Guitar: Gerardo Núñez. Contrabajo: Pablo Martín. Percussion : El Cepillo. . Aforo: Tres cuartos de entrada.

Juan Vergillos
photos: Málaga en Flamenco

The language of stones

The music of the Núñez trio sounds different in a cave. The hard stone strengthens the notes, the natural forms remind us who we are. Gerardo, Pablo and Cepillo interpreted the same repertoire as always, the one they’ve been doing in recent years and which comes from the guitarist’s last record, “Andando el Tiempo”. But in the cave it all sounded different. More intimate, smaller. . . equally truthful. Or moreso, if that’s even possible. “Siempre es Tarde” is the title of the first bulería played by the whole group. Eternity plus one day, today, to create new forms.

From intimacy to direct statement, that’s the fluctuation, the polarity of Núñez’ work. All done with equal enthusiasm; that lovely virtue, the natural gift and capacity for hard work in order to be able to forget about technique, so that hands and heart become one. Pablo Martín squeezing music out of his upright bass, struggling to create melody within the marching compás. The merit is in how they pass from one string instrument to the next: variations on a circle of chords. The intimacy, second part, for this afternoon’s premiere: “Cueva de Nerja”, a work conceived for today, precisely the moment to meet eternity (the ocean is a drop of water in a glass, but... is there not something bigger?)To sense the bigness of time, it’s enough to be aware of how small we are right here, in the bowels of the earth. The melodies sound free but definitive in the cave, in the womb of mother Earth. Gerardo pays his own personal tribute to the memory of rondeña, from Montoya to Paco de Lucía and his “Cueva del Gato”. The work is figurative, because Núñez’ art strives to portray stone. But there is also room for generic and melodic indefinition. All tightly locked into a structure to become a sonata.

It’s the same recital Gerardo always does: bulería, soleá... The duo of Pablo and Cepillo, including all their ability, and the guarantee of a repertoire that’s been interpreted a hundred times before.

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Special MÁLAGA EN FLAMENCO