2009 Jerez Festival. Tomatito. Review and photos

FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2009. TOMATITO

Before going on

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 10th, 2009

Festival de Jerez 2009. Reviews index

And tomorrow… Mercedes Ruiz • Soraya Clavijo

‘Tomatito en concierto’. Tomatito: guitar, music. Cristy Santiago: second guitar. Lucky Losada: box drum. Bernardo Parrilla: violin. Morenito de Íllora, Simón Román: cante. José Maya: baile. 13th Festival de Jerez. Bodega Los Apóstoles. Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), March 10th, 2009. 9 p.m.

Tomatito (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Tomatito went straight to the point. This time he didn’t start off with the warm prelude of his taranta; rather, he injected a dose of authentic energy with one of his most representative pieces. To the alegrías beat, he blew oxygen into the room and into his own band which, from the first instants of the recital, closed in around the Almería-born tocaor. José Maya’s touch of electric baile put the icing on the cake of such a lively prologue. Now his hands were ready to remain alone and fall back, inspired by deep mineras...

But the calm was fleeting. Cutting strumming startled the audience and plunged it into the bulería. Once again accompanied by his group, he injected pure adrenaline with a toque which, without losing its center, became kaleidoscopic. He might just as easily recall (Camarón) de La Isla, as sing an old-time melody, as become ‘blusero’, as be sprinkled with Moorish motifs. With Bernardo Parrilla’s violin situated in the context which is now natural to him and Lucky Losada’s experienced box drum paving the way, the guitar continued in the most extroverted tessitura.

José Maya
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)

And between rumbas and tangos, he made room for cante. The bow announces ‘Manantial’… and textures are connected from the other shore excerpted, but from a distance, from the encounter with Dominican pianist Michel Camilo which was ‘Spain’. Thus, the tango, romanticism and frantic concluding staccato. The task at hand draws near its end and Tomate opens things up halfway between tangos and bulerías, laying down a base for cantaores Morenito de Íllora and Simón Román to let off steam. But both of them remained an abysmal distance away from the so alluded reference to Cámaron. The epilogue took the shape of soleá por bulerías, where the guitarist yielded the spotlight completely to José Maya’s baile. The effect of bursting out after the tense contention brought him such resounding applause that it was confused with the concert’s final ovation in which Tomatito paid tribute to his own musical story. Now it’s time for anthologies. The next chapter will come soon.

Tomatito and Bernardo Parrilla (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

And tomorrow …

• Mercedes Luján / María José Pérez
• Mercedes Ruiz, ‘Mi último secreto’
• Soraya Clavijo, ‘Por la carreterita vieja’

Mercedes Ruiz premieres ‘Mi último secreto’. The Jerez-born bailaora explains that the show “goes along my line without a storyline and the common thread is the music, choreography and cante”. The novelty, in her own opinion, is that “I show another side of me that I didn’t know”. But she’ll only reveal it on stage.

In this project she has the collaboration of Javier Latorre, who “according to the program, I come as a choreography consultant, but in reality, I’m rather a choreography confirmer, since the only thing I’ve done is put a little cherry on top of a magnificent six-layer cake”. He emphasizes the artist’s “versatility”, which applies to her “choreographic notes” and performance of four solo pieces. Among them, the bailaora herself stresses the farruca, “which I premiered last year in the show ‘¡Viva Jerez!’”. The musical section is taken care of by guitarist Santiago Lara: “I’ve tried to maintain the sonority of the styles, but I introduce certain innovations in order to pave new ways”. One of those novelties is a string trio with arrangements by Miguel Ángel López. The company is completed with the voices of Londro and David Lagos.

At midnight, bailaora Soraya Clavijo, also from Jerez, will premiere her show ‘Por la carreterita vieja’ at the Sala Compañía. The central idea is “a journey, like my life has been, between Jerez and Seville, which have given me so much”. She has Domingo Rubichi on guitar and the special collaboration of cantaor Fernando de la Morena. But the ones in charge of opening the day at the Palacio de Villavicencio will be Murcia-born guitarist Mercedes Luján, closing the female tocaora series, and Almería-born cantaora María José Pérez, who will present her first solo album ‘Cante flamenco’ live.