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X FESTIVAL DE JEREZ
10 de marzo de 2006
Text: Estela Zatania
COMPAÑÍA
DE ANTONIO EL PIPA “De tablao”
Teatro Villamarta, 2100h
Dance: Antonio el Pipa, Mª José Franco. Coros
de ballet: Alejandra Gudi, Marta Fernández de Córdoba,
Gloria Pérez. Guest artists: Mariana Cornejo, Concha
Vargas. Cante: Juana la del Pipa, Manuel Tañé,
David Carpio. Guitar: Pascual de Lorca, Pepe del Morao.
Palmas: Joaquín Flores. Niño: Christián
de los Reyes.
The tablao, a venue that was intended to reflect
the old cafés cantantes – singing, dance and
guitar in a more intimate, less formal setting than a theater,
with bar service – reached its peak between the decades
of the sixites and seventies of the twentieth century. The
ideal nature of the format (flamenco flourishes in intimate
settings) coincided with Spain’s postwar economic
boom to conform an era that marked the history of flamenco.
All the great stars headlined at Los Canasteros, Las Brujas,
Corral de la Morería, Café de Chinitas, Torres
Bermejas, Arco de Cuchilleros and other tablaos, more than
a dozen just in Madrid, in addition to other cities, most
notably Seville with Los Gallos and Málaga with its
Taberna Gitana.
The format varied little: 5 to 8 dancers, a couple of singers
and guitarist, all seated in typical chairs, each one doing
his or her number backed up by the rest of the group. Between
dances came the “jaleos”, which could be tangos,
rumbas or bulerías, popular tunes sung by the whole
group to a lively compás and without guitar. When
each one had had a turn in the spotlight, the cuadro went
off and the main star of the night would perform, after
which the cuadro returned to finish off the night, almost
always ending with rumba and sevillanas. There was very
little bulerías as it did not yet enjoy the popularity
of later years.
So Antonio el Pipa’s manifest goal was to recreate
and pay tribute to those establishments and the people who
worked in them. And it could have turned out to be very
interesting, not only from the flamenco perspective, but
historically and anthropologically: could a tablao format
with contemporary artists be viable in 2006? El Pipa let
that opportunity go by preferring instead to use a great
idea as a pretext to offer the same show as always. The
inclusion of three veteran artists, Mariana Cornejo, Concha
Vargas and Juana la del Pipa, gave a lot of life if not
credibility to the tablao scene – with the exception
of the caves of Sacromonte in Granada, there did not tend
to be older people in the groups – and the only attempt
to recreate the ambience of those times was half-hearted
references to small quarrels between the members of the
group, a fantasy that is not necessarily peculiar to the
tablao setting.
The abundance of bulerías situates the action firmly
in the present. Pipa was in a theatrical mood at the Villamarta,
and unknowingly supplied the most authentic historic detail:
shoulders pulled tightly up around the neck in the style
of Antonio Ruiz Soler is an inmistakable image of the nineteen-sixties
when the latter’s influence caused many young dancers
of the era to adopt that posture. With a competent back-up
and a few problems with the sound system, el Pipa danced
alegrias, and Concha Vargas, soleá with the cante
of Juana la del Pipa, an enjoyable mix of two well-seasoned
women. Soleá por bulería by four girls with
short batas (batines) was another chronologically incongruous
detail: although in modern times this is the preferred rhythm
for flamenco dance, soleá por bulería was
not danced until later years.
The artistic rapport between el Pipa and María José
Franco is always fascinating, but you found yourself missing
the number Antonio usually does with his aunt Juana, even
though it’s been repeated many times. Mariana Cornejo
stole the show right from under everyone’s feet with
her delightful chuflas, her wall-to-wall charisma and her
Cádiz personality por tanguillo. The retro touch
of three girls strolling sassy across the stage in short
polkadot dresses of the sort that were popular before Manuela
Vargas set the fashion of long dresses, was a clever touch.
Everything would up in an orgy of bulerías, as one
would expect from the group of Antonio el Pipa, and the
skewed chronology no longer seemed to matter.
DIEGO CARRASCO
Bodega Los Apóstoles, 12 midnight
 Closing
out the series “Café Cantante” in purely
Jerez fashion, singer, cantaor, guitarist, rhythm-maker
and man for all seasons, Diego Carrasco, took over the Apóstoles
bodega with some very special guest artists including spontaneous
bits. The charismatic bearded one enjoyed the company of
Moraíto, Diego del Morao, Javier Barón, Curro
de Navajita, singer Felipa la del Moreno, violinist Bernardo
Parrilla, Fernando Carrasco on guitar in addition to the
regular group with Juan Grande, Maloko and Ignacio Cintado.
Throughout his career Carrasco has constructed a repertoire
of standards, and his fans do not tolerate the omission
of any of these oldies but goodies, so it was a nostalgic
recital, as well as good-humored and largely improvised.
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