TRIBUTE TO A FAMILY TRADITION
Fernando González Caballos

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2001
Mont de Marsan, France
Tribute to Pepa de Benito (cante)
The dance of Beatriz Martín (baile)

The Festival de Arte Flamenco of Mont-de-Marsan continued its scheduled program with a well-deserved tribute to the singer from Utrera, Pepa de Benito. This time the chosen setting was none other than a café-cantante assembled with good taste in the municipal market of this French town.

Pepa de Benito (© J.M. TINARRAGE/CG40)

Once again we were surprised by the public's response to the scheduled shows on this second day of the festival wherein both the aforementioned tribute, and dancer Beatriz Martin's performance afterwards had packed audiences.The evening started out with an official act in which Francisco Sánchez detailed the personal and professional life of Pinini's granddaughter. The singer herself, visibly moved, opened the recital with a nana which she bestowed with a whole range of musical subtleties, at no point going into the cantes of tonás. Right after that aperitif it was time for "cante grande". Soleares of Utrera took shape with Tía Pepa's vocal chords evoking the highly stylized echo of La Serneta. Nevertheless it would be unjust not to comment on the accompaniment provided by Antonio Moya, who hung on every moment of the singing, his guitar full of shading, which helped the cantaora move handily through the different styles. That's how to support and adorn with accompaniment, yes indeed!

Beatríz Martín (© J.M. TINARRAGE/CG40)

But the best moment arrived with "Dice la gente que estoy loca, y más que me voy a volver" ("people say I'm crazy, but they haven't seen anything yet"), a fandango por soleá in which the woman from Utrera is a true specialist. To wrap up, she delighted the audience with some bulerías verses - romances and Spanish popular songs - where she was really at ease, recalling important singers like Perrate, Fernanda de Utrera, or Bambino. Pepa was having a good time and she didn't want to quit, so she went downstage and sang a verse without music, taking her son out to dance and putting the cherry on the cake for the closing number.

The night had but begun when Juan Ogalla appeared onstage and thrilled those present with a seguiriyas dance which Pepe de Pura and David Lagos introduced with tonás and ended with cabales. No matter how much Beatriz tried to outdo what had gone before, neither her alegrías nor her soleá achieved the quality we would have liked to see, and her participation in this edition of the festival did not measure up to flamenco followers' expectations. We trust that in the future she take into account that in order to appear at an international festival one must look after the staging a bit more.