2007 MONT DE MARSAN FLAMENCO FESTIVAL.
JAVIER BARÓN, ‘MERIDIANA’
... and time
S.C. Mont de Marsan, July 3rd, 2007
‘Meridiana’. Javier Barón
Company. Javier Barón: baile,
conception, choreography. Manuela Ríos, Ana Morales,
Leonor Leal: baile. Javier Patino, Daniel Méndez:
guitar. Miguel Ortega, Antonio Campos, David Palomar:
cante. Tino di Geraldo (guest artist), José Carrasco:
percussion. Alexis Lefèvre: violin. Tomasito: guest
artist (cante, baile). 19th Mont de Marsan Flamenco Festival.
Espace François Mitterrand. Mont de Marsan (France),
July 3rd, 2007. 9 p.m.
Javier Barón Company
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
Mont de Marsan is just one year away
from celebrating having been on the road for two decades.
And it will be a really big event because this festival
is nearly a miracle. The host city is not a renowned capital,
but rather an unknown town located in the French region
of The Landes. However, its commitment to flamenco art
is untiring. Evidence of it is not just the long experience
but also the quality of the line-up year after year. The
best of the genre have been performing here since it was
founded. And the nineteenth edition could do no less,
offering jewels like the performance by Jerez-born cantaor
José Mercé; and the new show by Javier
Barón, who inaugurated the program. ‘Meridiana’
was performed for the second time following its premiere
at Festival de Jerez 2007, before the Espace François
Mitterrand filled to three-quarters capacity. And that’s
no short order, since this multi-purpose pavilion has
seating for over two thousand people. But the hard part
wasn’t so much in drawing them (here the word ‘flamenco’
is luring enough), but in getting everyone present to
end up stamping their feet on the floor in approval.
‘Meridiana’ revolves around
the concept of time, rhythm, compás. And the play
on that ticktock, which is the very marrow of every kind
of music, gives rise to the show. That might be why it
reaches the crowd so naturally, who as a whole perceive
a varied range of good baile and music numbers, lit, presented
and dressed in a uniform and enticing esthetics bathed
in solar tones, the engine of the meridian line.
Javier Barón and Tomasito
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
And the thing is that this show generates
a lot of energy flow. The prologue alone marked by Tomasito
‘a capella’ knocks things up a notch. “Un,
dos, un, dos, tres”. And you know that energy is
really contagious. Javier Barón makes it all his
own to offer solos dominated by knowledge, maturity and
unusual freshness, like someone who feels at ease and
communicates eloquently. The group contributes with a
devoted performance of the complex music designed by Javier
Patino and Alexis
Lefèvre. It apparently all turns out fluent,
but listening a bit closely, you can make out the complicated
work of linking up rhythms which isn’t at all easy
to do; neither for the instrumentalists nor for the cantaores,
who except for Miguel Ortega, have changed since the premiere.
And the thing is that, without taking anything away from
the current line-up, Juan José Amador’s contrasting
echo is missed. A guitar has also been added, replacing
the old-time echo of Ramón Amador; Daniel
Méndez, who has an intense task to carry out
in this festival, by the way. The trio of bailaoras has
also been changed, though without altering the results.
The three continue to do their utmost in their respective
roles, both solo and as a chorus, leaving a flashy trail
of curves and flames around the stage. Even so, ‘Meridiana’
is still ‘Meridiana’, a reliable show in which,
in short, today’s quality baile, cante and flamenco
music are seen, heard and felt.
