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‘Jerez,
al son de Moraíto’
Hotel
Triana.
Friday, September 22nd. 12:00 PM
With
‘La metamorfosis,’ the Bienal reached its halfway point. During its second showing,
Jerez cranked out the bulerías and transformed Triana
GERANIO
MORAÍTO (purple geranium)
Moraíto
gathers his group onstage in a flawless bit of dancing, encircling them all with
one long arm, carrying them back to Jerez. It happened in a Triana patio, and
the dust from the flower pots brought on hallucinations in the art of pellizcarse
el vestido: three aging women, moving slowly, raised the public from their
seats in a mantra por bulerías.
This is the third
time with Moraíto this week. He plays para cantar, para bailar,
para imaginar… He appears alone onstage for his introductory soleá,
like that seguiriya with Mercé: looking inside his guitar—an echo
of himself—before the sound hole becomes a suggestion box.
‘Sor Bulería,’
from his second recording ‘Morao, Morao,’ with that modern accent, that innate
rhythmic drive. Fernando de la Morena appears with his trilla. This time,
he sang solidly por seguiriya and bulerías. He couldn’t sing
badly even if he tried. Moraíto’s grown up son, Diego de Morao, and an
all-star lineup of palmeros, from left to right: Chícharo, Gregorio,
Bo, Curro, and Rafita, gleaming rhythmic rails for those tangos cantautores,
cuplés por bulerías, and the dancing of José Gálvez,
decked out in jacket and brillantine.
Moraíto y Fernando de la Morena
There was a space
for bulerías al golpe, with knuckle-rapping on the table, and Moraíto
grew another hand to play the guitar. For Luis el Zambo’s first cante,
the microphone didn’t work, but his ángel did; that tight anthological
echo of his, carrying him right on into bulerías. He seemed much
more relaxed and comfortable than he was with Tomatito two evenings ago, and he
was simply overflowing singing the fin de fiesta, together with Fernando
de la Morena: 40 unforgettable minutes (especially the dancing of La Margara and
her son, the ex-footballer Dieguito) of rollicking bulerías: they’re
built up on inherited tissue, they feed on pumped rhythmic material, and they
begin to take on the forms of geraniums.
Luis
Clemente
Translated by Norman Paul Kliman
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