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THE
FABULOUS GUITAR OF PACO DE LUCÍA
Fernando
González-Caballos
Monday,
July 2nd, 2001
Mont de Marsan, France
Paco de Lucía and Septet
"Ever since we were in the United States one of the fingers of his left hand
has been very bad. He was a year and a half without picking up the guitar and
the tour was turning out to be very intense. He didn't want to test the sound
because he says it hurts him a lot". Thus commented Rafael de Utrera with
a worried look on his face a few minutes before the opening of the Festival de
Arte Flamenco de Mont-de-Marsan. In this small town - a little over 30,000 inhabitants
- the flamenco following has worked such miracles as this, the thirteenth edition
of the festival.
© J.M. TINARRAGE/CG40
The maestro from
Algeciras opened the recital with "Luzía". The rondeña
from his most recent record is not only a musical jewel, but also a tribute to
the person who was by his side for so many years: Camarón. The tremolos
flowed like tears responding to a perfect touch, while the sounds from the deep
strings fell upon the high ones as if handing down a sentence. The jazz-tinged
riffs to bulerías of Río de la Miel (river of honey) delighted an
audience which was witness to how the greatest genius of the flamenco guitar of
all time masterfully created and played with variations. The twelve beats of bulerías
explored every option in a concert that all of those present wished would never
end. Paco clutched the small finger of his left hand at the end of each piece.
The pain showed in his face and even so his notes sounded heavenly in the Espace
François Mitterand. So just when the counter rhythms and syncopations reached
top speed, leading the composition to its finale, the music decided to travel
down the Calle Munición to be reincarnated as alegrías. The aroma
of salt and thyme of the province that saw him come into the world 54 years ago
seems to make Paco forget all his problems. The sound of the music draws all the
members of the group to the stage one by one, and sets the mood so that Benavent's
bass and the guitar of José María Bandera, Paco's nephew, can slip
into the rhythm to close out the maestro's last solo piece.
Benavent
continues to seek the complicity of the man from Algeciras and his mandola in
Manteca Colorá, a rumba in which the dialogue of strings reaches dizzying
heights. The fabulous guitar of Paco de Lucía closes out and continues,
laying out a luxurious carpet for El Grilo so that the dancer may move freely
through bulerías. At present there is no other dancer who moves in that
terrain like the man from Jerez. Without a doubt! The dancer's variations are
executed without repetition or excesses. Brimming with good taste, he manages
to bring people to their feet and at intervals make Paco, smiling in complicity
to his fellow musicians, forget his pain.
© J.M. TINARRAGE/CG40
After the intermission,
Me regalé, tangos of Granada from the throat of Rafael de Utrera, before
going into tangos of Badajoz, but it's the bulerías that gets the audience
worked up in Jorge Pardo's flute introduction based on Ravel's Bolero. But virtuosity
oozes from every corner of the stage, so Rubem Dantas and Joaquín Grilo
agree to a facing-off on the cajón. Does that Brazilian ever play, my god!
Joaquín gets up and without breaking the mood sets the rhythm for a soleá
por bulería with which he takes over center stage. The sobriety of the
soleá transforms into alegrías where the dancer's hands are a monument
to elegance in men's dance, something many seem to have forgotten. In this way,
between one form and another, the man from Jerez gets recharged with energy to
explode in a bulerías closing in which turns executed upon the tip of his
boots throw off electrical sparks.
In that precise
moment the black bird, Ziryab, again descends to earth to play into Jorge Pardo's
hands, but the genius of the six strings reclaims his property to make a dedication
to "one of the best flamenco dancers of all times. For you Güito".
In the curtain
call the son of Lucía shows that he is much more that a great musician
when he offers Entre dos Aguas to the crowd of more than two thousand who attended
the show.
Translation:
Estela Zatania
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