Rocío Soto,
Marisa Gallardo: clapping/ David Lagos:
cante. Alfredo Lagos: guitar. Carlos Grilo, Lúa:
clapping. 12th Festival de Jerez. Bodega Los Apóstoles.
Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), February 26th, 2008. 9 p.m.
Jesús Torres (Photo
Tomoyuki Takase)
Turning the phrase around by Francisco
Vallecillo which Calixto Sánchez quoted at yesterday’s
round-table, there are truths in flamenco that deserve
to be lies. And last night we found out about a couple
of them. The biggest one, that it was the first time Jesús
Torres, Encarna
Anillo and David
Lagos were sharing a stage without accompanying anyone.
Being as they are, artists with over twenty-year careers
behind them. And there’s the other one, which is
that we attended the début ‘up front’
of the guitarist, after hundreds and hundreds of times
playing even for Antonio Gades. It really seems hard to
believe … just like the fact that none of them had
their own album yet. But through Flamenco World Music,
all of that is changing.
Encarna Anillo (Photo
Tomoyuki Takase) |
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The bill bringing them together at Bodega
de los Apóstoles, within the Singing Café
series, had the sense of celebrating and sharing the turning
point being experienced by the three artists’ careers.
And that’s no small thing considering the current
state of the record scene … in flamenco. Jesús
Torres and Encarna Anillo performed with their albums
already out on the market. That of David Lagos is in the
process of being put together; so his recital was a preview
of what ‘El espejo en que me miro’ will be
next fall. And it doesn’t sound bad at all, judging
by what he showed accompanied on toque by the skillful
Alfredo
Lagos. This Jerez-born cantaor has power, knowledge
and conviction, besides that strange ‘Morente chip’
that pours creativity into this so motionless art form
which is cante. But he never sets aside his references;
rather, he takes them to his terrain, does versions of
them, intertwines them. One cante mirrors itself in El
Sevillano, another in Chano Lobato, the following in La
Paquera… and the one which comes in itself.
From his own crop, he emphasized a malagueña route
between the serrano and the tangos del Piyayo which he
dedicated to Miguel Poveda, whom the score was written
for.
Cádiz-born Encarna Anillo wasn’t
very far away in the repertoire, though she was in style
and feeling. Accompanied by Juan Requena and Juan
Diego on guitar, she sketched out a convex recital;
that is, she started off and finished high up, focusing
in the middle on things from within. Perhaps too inside
for the half an hour she had to do her performance in.
A different selection might have been possible. What she
didn’t sacrifice was good taste. And the thing is
that out of the new generation, she is one of the ones
endowed with one of the best-rounded voices, full of sensitivity
and elegance. And por milongas as well as por malagueñas
and soleares, she always sought the nuance, the breathing.
Now then, when she grasps her skirt and charges por alegrías
or por bulerías, there’s no stopping her.
And the thing is that she’s one and many cantaoras…
and still in her early twenties.
David Lagos (Photo Tomoyuki
Takase)
But before cante appeared, Jesús
Torres had already taken care of tuning up the ambience
at the charming wine bar of González-Byass, which
was jam-packed. The guitarist chose a bunch of scores
off ‘Viento
del Norte’ to premiere as a soloist. And he
made it really clear that if he is indispensable at the
service of dance (the previous night, he dazzled in ‘La
puerta abierta’ by Isabel Bayón), devoted
to his toque he can also aim to be so. And the thing is
that he isn’t a beginner, but rather a musician
with a lot of experience, a lot of music, a lot of hands
and a great sense of what it takes to be an artist. He
knows his instrument and he knows himself. And that’s
clear in each of his songs, which he performed solo or
assisted at given moments by colleagues such as cantaora
Inmaculada Rivero, guitarist Arcadio Marín, percussionist
Antonio Coronel and that indispensable pair formed by
clappers Carlos Grilo and El Lúa. From ‘Tarantango’
to the zapateado, with the title cut fantasy and the opening
bulería ‘Calle Espada’ in between,
the specific point in Écija where his father was
born. A ‘new’ name is added to the flamenco
guitar scene, and another two to that of cante…
even though they’ve always been there. And this
coming up to the foreground is a reason of joy not just
for them, but also for their colleagues. Neither Miguel
Poveda nor Isabel Bayón could resist taking part
in the grand finale since if music has a quality which
honors it, it’s that of sharing.
