14th Festival Flamenco Caja Madrid. Enrique Morente

“CREACIÓN
Y MAESTRÍA. ENRIQUE MORENTE”

Teatro Albéniz, Madrid. February 2nd, 2006. 8:30 pm

Cante Enrique Morente, Guitarra Niño Josele, Percusión
Bandolero

Text: Manuel Moraga
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas

ANALOGIC MORENTE

It wasn’t planned: the last record by the man from
Granada was almost like a “penalty”. Once the
documentary was made, the record company wanted to take advantage
of the opportunity to push through a CD with the original
soundtrack. Morente was a good boy and did what he was told.
We don’t know whether it was the maestro’s peculiar
personality or a simple misunderstanding in the program design
– the presentation of his latest record was announced
– but in actual fact Morente didn’t sing any of
the pieces from the album. But he gave one helluva recital.

That non-conformist machine which is Morente’s mind
is never on stand-by. He no sooner puts the finishing touches
on one work that he’s cooking up the next idea to develop.
It’s like Morente is swimming upstream, or perhaps it’s
current trends that are swimming in the opposite direction
from Morente. When looking for a pretty melody or a catchy
chorus, the Granada singer places his bets on pieces written
in expressive mode. Music charged with atmosphere and which
is misunderstood unless listened to from beginning to end,
because they’re designed as a unified concept. It’s
like comparing a song of Deep Purple or Led Zeppelín,
the ones that go on for twenty minutes, with prefab overnight
hits. Continuing with the comparison, those groups based their
creations on rhythm and blues and Morente draws from flamenco.

Nowadays they use the “copy and paste” method
of the digital era. Morente cultivates the worth of the original
source: he belongs to the analog culture, but in his own way.
Morente is a composer. And although he did nothing from his
record, it made no difference. In fact the theater was full
of diehard followers.

This man is expert at creating moods, and it’s delightful
for example to see the old-fashioned feeling he gives to soleá
and, at the same time, the modern delivery. The siguiriyas
was outstanding as were tientos, bulerías, malagueñas
and fandangos. In other words, everything.

The announced happening never took place – the presentation
of “Morente sueña la Alhambra – but a good
time was had by all. That said, the next question (suggested
by a friend) is: “if someone other than Morente were
to completely ignore the announced program, what would happen?”
It’s a question for which each person has to find his
or her own answer.

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