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SPECIAL FEATURES. OBITUARY
Manuel Soler, weeping through alegrías
Silvia Calado Olivo, June 2003
Translation: Joseph Kopec
Tum, tum... Tum, tum... The heartbeat that marked the beat of the soleá
came out of Manuel
Soler's box drum. María Pagés thus began that peculiar plunge
into the origins of flamenco supposed by 'Flamenco Republic', convinced of the
maternity of the soleá, so basic in itself, which is related to the very
driving force of life. But it stopped beating.
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Paco de Lucía signs a cajón for Manuel
Soler
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
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Manuel Soler had had a bad heart for years. In fact, it was its weakness which
forced him to give up being a part of Paco de Lucía's first sextet. The
Sevillian bailaor - who after working in Mexico in the sixties and seventies,
shared the stage of the tablao Los Canasteros with the likes of Enrique Morente
and Diego Carrasco - had to reinvent himself. He began with the guitar but percussion,
then a new arrival in the genre, would be the facet in which he would develop
his later career, reaching the degree of mastery and the category of indispensable
both in record recordings and in dance shows.
On the one hand, his name can be found - with or without a diminutive form,
as a performer or as a producer - in works such as 'Soy gitano' by Camarón,
'Borboreo' by Juan Carmona, 'De la lírica al cante' by Calixto Sánchez,
'Eres luz' by Niña Pastori, 'Un diálogo sin artificios' by El Cabrero,
'Rincones de sueños puros' by La Tobala, 'Inquilino del mundo' by Diego
Carrasco, 'Azúcar Candé' by Chano Lobato, 'Sueños en el aire'
by El Lebrijano, 'Sur' by Dorantes, 'Pasajes' by, among others, Gerardo Núñez
and Perico Sambeat... and a long et cetera of collaborations on clapping, percussion
and heel tapping.
Manuel Soler with Diego Carrasco (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
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On the other hand, Manuel Soler - besides setting up his own shows like 'Por
aquí te quiero ver', presented at Seville's 1996 Bienal- played star roles
as guest artist in shows with outstanding figures of creative flamenco dancing,
always surprising for his quality, for his wisdom, and why not?, for his sense
of humor, too. He took part in the revolution in 1998 supposed by the avant-garde
'¡Mira!' by Israel Galván, he reincarnated the provocative duende
of the beat in the subsequent 'Los zapatos rojos'; he was brimming with maturity,
with the 'm' of Minotauro, in 'Abecedario', the homage flamenco dancing paid to
poet Jorge Luis Borges at Seville's Maestranza Theater in 1999; he sparked off
admiration and bursts of laughter in 'Flamenco Republic', where he starred in
a historical duel of castanets and canes with María Pagés; he delighted
his refined musical palate with the earthen vat, with the box drum, with his feet
and with himself, stirring things up again in the role of one of the 'Lorcas'
who conversed, until just a few days ago, in the Garden of St. Vincent recreated
in 'Dime' by Javier Barón... Until so few days ago.
And as we were saying, "from within the vat, Soler transforms his hands
into magic. From outside the vat, Carrasco recites through bulerías. Whoever
sings, dances; whoever dances, plays; whoever plays, sings. Everyone goes into
the cave of baked earth to come out "a bit more serious". Alegrías
for weeping which are sung, which are said, which are recited, which are sketched,
which are mumbled... and the verse, and the shout, and the beat, and the music,
and the feeling, and the game, and the life, and the dancing, and the death! Trantrán
trabilitrán trantero". Alegrías for weeping his death. Trantrán...
Manuel Soler, a 60-year-old flamenco percusionist and dancer, passed away
in Seville on June 5th, 2003.
Manuel Soler percussion course
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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