Grand finale (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
Manuela Ríos,
‘De tablas’
Manuela
Ríos had the responsibility of
performing the only baile show of the day.
She did so at the Sala Compañía
at midnight with the premiere of her show
‘De tablas’. A simple proposal,
but with a special approach: giving thanks
to guitarist Rafael Rodríguez, whom
she considers her maestro in this business
of being an artist. The Sevillian bailaora,
in a display of generosity, placed her colleague
occupying the center of the stage, letting
him do that toque of his which is so timeless,
so interior. And spinning around them was
a set-up playing with the basic elements (baile,
toque, cante), but handling them with so much
tact that it all turns out to be a nicely
sewn-up whole. No fewer than four cantaores
flanked the starring duo, fluently entering
and exiting the stage when so required. And
more facing them than facing the audience,
Manuela developed her dance, which is lean,
tense, with esthetic foreshortening and a
resounding lash. From the romance to the cantiña
in a bata de cola, with the malagueña
and tientos-tangos in between, or those pictures
with the bailaora and the guitar-wielding
troubadour which made the night so special.
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And tomorrow ...
• Rafael Amargo, ‘Tiempo muerto’.
Teatro Villamarta (9 p.m.)
• Miguel Ángel Berna, ‘Rasmia’.
Sala Compañía (7 p.m.)
• Calixto Sánchez, ‘Andando
el camino’. Bodega Los Apóstoles
(midnight)
Javier Latorre
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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The sixth day of Festival
de Jerez 2008 is going to be a display of
diversity: from the evolved jota to academic
cante, with educational children’s theater
and personalized flamenco dancing in between.
It will all begin at the Centro Andaluz de
Flamenco at noon with ‘Flamenquita,
la niña que perdió el compás’,
which according to its director, Enrique Linera,
is “an informational play which teaches
children the styles and the rhythm”.
Over two hundred children from two schools
in Jerez will enjoy the show between this
first performance and the one scheduled for
March 5th. Without counting the round-table
at Bodega de San Ginés, more and more
crowded every year, the next event of the
day is at seven o’clock in the evening
at the Sala Compañía, where
Aragonese dancer Miguel Ángel Berna
will present his show ‘Rasmia’.
With it, he vindicates not just that piece
of Spanish folklore, but above all its evolution
since, as he admits, “the jota had become
fossilized and although I respect tradition,
everything moves forward”. Berna moreover
explained that his is “a show with nothing
up its sleeve, behind which what’s there
is firmness, which is exactly what the word
‘rasmia’ means”. Then at
the Teatro Villamarta, the Rafael
Amargo Company will present ‘Tiempo
muerto’, a show which, according to
the program, means “a return to the
essence of flamenco following shows full of
eclecticism”. The close is in the hands
of Calixto
Sánchez, who will offer the live
show of his latest album, ‘Andando el
camino’, at Bodega de los Apóstoles.
He announced that he will sing styles such
as the malagueña, soleá, tientos,
alegrías and “some seguiriyas
which are a composition of mine and which
tell a story”. And he judged that “I
have enough experience to do what I feel like”,
at a press conference which nearly turned
into a lecture. He hardly left any room for
Javier
Latorre, who came to present the dance
center which he inaugurated last October on
the premises of the Teatro de la Axerquía
in Córdoba, by means of a collaborating
agreement with the city’s Gran Teatro.
As he explained, besides offering classes,
it will also be the place for the “production
of shows by the company and choreographic
studies center specializing in flamenco, since
in this field there is a lot of disinformation
and ignorance”.
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