Enrique Morente – Jardines de Sabatini – Veranos de la Villa

ENRIQUE MORENTE

Jardines de Sabatini – Veranos de la Villa
–
Madrid –
August 2nd, 2008

Enrique Morente swaggers through

Text: Pablo San Nicasio
Photos: Paco Manzano

Flamenco in the Sabatini Gardens of Madrid has gotten under way once again this year.  With the Palacio Real as mute witness, “Los Veranos de la Villa” as the series is
called, brings guitar, dance and cante into summertime’s cool night air.

For openers, it was Enrique Morente, a singer who comes to Madrid a lot (of the stars, he comes the most often), and for whom the years seem not to pass, regardless of how often he changes the members of his group.

The man from Granada gave a concert of an hour and a half.  With his faculties in fine condition, clean tones and compás, with his own material and that of others…in ninety minutes there’s time for everything.

Bandolero and David Cerreduela broke the ice with an instrumental duet of rondeña.  A guitarist with good technique in the Madrid Carabanchel style with good melody line that combined octaves at the end. Without a doubt, more of a soloist than accompanist.  With Morente and Paquete on stage, this became all the more obvious.

With the singer, the whole thing was like cross-fire with Paco de Lucía falsetas por alegrías.  Paquete the harmonizer vs. David the virtuoso.  The voice was covered up by all the guitar noise, and for no reason at all, because the interesting thing was what was coming from the singer.

If history did not bring Paco and Enrique together, it’s because history, and they themselves, know what each one needs.

In the bulerías that followed, it was more of the same.  And the audience noticed, because a half hour into the recital, the applause was cold.  That Morente, I’m convinced, wasn’t the same one who casually brags with the guitar.  He himself announced his desire for sobriety, but there wasn’t even room to be austere.

In the soleá por bulería the singer was more at ease.  Not because the accompaniment was doing a good job, but because he defended his place, elongating lines when he pleased.  He knew he could.

With tientos tangos he got the second half of the recital going.  Until then, Morente had fallen rather flat, merely correct, with tepid singing in the midst of wild guitar technique.

Fandangos de Huelva, traditional bulerías, concise and full of substance, and an original siguiriya of his own with recorded choruses, did away with the group.

With the guitars finally calmed down, Morente was able to follow his personal line.  Making a path for himself, putting things in order and laying down the law.  This time, without palmas or chorus.  The two encores laid claim to the truly avant-garde, standing, teaching the national anthem better than many teachers.

The cry of “Aleluya” in the second encore was more resounding than the prophecies of bishops and politicians, those who Morente always treats with great respect.  The man from Granada had finally won in his concert, at the feet of the Royal Palace in Machado’s Madrid.  Amén.

'Flamenco en los Jardines de Sabatini' PROGRAM COMPLETE