Carmen Linares, 'Remembranzas'. Review

Carmen Linares, 'Remembranzas'

M.G./Flamenco-world.com, December 2011

There are different ways to weigh things up. The most frequent one is easy and cold: a compilation of selected songs from a discography which is comfortably spoon-fed to listeners. However, there are those who opt for another less usual, warmer and more complex way: a live recording which summarizes, here and now, an entire career devoted to music. And that is what Carmen Linares has done on ‘Remembranzas’, which was recorded at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville on February 5th, 2011.

The album has been released by the cantaora’s own label, Salobre, and is presented in a meticulous book-album edition with photos, lyrics and texts, following the model of ‘Raíces y alas’ and, therefore, giving it the look of a collection. And the photos are significant inasmuch as they illustrate the periods reflected by the recording. The little girl who used to learn songs from the radio and cantes from the lands of Jaén. The teenager who used to learn from old-time maestros like Pepe de la Matrona and from brave youths like Morente. The woman who vindicated the cantaora on ‘Antología’. And today’s Carmen Linares who recalls her past from a present which, at the same time, announces her future.

It is common knowledge that live performances have a life of their own. The recordings aren’t perfect, nor do the artists have a chance to rewind. But that imperfection - if breathing can be called that - is also its virtue. The cantes on this disc - interspersed with speeches by the rhapsodic Ortiz Nuevo - are performed in a lively way and that involves a lot of emotion. Not just because of the huge jam-packed venue, or the memories, or the friends who accompany her (among them, Javier Barón and Miguel Poveda), but also because of such hard experiences which the artist was going through those days: she had just lost her mother and her buddy Enrique. That seguiriya comes from there. That ‘Asesinado por el cielo’ comes from there. And coming from there are those words uttered by the cantaora which have touched many people nearly as much as the ones sung.