Diego El Cigala – Suma Flamenca 2011

FESTIVAL SUMA FLAMENCA 2011

Diego El Cigala
«3 flamencos «
June 12th, 2011 – Teatros Canal – Madrid

Out of whack

Text: Pablo San Nicasio Ramos
Photos Cigala: Miguel Barrio
Photo Fanfare Shavale: Paco Manzano

And so Sunday night began and ended.  From the start, another great day for Suma 2011.  Mostly because the show sold out as quickly as Estrella Morente’s.  You can tell Diego el Cigala is one of the best-known artists of flamenco, and his box-office draw is standing up well over the years.

As time passes, the singer has less and less to do with flamenco, because you rarely see him doing traditional cante any more.  He’s involved in other things, more lucrative for sure, and only rarely do we have the opportunity to listen to and revel in one of the most beautiful voices of gypsy singing.

That’s what was going through my mind as I sat out the half-hour delay in starting the show.  Eight turned into eight-thirty, which is pretty much when the rest of the shows of the Suma are getting underway.  No problem, just a minor glitch.

The second day wasn’t so rough.  It was progressive, and we realized little by little that Diego El Cigala was running on a half-empty tank.  He started out like a warm-up act for his own group.  Five musicians plus the guitarist no less.

Led by a musical genius, Diego del Morao, the “big band” of the Madrid singer started with bulerías.  From the first moment it’s a real privilege to hear the son of Morao (we wish Manuel the best of health).  The beat, the context, the flamenco quality, the compás, the technique…it would be hard to think of any more complete guitarist from this generation.

And yet, his qualities have yet to be exploited.  And perhaps it’s because Diego del Morao still doesn’t have a group for him and his guitar.  Maybe it doesn’t even exist.  It’s possible this is a question of more detailed analysis.  But this Diego still has a lot inside of him.

El Cigala, with all the accoutrements of tall drinks and a taller stool, began thanking the organization for his being included in this year’s Suma festival “to recall the things he had listened to for so many years”.  In other words, the flamenco we all like.  A reunion that flamenco fans would like to see last longer, be more intense and committed…more substantial.  Because the repertoire of the gypsy born in the neighborhood of Madrid’s flea market was on the “lite” side, lacking in depth.  Martinete, taranta, cantiñas, sevillanas and the fandangos “Se equivovó la paloma” were the first numbers.  Each sufficiently long and correct.  But without making use of the faculties he certainly has, while others, who have also strayed from flamenco, know how to summon them up when they return, and particularly if they are in Madrid getting a top salary.

As Diego got deeper into his territory, it got more complicated.  Because the soleá por bulerías, the tangos and the bulerías lasted far longer than the other 5 cantes all together.  He was warmed up and comfortable, in his own way, but the form had someone slipped through his fingers.  Verses and more verses, now this, now that, all on the fly.  Even so, Diego el Cigala was a hit, and was pleased with himself as well.  The bulerías dancing that was the fiesta finale was the ending to a performance that, perhaps for a certain sector of fans redeemed Cigala’s prolonged absence from flamenco.  For many of us however, it still felt like too little.   

As we were about to get up for the intermission, or “break” as they now call it, as the curtain was going down, the another oddity took place.  The noisiest, most brusque and unexpected of the evening.  The group “Fanfare Savale”, a wind orchestra of Rumanian gypsies brought in for the occasion, broke into raucous percussion and sound.

Nine musicians with enough energy to call the crowd’s attention, stop them dead in their tracks and, amidst smiles and clapping, astonished looks and no small amount of surprise, shake up the audience that began to leave the theater little by little.  Something to think about.  The aesthetic clash was so ferocious, people didn’t know what to make of it, and some didn’t doubt for an instant, making a break for it while the going was good, while others sang along with the exotic festive music of this traditional central European band.

It was an ending in which the quality of the Romanians couldn’t be appreciated because the context was too far removed from what was required.  Even so, the desire to dance, although it was out of whack, was irresistible for more than one…