“Juventud emergente”. Voice: María Terremoto and Samuel Serrano. Guitar: Nono Jero and Diego Amaya. Rhythm: Manuel Cantarote, Manuel Valencia, Tate Núñez and Cepa Núñez. Jueves Flamencos de Cajasol. Wednesday, June 5th Attendance: full house
Sara Arguijo
Youth is boldness, arrogance, thoughtlessness, superficiality, ignorance, lack of perspective and enthusiasm. Older people, on the other hand, are associated with wisdom, a certain tenderness, balance, prudence, experience and fatigue. As if everything we are were unconditionally linked to age.
And yet, I’ve seen octogenarian artists perform on-stage with the freshness, optimism and attack of a 15-year old. And this Wednesday, Samuel Serrano (Chipiona, 1994) and María Terremoto (Jerez de la Frontera, 1998) debuted in the prestigious Seville series “Jueves Flamencos” with the presence, self-assurance and control of two singers, brashly young on the outside and surprisingly elderly on the inside. It might be because, as I read a few days ago in “Mi Tío Oswald” by novelist Roald Dahl, when you’re truly obsessed with something, enthusiasm is greater than one’s age and there’s no choice other than maximum commitment, getting carried away and lost as if it were the first and last time.
Which is why both offered recitals of skin, guts and hunches in which the audience became more and more enthused by the moment, surprised by the command, the spirit, strength and seriousness transmitted by these two lean and hungry artists.
Samuel Serrano sang movingly with his rough voice and the force of his style, clipped, direct, shooting to kill. His broken profound sound is always in search of perpetual tension. And the mastery he applied to each form (alegrías, soleá, bulerías), precisely as needed, particularly moving in siguiriyas where the man from Chipiona reeled in his occasionally excessive gestures to get inside himself with the suffering of the cante.
And when the shouts of bravo for his performance were still sounding, a powerful María Terremoto took her place in front of the audience, and her opening “ayyy” was enough to work up people who didn’t quit cheering with “ole”s. “You’ve really got it girl!” shouted one.
Without a doubt, ever since the Jerez singer won the 2016 Giraldillo for Best Newcomer at the Seville Bienal de Flamenco, her career has been meteoric and she continues to confirm that she is a true artist who can achieve even more. Not just because of her impressive vocal capacity, with clean precise notes, her very flamenco sound and her magnetism, but because we see in her reflections of the greats of all time, from Pastora Pavón to Lola Flores, Juana la del Revuelo, Aurora Vargas and even Remedios Amaya.
Breath-taking, mature, defiant, believing in what she does and conscious of the importance of each recital. María Terremoto delivered a repertoire of bulerías, tientos tangos and fandangos which she controls to perfection and which allowed her to lay out all her personality, dancing, singing without guitar and pointing her finger until she raised our gooseflesh. To finish off, a facing-off with tonas “to end right”, and the audience was surprised and delighted to discover that the flamenco these two young people defend is not only emerging but already yielding fruit.
Photos: Remedios Malvarez
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