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Saturday, August 12th.
XV Festival de Cante de Las Minas. La Union.
Terremoto ("earthquake") and sculptures
Dorantes, crudely placed in between two symbols of the purity of Jerez,
as are Terremoto and El Pipa
Fernando Terremoto
Fernando Terremoto
The strange sandwich of the day's performances had quite a lot of substance
in it:
Fernando Terremoto came back on stage after his three cantes (flamenco songs)
saluting the public of the festival ("Who told me that the performance was
too short, as they wanted more") and tuned a set of long and generous "soleares
por bulerias". He had been excessively punctual in his opening cante "por malagueñas",
but he magnificently reflected the pain present in the "seguiriyas" of Francisco
la Perla when singing "que con las trenzas de tu pelo me amarren las manos"
("that they bind my hands with the plaits of your hair"), and he then recovered
from this by rising for the "bulerias", in which he tried to escape from the shadow
of his father's style by applying greater separation between "tercios" (each section
of the song), which were smooth and slow and spiced by three "pataitas" (rapid
stamping of the feet, as in flamenco dance).
Dorantes
Dorantes
The weight of the family name and of his father's influence is also present
in Dorantes, who has the granite base of the cante of Pedro Peña "por solea",
a new age lightness, a jazzy beat, Celtic airs, a tropical covering and more of
the usual stuff in his shows. Along with his septet (including a violin, a Brazilian
flute, Oriental percussion...) he continues to capture the atmosphere of his album
"Orobroy" in the live performance, as we wait for the imminent release
of his new album, of which he gave hints in this concert.
Antonio El Pipa
Antonio El Pipa
"Esta niña, tor día bailando" (This girl, spends all
day dancin'), said Antonio el Pipa after carrying in his arms the ten-year-old
Niña Paloma, who performed with composure a varied and extensive set of
dances to perfection, while Antonio acted as an imitation of himself. It was one
of those scenes from "Generaciones" (Generations), in which Milagros Mengibar
played the part of the grandmother (she danced some "alegrias" to the sound of
the high tones of the young cantaor Manuel Tañe) and Juana la del Pipa
acted as the aunt "por martinetes", as well as with "tientos-tangos", "bulerias"…
and "por bulerias", emanating sympathy, was Paloma… How many seasons will pass
before the arms of Antonio can no longer hold her, in the act previous to the
"solea" with a tight jacket and the final frenzy of the joined generations? For
the moment, it is better to await the première of his ambitious new choreography
"Puntales".
Parallel Activities: A homage to Juan Valderrama
"The first thing I learnt was the "taranta" of Peña Hijo",
acknowledged Juan Valderrama in the tribute he was paid by the Ayuntamiento (City
Council) of La Union. He went on to cite the very special conditions that are
required by the cante (flamenco singing) of this area in a speech which was interrupted
at times by the emotion of the act, as this is a town which in dedicating this
edition of the festival to him thank him for the effort he made exactly forty
years ago when creating the Concurso (Contest) of Las Minas. The act also served
to grant him the book of texts as a tribute to him - a dense compilation of articles,
opinions, and so on coordinated by El Olivo, with more hagiography than the earlier
version prepared by Antonio Murciano - and also to allow him to participated in
an interesting discussion with Asensio Saez (responsible for the recuperation
of the art during the difficult 50s, when "you had to grab the cante by the
neck because it was being lost"), the mayor of the town during the tough
first five years ("80.000 pesetas, it was crazy!") and Genesis Garcia,
who traced the sociological background and moderated what was a very nice scene.
Luis Clemente
Translation: Pekka Odriozola
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