50th POTAJE GITANO DE UTRERA

Golden anniversary

Carlos Sánchez. Utrera (Seville), July 1st, 2006

Potaje Gitano. First part: Rafael de Utrera, La Macanita and Diego el Cigala. Second part: Manuel de Angustias, Juana Amaya and Diego Carrasco. Patio del Colegio Salesiano. Utrera (Seville), July 1st, 2006

La Macanita (Photo: Archive Daniel Muñoz)

Potaje Gitano de Utrera celebrated its golden anniversary. Half a century of life which has provided plenty. Not in vain is it the first flamenco festival in Spain. And there must be some reason. Nor need the endless list be mentioned of artists performing at this outstanding festival over its fifty years of existence. The greatest figures the jondo genre has ever seen have appeared at Potaje Gitano’s ‘tablao’. In what has become a tradition, this unique event pays homage to an artist every year. On this occasion, it wished to pay tribute to Raphael, an unquestionable figure among Spanish-speaking singers.

The event began after eleven o’clock at night. Everything was ready to kick off the current edition of the granddaddy of all festivals. Some two thousand people took over the huge courtyard of the school Colegio Salesiano in the town of Utrera. At its entrance, a gift, a wooden spoon to be able to taste in the intermission the more than traditional kidney bean stew with a lot of garlic, olives, bread and red wine. And although summer has already awoken, the night went well with tasting a dish of these features. For desert, fritters with chocolate. A tasty delight.

Rafael de Utrera, a native artist, was in charge of kicking things off. With cantes from the forge. A style which none of the previous forty-nine editions had opened with. Bobote, to the beat of the hammer, marked the times of the martinete, while Rafael de Utrera warmed up his voice as the piece evolved. Once his timbre had settled in, he offered a song por bulerías with Enrique Montoya’s trademark. A prologue to the soleá apolá, adapted to the tessitura of his voice. He continued with cantiñas, Pinini-style, and ended his performance por bulerías.

Tomasa Guerrero ‘La Macanita’ took over the cante with that poetic, sentimental lament. She started off with tientos outlined por tangos. In the rearguard, Diego del Morao on guitar and the compás of the ‘Royal Filarmoney de Santiago’. From the ficklest to the most trivial. Because “Who doesn’t remember Fernanda and Bernarda por soleá?”. The Jerez-born cantaora wanted to dedicate this cante to Utrera’s greatest. Before “singing and dancing a little bit por bulerías” with the scent and flavor of Jerez. Three cantes were more than enough to display and demonstrate her credentials.

Diego Carrasco (Photo: Archive Daniel Muñoz)

The first part concluded with the cante of Diego el Cigala. His way, and with that quejío of singularities all his own. Por soleá. Then changing styles with tangos, sweetly reeling off fandangos and finishing his performance por bulerías. And the thing is that there was still a lot of wood left to cut, while the coolness of the early morning took over the night. Time to regain strength with a good stew.

Manuel de Angustias was thus welcomed, the fourth one of the night. Bambino-style, but out of time. All the more so, when the sound bounced off the school’s inner façade, where the stage was situated. The Utrera-born artist dragged out his performance too much. A circumstance felt by the rest of the artists who were still to perform.

Cante yielded the spotlight to the baile of Juana Amaya and her group. The Sevillian bailaora “pushed forward” her daughter Nazaret and Jairo Barrul. All of them to the beat of the soleá driven home por bulerías. Three generations performing the same style, but with quite different esthetics. Nazaret, footloose, displayed arm movement which was little inquiring. Barrul let loose his usual shrapnel-like footwork, with uneven gestures. Juana Amaya, on her part, brimmed over with lineage and power, showing the haughtiness of her arms.

It’s four o’clock in the morning and the seats are more and more deserted. There are few people who can stand over five hours of flamenco. That was the scenario faced by Diego Carrasco when he came up on stage. But ever smiling, and with the desire to delight those present, the ‘compás guru’ started off with ‘Oliva y naranja’, por alegrías. Then meddling in the field of tangos with ‘Vida y gloria del gitano’. And going into Lebrija with ‘Alahea’. The ‘trabilitrán wizard’ bade farewell with ‘José Monge Cruz’. And the clock was close to striking five in the morning …

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