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Saturday,
September 16th.
Hotel
Triana: Bernarda De Utrera, El Funi, Pepa de Benito, and Concha Vargas.
TIES
OF BLOOD AND SOLEÁ
Bernarda de Utrera
Second flamenco
scene from a Triana patio, to remind us of the blood line that flows between Utrera
and Lebrija. Communicating vessels. Two heavyweights from the Pinini clan, both
with rhythm to spare, and each one offering us fandangos soaked in soleá
por bulerías. Two women with solera, each making her first solo
recording last year.
Bernarda de Utrera
One of them is
Bernarda de Utrera, absolutely beyond a doubt. And if there were a doubt about
Pepa de Benito, from Lebrija, one has only to listen to her extraordinary ‘Yo
vengo de Utrera,’ with the guitar of Antonio
Moya, backing her up here on some deliciously slow, vibrant, and diverse bulerías.
She began with a nana to wake up the night.
Pepa de Benito
The tobillera
of Bernarda, her tears por Fernanda (when finishing off her soleá
with a cante of La Serneta that her sister sang better than anyone). There
were fandangos, colombianas, and anything else she wanted to sing,
sandwiched in between soleá por bulerías. She sang the ‘Romance
de la Reina Mercedes’ that she recorded on an EP in 1968, and now, at 73 years
of age, she remembers Fernanda: ‘Ay, que solita me encuentro’ (I’m all
alone here, by myself). She sang this at the start of her recording ‘Ahora,’
also featuring Moya, the strongest disciple of the greatly missed Pedro Bacán,
but on this occasion she was accompanied by Rafael Rodríguez, "El
Cabeza," who could be heard in the background, por bulerías,
on the most recent recording from Mártires del Compás.
El Lebrijano was
seated in the audience, wearing sunglasses, and watching as Miguel Funi went a
bit overboard with Juan del Gastor, looking skyward: seguiriyas, martinetes,
soleares… and went into overtime with romances por bulerías.
Everyone knows that El Funi wouldn’t be the same without his standing delivery
and white handkerchief, but here he went too far: During the fin de fiesta,
he was booed for chasing his paisana—Concha Vargas from Lebrija—all over
the stage. While the dancer was given shouts of encouragement, El Funi was jeered.
Pepa de Benito added the final touch, embracing Fernanda and Concha while they
danced. What a moment.
Luis
Clemente
Translated
by Norman Paul Kliman
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