ULTRA HIGH FLAMENCO (UHF). PREMIERE OF
‘UHF’ IN MADRID
Something’s moving
S.C. Madrid, November 28th, 2007
‘Ultra High Flamenco
(UHF)’. José Quevedo ‘Bolita’:
flamenco guitar. Alexis Lefèvre: violin. Pablo
Martín: contrabass. Ángel Sánchez
‘Cepillo’: percussion. Paquito González:
percussion. Sala Galileo-Galilei. Madrid, November 28th,
2007. 9:30 p.m.
UHF at Sala Galileo Galilei
de Madrid (Photo Daniel Muñoz)
After developing the project live, the
band Ultra High Flamenco presents its first album. And
it does so at one of the key venues on the Madrid music
scene for over two decades now, Sala Galileo Galilei.
The context gives you an idea of the group’s attitude.
The common denominator is flamenco, but tangentially.
It’s the music which has gotten them in contact,
all of them being accompanists of toque and cante figures
such as Gerardo Núñez and Marina Heredia.
But that neither determines them nor ties them down. It
might be the grounding, due to the rhythmics, the toque
and the cantaor streaks of the violin.
The proposal appears open and relaxed,
on a base one hundred percent instrumental, following
the footsteps of Trío de Pardo, Benavent and Di
Geraldo or of Son de la Frontera, but from another viewpoint.
Guitar, contrabass, violin and percussions meet halfway
between all of them, depending on their own lightly-sketched
scores.
Pablo Martín, bassist
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
Although the layout of the concert hindered
the creation of an ambience and the possibility of following
its course, interrupted by persistent words of gratitude,
private jokes and a showing of “the making of”
the recording. Even so, it was above all the solos which
the audience focused their attention on, especially that
of the Mediterranean violin by Alexis
Lefèvre in ‘Alexiada’ and that
of the soleá ‘Taxdirt’ by José
Quevedo. And now then, together they get across enjoyment,
complicity, fluency in communication and a confidence
that flamenco needs... even if it’s on the side.
UHF reflects that something’s moving in the backstages.
