José Antonio Rodríguez “…en el tiempo”
Wednesday, 5th october, 2006. 9.00pm. Teatro Central

Special 14th Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla. Reviews, programa, photos...

Author, guitarist and musical director: José Antonio Rodríguez. Second guitars: Francisco Javier Gallardo, Javier López. Electric bass and cello: Ángel Morilla. Voice: Rafael de Utrera. Sax and flute: Jon Robles. Keyboard and sampler: Miguel Ángel López. Percussion: Agustín Henke, Agustín Díaz Sera. Dance: Rosario Toledo.

Born in Córdoba, a city which has produced many fine guitarists, José Antonio Rodríguez has an impressive collection of flamenco guitar prizes. At 20 he received the official title of guitar maestro at Córdoba’s Conservatorio Superior de Música, he has participated in international music festivals and composed numerous works for orchestra, ballet and cinema. A true musician’s musician, something Ramón Montoya, Ricardo, Sabicas or even Paco de Lucía could hardly even have dreamt of in their day. The flamenco guitarist’s role was to accompany dance and cante, play a solo or two between numbers while the performers changed, or maybe even do solo recitals if the technical level and repertoire would permit it.

Rodríguez belongs to the new generation of guitarists which has developed the music of flamenco far beyond its original parameters, to the point of eliminating voice and dance, except as an embellishment or change of pace – if guitar solos used to be a brief respite within dance or cante recitals, now it’s the cante and dance that fulfill that role for the guitarist, a formula laid out by Paco de Lucía, developed by Vicente Amigo and Manolo Sanlúcar and today employed by all flamenco concert guitarists.

Even considering and respecting the nature and validity of that approach, there is a disappointing uniformity in the themes included in “…en el Tiempo”. With very few exceptions, all the music is in the flamenco modal key and played at a similar tempo. Each composition begins with what is now known as the “contemplative introduction”, that non-descript music, sweet and rhythmless, which prepares listeners for what is about to come. It’s a fashion turned into a crutch that began some twenty-five years ago (once again, the lad from Algeciras), and which current guitarists are loathe to abandon. But most surprising is that the binary underpinning that lurks beneath all flamenco forms, even the ones in threes or mixed twos and threes, is emphasized to such an extent that a siguiriya projects rhythmically and emotionally the same as a rumba, solea, tangos, taranta....

The eternal search for the frontier between what is, and is not flamenco – it’s possible Rodríguez has found it and is challenging us to cross it with him.

The amazing dancer Rosario Toledo who puts movement to some of the pieces, has found her contemporary path without leaving flamenco territory. She possesses the admirable capacity of being absolutely modern while relying on aesthetic values of the past. Her style is authentic, orginal and natural. Singer Rafael de Utrera is made to modulate his hyperactive voice and find his artistic identity in a more laid-back zone, nearly whispering some of the lines, although he then takes off at certain points in the soleá apolá and the siguiriya.

Eight musicians in black, four on each side of José Antonio Rodríguez wearing a white shirt, is the sober staging for the two-hour recital without intermission. A flute parallels the guitar’s melodies and puts us on an express lane to the past providing the floating, amorphous feeling of a certain kind of jazz. The percussion is admirably discreet. Without any doubt, this music is elegant and full of poetry, but the lack of strong statements gives a more Northern than Mediterranean character – perhaps for this reason it’s so difficult to relate it to flamenco despite the abundance of clearly identifying elements (Spanish guitar, compás, flamenco key...). The eternal search for the frontier between what is, and is not flamenco – it’s possible Rodríguez has found it and is challenging us to cross it with him.

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Special 14th Bienal de Flamenco. Program, reviews, photos