Text: Ruben Gutierrez
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas

SEVEN

Cante: Enrique Morente. Guitar: David Cerreduela. Second guitar: José Carbonell. Compás and chorus: José Enrique Morente, Angel Gabarre, El Poto, Pepe Luis Carmona. Percussion: Bandolero

The long-awaited day of the opening of the Málaga en Flamenco bienal festival finally arrived, and those of us lucky enough to be in Vélez Málaga were among the chosen.The end result of this night had surely already been envisioned many times in the mind of José Luis Ortiz Nuevo, artistic director of the event; everything he and Enrique Morente touch, turns into 24-carat flamenco.You have to admire these people.

Filled to capacity, the capital of the Axarquía region received us with the melodies of the Panda de Verdiales de los Romanes.That careening music of primitive fandangos doesn’t induce laziness, you need some real musical virtuosity to play like that. The guitar is just played with the thumb and strummed, and the violin is a continuous tremolo that produces a rhythmic ostinato capable of putting us into a trance along with the musicians.

Lots of great flamenco coming to Granada over the next month

Briefly the two groups are together on stage, the folk verdiales, and Morente’s people, and they do some abandolao music which morphs into the malagueña of Canario. The man from Granada was accompanied by seven musicians, and his son José Enrique plays a more important role in each show, carrying the weight of the alegrías.Another memorable moment was the cabales, and in soleá and siguiriya he left his mark as well.

Being in Vélez-Málaga, a tribute to María Zambrano was inevitable.Morente’s theme “Generalife” from the CD “Morente Sueña la Alhambra”, gets the best of the threatening sky, and when it finally rains, it’s only a light sprinkle. Equally impressive was his interpretation of the text from the letter Miguel de Cervantes wrote to the Duque de Lerma from his deathbed. The man from Lepanto lived for a time in Vélez-Málaga, so the text was apt, as was the tribute to Juan Breva and Pablo Ruiz Picasso.

The show ended with a round of tonás, martinete and debla, while we thought about all the great flamenco coming to this province over the next month. Congratulations Málaga.

More information :

MÁLAGA EN FLAMENCO '07 All the information