2005 MONT DE MARSAN FLAMENCO FESTIVAL.
BELÉN MAYA AND MAYTE MARTÍN. CARMEN GRILO. JOSÉ VALENCIA

Singing café conversations

Silvia Calado. Mont de Marsan, July 5th, 2005

‘Flamenco de cámara’ (‘Chamber Flamenco’). Belén Maya: baile. Mayte Martín: cante. José Luis Montón, Juan Ramón Caro: guitars. Elisabeth Gex: violin. Sara Barrero, Ana Gómez: clapping. ‘Recital de cante’ (‘Cante Performance’). Carmen Grilo. José Valencia. José Quevedo ‘Bolita’: guitar. Place St Roch Singing Café. Mont de Marsan (France), July 5th, 2005. 7:30 p.m.

	Belén Maya (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

There are no longer any tables at the singing café. For security reasons, they've been replaced by rows of blue plastic seats, thus multiplying the capacity of the marketplace. The bar located outside has also been enlarged and perhaps also the size of the paella enthusiasts enjoy seeking out. What hasn't changed a bit is the warmth flamenco is welcomed with at this venue, the desire to listen to a deep quejío, the desire to see sincere baile. And this second day of the festival offered a double bill aiming to please. Cante soaked up the limelight in the first part, with a program shared between two young talents beginning to hammer out solo careers after gaining experience by accompanying baile and toque. Carmen Grilo, who has put the vocal touch on Manolo Sanlúcar's compositions for several seasons now, doesn't want to seem like anyone else. She has a unique echo and way of placing her voice. Each stage is a surprise in her throat, a journey whose destination is unknown until the very end. She warmed up with a La Niña de los Peines-style farruca. She played around with tientos tangos. She came back with seguiriyas, letting the verses plunge to unfathomable depths. And she finished off with bulerías, displaying a wide range of resources, lyrics and references, including Camarón.

José Valencia, who has just worked on the prolonged tour of ‘Carmen, Carmela’ by Antonio Canales, had it clear in his mind that in twenty minutes he had to come, see and conquer. His natural vocal deluge was his surest strength, his voice broad, great. He gave himself room in the soleá to take over the territory. He performed the cantiñas freshly, sometimes singing, sometimes uttering. And providing cantes and styles that are very uncommon. Vintage scents. He did the seguiriya weightily, seriously, letting the different stages breathe. And in the closing bulería, accompanied by the rhythmic tapping of Jerez, he gave everything he could muster up. He wanted to share the encore with his fellow performer, “that tremendous artist who at the age of twenty-one, sings like a maestra”. It's comforting that this new generation should come aiming to relieve individualism. They had such a great time singing and dancing before a totally devoted audience. Even José Quevedo ‘Bolita’ came forward to take a stab at bulerías, after taking on the night's hardest role, that of accompanying (so well) the two cantaores on guitar. He had the skill to change gears effortlessly, adapting to two so different ways of singing, making himself of service to each one's inspiration, and on top of it all, offering bits of his own inspiration. There are few with that ability on today's guitar scene.

José Valencia and Carmen Grilo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Divine feeling

Despite being set in the cozy singing café, ‘Flamenco de Cámara’ shone in all its splendor. It couldn't be any other way. The show, which premiered two seasons ago at the Jerez Festival, blends together the beautiful ways of understanding flamenco of two of the genre's greatest contemporary artists: Belén Maya and Mayte Martín. And they do so stressing tradition and with no frills. José Luis Montón and Juan Ramón Caro provide the guitars fitting into this shared offer with perfect musicality, with the right professionalism, with the exact balance between reason and feeling. A touch of violin, so prone to strengthening melancholy, and a couple of discreet clappers close the group. Within this succinct structure the baile and cante find the tailor-made orbit to spin around in, alternating the roles of planet and star. They are coordinated from the very first moment, when they are at the center of the stage, the white dress's train wrapping up the cante. The emotion skyrockets.

Following such a chilling introduction, Mayte Martín warmed up with the touching vidalita ‘Querencia’. She looked across the ocean to the other side in order to fetch guajiro airs, kicking off with an ay that hurt everybody. And she remained in those whereabouts to do the garrotín, since she's a maestra of the melodic. The group finished off with the first full baile number, tientos tangos that Belén Maya bent at will. Imaginative. That's a strange adjective to describe baile. The lightest movement is a personal, non-transferable world. A continuous surprise, that's what art that prides itself as such is all about. José Luis Montón's farruca. Interlude. An instant of ‘source’. The antidote takes the shape of alegrías and the color yellow. Belén Maya has left herself to become another woman, that of the bata de cola. She recovers everything, she does her own version of everything; she's herself and everyone. Really dancing. A game. A challenge. A smile. Flirtation. A stand. Magnificent. The crowd's applause goes on and on. But you have to return to intimacy, to looking inside. The violinist cries out the petenera, providing the ambience for the final taranto. If sadness were dance... If sadness had a voice... Divine feeling become flamenco. There's no room for any more tonight.

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