FLAMENCO FESTIVAL LONDON 2006. VICENTE AMIGO

For the spirit

Silvia Calado. London, February 15th, 2006

‘Un momento en el sonido’. Vicente Amigo: guitar. Blas Córdoba: cante. José Manuel Hierro: second guitar. Francisco González: percussion. Patricio Cámara: percussion and voice. Antonio Ramos: bass. José María Cortina: keyboard. Flamenco Festival London 2006. Sadler’s Wells. London, February 15th, 2006. 7:30 p.m.

Vicente Amigo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

There couldn't have been a warmer welcome than the one the London audience gave to an old acquaintance, Vicente Amigo, at Flamenco Festival London 2006. Even his entry on stage was accompanied by thunderous applause which could only be stopped by the first chords from his guitar. He warmed up little by little with a guitar solo making self-reference. From free sounds to the soleá. Trance. The introduction has left the crowd breathless, but he opts to play it down by greeting them in English. “Welcome!”, they cry out to him. To which he answers that “this little while together is useful to stir up something we know is inside you and inside me”. First he tries with the fandangos ‘Mensaje’, off the album ‘Vivencias imaginadas’ (1995), now with cante, percussion and a second guitar. A journey. A story. Music with spirit that doesn't expire.

The concert's structure is going to be the same as that of the presentation of the new album ‘Un momento en el sonido’ in Madrid last November. In come the bass and keyboard to shape up the bulerías ‘Campo de la verdad’, which are slowly sketched out with restrained arrangements in favor of a warm temperature, until the blooming of the raspy ‘quejío’. Vicente Amigo then combines the double personality of the concert performer and accompanist … an accompanist with overflowing creativity and power. The ambience is right for some tangos, those of ‘Arco Bajo’. The guitar goes in search of textures, of beautiful sounds within the framework of the band. What clips. What flights. “London loves you, Vicente! You're huge!” And as if to agree with his fans, he sets out on the road to the great farruca ‘Silia y el tiempo’. Not many more adjectives fit. Great. A moment of intimacy the Córdoba-born artist seeks once more. Minimum. Spiritual. He weaves the other great composition off his fifth album, the taranta which is the title cut. Music from a faraway galaxy, but understandable here on Earth. Tension. Pleasure for the ears and for the spirit.

To counteract, he makes the group return. He takes back up the outgoing register with a fun bulería and with the intense track opening the album; the rumba ‘Demipatí’. A real gift; a celebration. The concert could have perfectly finished up here, but it seeks out contrast once more with a soothing ‘Bolero a Marcos’. The epilogue has to be ‘Oriente mediterráneo’ “and the best of our applause turned into music”. The beautiful heel tapping ended up with a bubbling-over ovation in the theater, its one thousand six hundred seats filled to the top. Vicente Amigo had no choice but to offer an encore, a relaxed grand finale through bulerías with plenty of excellent quality in the form and depth of this guitarist, one of those who make flamenco music great here in the early 21st century.

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