|
Niño
de Pura, Pedro Sierra, Manolo Franco and Miguel Ángel Cortés: "Guitarra
amiga"
Joaquín
Turina Hall.
Monday, October 2nd 7PM
CLEAR
FAVORITISM
Niño de
Pura drives the show: super-clean brotherly technicians, impeccable revision.
The finale is marked by two rumbas, the four taking turns demonstrating
their abilities (in their own style) with tremendous picking and delicate tremolos.
The raga-soleá
quickly exhaled broken by the vertigo of the parades in bulerías:
Niño de Pura opened the evening alone, on his mountain top, from which
he lets the fandago rhythms slip into a ballad done with Pedro Sierra,
beautifully titled, "Penumbra" (Dimmed).
The five string
bass of the great Manolo Nieto and two palmeros (among them Pachi, who
also sings regularly with Vicente Amigo) are already on the floor when they give
way to sprints in alegrías. Paco Sierra leaves the stage and his
brother, Granada based Miguel Ángel Cortés enters, playing bulerías
with synchronized velocity. Really, they are four exceptional guitarists, each
one with his own album.
Pura leaves and
his comrade who has the most experience and sensitivity in accompaniment, Manolo
Franco, enters with a Levante; his last note is picked up by Pedro Sierra,
whose final echo surpasses the more intimate style of Cortés; tarantas,
soleá, bulería… "Three Guitars" is the name of the
night’s most subdued number, with reminiscence of thick grains of hot chocolate.
When the two comrades
dialogue in soft fandangoes (mining fantasies with Aladin oil lamp) the
title "Guitarra vicentina" is understood and Pura-Franco finish off,
this time, with conclusive fandangos from Huelva. The four players uncork
the essence bottle with a high rate of revolutions per minute, and the public
gets intoxicated. Wow: arpeggio, tuning fork, upper primes, frets, pick, low notes,
prickly, spiral, storm. In rumba. Final barrage.
Young
Performers Contest III
Lope
de Vega Theatre
Monday,
October 2nd, 9:30 PM
PUPPY
BREATH
Mari Ángeles Gabaldón
The first session
of the contest for Flamenco artists under 30 put on the podium two dancers (Keko
and Mari Ángeles Gabaldón), one baby-faced guitarist (Roque Acevedo)
and one singer with an old man’s face (Ezequiel Benítez).
With the body of
Bob Hite and the soul of Manuel Torre, Jerez based Ezequiel put nervous vibrations
to soleá. His mere performance of seguiriyas was fantastic
and with an echo finished off with bulerías from his hometown.
Ezequiel Benítez
Roque Acevedo seemed
a bit too alone, with a streaked delicacy, in the half-heartedness of her 15 years
of age; the player from Bormujos (Seville) chugged along without charging the
bulerías, even though the singer, Emilio Cabello had much enthusiam.
Cabello also played with the Seville based Mari Ángeles Gabaldón
who danced like a man, a farruca with enormous games of silence, geometry
and patterns, all changed, with formal her polka doted skirt, in the second phase
of seguiriyas. How can the energy be so unspontaneous when dancing alegrías?
Just ask Keko de Córdoba. How can someone be so exaggerated with a simple
standard movement? Ask her special guest singers, Juan José Amador and
Enrique el Extremeño.
Luis Clemente
Translated
by Jessica Lorber
|
