| Martín
Guijarro, June 2007
Juan
Habichuela, the patriarch of Granada guitar,
once again reveals the secrets of his accompanying
toque on the new album ‘Una guitarra en
Granada’. A select group of cantaores, each
with the cante that best suits him... and his
guitar pampering them, nourishing them, getting
the best out of them. And it is especially so
in the case of his colleague Chano
Lobato, who is outstanding in the two cantes
he performs: alegrías and bulerías.
It’s really spine-tingling how he manhandles
the cante, bursting with energy, with captivating
strength, keeping the cante up, full of liveliness.
Amazing! A double jewel.
Cantaores’ long experience
runs through the album from the opening, with
the sober cante of José
Menese por soleá with lyrics
by his mentor, Moreno Galván. And the mastery
will return in the home stretch of the album,
with the breves ‘Tarantos del tío
Enrique’ performed by Rancapino,
slowly reeling off the lyrics with his delicate,
rusty voice.
But it seems that the maturity
has rubbed off on this record. Potito
sings the taranta ‘Las cuatro columnas’
with old-time temperance. Marina
Heredia also looks back to courageously and
densely perform tangos de Granada, a style which
sounds like history on Juan Habichuela’s
strings. Covering the family quota, he makes room
for his nephew Pepe Luis Carmona, who records
tientos. And he brings out a new voice, María’s,
in the final ballad por tangos. By the way, the
‘Habichuela’ part has great weight
on the album, where Juan Camborio collaborates
in the production and on guitar, Josemi Carmona
on guitar and Juan José Carmona on box
drum.
And the guitar, as wise as can
be. Juan Habichuela, on this album which duplicates
the old-style formula of ‘Campo
del Príncipe’, deploys all the
knowledge and feeling his guitar possesses. But
always using it to serve the needs of each cante
and each cantaor, without impertinent embellishments,
without inappropriate leads. And that gesture
of artistic humility already has an immense value
in itself nowadays.
Contents
Juan
Habichuela cloaks himself in cante flamenco on
his new album ‘Una guitarra en Granada’
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