NIÑO JOSELE, FLAMENCO GUITARIST. PREMIERE OF ‘ESPAÑOLA’
‘Española’
in Spanish version
S.Calado. Madrid, April 27th, 2010
Translation: Joseph Kopec
‘Española’. Niño
Josele: guitar, music. Javier Colina: contrabass.
Perico Sambeat: clarinet, sax. Guillermo McGill: drums.
Teatro Lara. Madrid, April 27th, 2010. 9:30 p.m.
Niño
Josele and Javier Colina, 'Española'. Teatro
Lara, Madrid
(Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
Taking shelter from the commotion of the
city in a corner like the Teatro Lara is a nearly unreal
experience. It smacks of old-time things there, of worn-out
velvet, the ripped-up leather of the seats, applause from
other times. You can nearly see the ghosts there of the
musicians from the articles in the newspaper and periodicals
libraries. There, where the audience surrounds the artist
in a semicircle, the truth is that you recover the pleasure
of sitting down and listening. And we don’t know if
Niño
Josele had the same sensation, but he knew how
to fulfill that pleasure, performing two solo pieces as
a prologue to the Spanish presentation of ‘Española’,
the live show which premiered last autumn at the Village
Vanguard in New York.
Niño Josele, 'Española'.
Teatro Lara, Madrid (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
|
With his guitar facing the crowd, he showed
how he’s turned the score by McCoy Tyner entitling
the album into a new way of tackling flamenco toque. But
curiously, that same thing is also contained in the rondeña
‘Camino de Lucía’ where, despite paying
a clear tribute to the ‘doctor’, that new tocaor
who the Almería-born artist now is appears with a
clean, breathed discourse of his own. Then, not because
there’s fusion with jazz, but because mixing deeply
with jazz, but from flamenco, has endowed his music with
bright universality, with enriching ease.
And perhaps because of that, the repertoire
works the same when, as in the recording, he tackles it
together with musicians from here; as when he does it, like
he did live tonight, with jazz players from here…
who, as an extra, master both styles. Contrabass player
Javier
Colina, saxophonist and clarinetist Perico Sambeat and
drummer Guillermo McGill formed a conspiratorial quartet
with Niño Josele in order to reel off the pieces
from the album. And together, but with a place for everyone,
they were able to captivate a listening, admiring crowd,
including two of the star’s artistic talismans: Fernando
Trueba and Tomatito.
Songs went out to them and to everyone
such as ‘¿Es esto una bulería?’,
introduced here by the guitar with ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’,
a ‘Waltz for Bill’ made with different speeds,
the bulería aimed at tumbao ‘A contratiempo’…
and, as a counterpoint, those ballad-like tracks with enveloping
sweetness such as ‘La partida’. And thus, with
that intimate, soothing tone, was just how Niño Josele
bade farewell, through an encore, to this Spanish-style
presentation of this universal ‘Española’.
Niño
Josele, Javier Colina and Guillermo McGill, 'Española'.
Teatro Lara, Madrid
(Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
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