| Cante:
José Mercé. Guitar: Moraíto. Keyborad:
Diego Magallanes. Bass: Manuel Nieto. Chorus and palmas:
Marcelino Fernández Mendoza and O’Hara Soto
García. Percussion: Cesáreo Moreno Platón.
Violin: David Moreira. Guitar: Eduardo Baldomero. Flute:
Juan Parrilla.
Dance: Manuela Carrasco and group. Cante: Enrique Extremeño,
José Valencia, Antonio Zúñiga, Samara
Amador, La Tobala. Dance: Torombo. Guitar: Pedro Sierra,
Miguel Iglesias. Cajón: José Carrasco.
Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas
Special "46th Festival
Internacional del Cante de las Minas" - program, reviews,
photos, news...
Tuesday the 8th at the La Unión festival,
two books were presented, the updated version of “Enrique
Morente La Voz Libre” by Balbino Gutiérrez
and “A Palo Seco, 20 Años de la Crítica
Flamenca” by Manuel Bohórquez, and at the theater
there was a spectacular double program.
In 1950 Camarón de la Isla came into the world,
and no singer born of woman from that date forward has been
immune to his influence, no matter how much resistance is
offered. With his forward-looking attitude and Paco de Lucía’s
expert support, he set an example for an entire generation
of singers who abandoned traditonal cante to explore alternative
musical paths. If some singers transformed cante until it
became another animal entirely, José Mercé,
born in 1955, is one of the few, perhaps the only one, who
has maintained his cante in its natural state, just as he
received if from his elders, while simultaneously cultivating
a purely “pop” repertoire.
Six or seven years ago Mercé, the youngest member
of the reduced circle of great classic singers, decided
to come out of the artistic closet and apply his irresistible
voice to music for the general public. Commercially, it
couldn’t have turned out better, he’s one of
the best-known and most-admired vocalists in Spain, and
is not entirely unknown abroad. Nevertheless, flamenco fans
continue to struggle to assimilate the double identity the
man from Jerez so ably manages, and some even reject him
outright for having abandoned the flamenco ship just when
it was in danger of sinking. But Mercé has no interest
in alienating any sector of his audience, so he maintains
the system of the split recital, a difficult equilibrium,
with one serving of cante, and another of pop.
The youngest member of the reduced
circle of great classic singers
The first part includes malagueña and rondeña,
soleá, siguiriya and fandangos with a verse about
“las minas de La Unión”. With Moraíto
manning the guitar, the singer seems never to have off days
and opens and closes the ‘duende’ tap at will,
chewing the words, swallowing them or spitting them out,
raising the gooseflesh of all those who offer no resistance,
and when he heads for “Bollullos” (famous ending
verse of siguiriyas), we’ve had the grand tour of
flamenco at its very best.
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Moraíto |
Samara Amador & Pedro Sierra
& La Tobala |
And then, those most fearful words (for some): “Bring
on my people!”, and from the wings appear a keyboardist,
percussionist, electric bass player, another guitarist,
flute and chorus. After last year’s debacle when Diego
Carrasco and Tomasito took over the stage with their rock
groups, triggering a massive exodus of the conservative
audience of La Unión, it’s strange the organization
would have contracted Mercé’s “mixed”
show when at his last appearance at the festival in 2002,
he offered a recital of traditional flamenco singing from
start to finish. On this occasion the menu included “Lo
que no se da” (from his newest record), a variety
of tangos and rumbas (it’s impressive to see a cantaor
of Mercé’s level seated in front of a music
stand singing from sheet music), a guitar solo by Moraíto,
bulerías with chorus, “Al Alba”, “Aire”...
Everything sounds great, but some people head for the door
even before the instrumental number where, in the great
jazz tradition, each musician does a lengthy solo bit.
An inner light that illuminates
each movement, each gesture...
After intermission Manuela Carrasco appears with her regular
group of recent years. Although the show is not announced
with a title, it’s what she has been presenting over
the last couple of years as “Un Sorbito de lo Sublime”,
in other words, a typical tablao-style show in which all
the artists sit in semicircle and take turns doing their
respective numbers. Samara and Tobala with their tangos,
Enrique Extremeño and José Valencia with tonás,
Manuel Molina, his poet singer guitarist philosopher thing,
Torombo doing his rendition of old Farruco... But the good
news is that Manuela Carrasco is better than ever before,
as I’ve seldom seen her since that night at Los Gallos
when the young teenager stood out from the rest of the group.
It’s undeniable she possesses an inner light that
illuminates each movement, each gesture, but it’s
not always switched on. The night of Tuesday, August 8th,
2006 however, there was general consensus of audience and
critics: Carrasco demonstrated that she is number one in
her line, one of the greats, a star for the history books.
Everything came together just right: physical strength,
communicative force, personality, technique, beauty, artistic
maturity... It matters little that the group is used as
filler to give Manuela down time between numbers (they are
competent professionals, but there is no cohesion, and the
female singers’ second intervention is unwarranted),
not does it matter that Manuela’s dresses are poorly
made, constricting and flowing in all the wrong places.
All that matters is that amazing woman moving though space
and time. The typical fiesta finale was dispensed with –
after Manuela all things are superfluous.
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Enrique El Extremeño &
Manuela Carrasco |
Manuela Carrasco |
The last after-hours recital was provided by young guitar
soloist Daniel Casares from Estepona who nine years ago
won the festival’s “Bordón Minero”.
And now we read that in honor of the festival’s contest
which begins tonight, on all trains heading for the region
of Murcia they’re giving away CDs of the Festival
Internacional del Cante de las Minas, a massive initiative
that underscores the importance of the event.
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mapa 
cesta
ayuda 
46th Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas)
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