Festival Flamenco Caja Madrid 2011. Tomatito / Marina Heredia

Text: Pablo San Nicasio
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas

The perennial welcome memory of flamenco

Tomatito: “Luz de Guía”. Tomatito: guitar.  Cristóbal Santiago: 2nd guitar.  Morenito de Íllora and Simón Román: cante.  Antonio Ramos “Maca”: bass.  Lucky Losada: percussion. José Maya: dance.

Marina Heredia. “Marina”.  Marina Heredia: cante. José Quevedo “Bolita” and Ricardo Rivera: guitars. Anabel Rivera and Jara Heredia: chorus and palmas.

The action of “remembering so-and-so” is as flamenco as saying “ole!”.  It’s part and parcel of the sport of flamenco, and I say sport, because we’re reaching such a high technical level that you can barely tell the performers from athletes.

The thing is Caja Madrid 2011 closed with the memory of flamenco as a central theme, with that characteristic longing for the past which, when you come down to it, is what feeds flamenco itself.  Just a few lines are enough to sum up an entire life, and they were sung centuries ago.  No matter how much we look into the crystal ball, it turns out that everything, or almost everything, has already been invented, and so skillfully that it will surely continue to enthrall people in search of strong emotions

Tomatito returned to Madrid, and was facing no small challenge: he wanted to say something new.  He’d passed through over the years with his regular flamenco gitano entourage, and as far as new, there wasn’t much to speak of.  But yesterday was another story.  Or to put it differently: a different tune.

See video Tomatito

Mr. Fernández Torres was from the very beginning, totally engrossed in what he was doing, tensely concentrated, and with no indication that he wanted to relax until well into the recital.

“Luz de Guía” is the title of the new format, and this tremendous guitarist from Almería has been moving it through international stages for about two years.  A show based on a mixture of his experience with Latin music so enhanced by the piano of Camilo and flamenco.  Because Tomate can say and play whatever he wants, but he will live and die, and above all leave us exhausted from all the flamenco that comes out of his guitar.  A kind of sound with the strength and quality of years ago, nowadays seldom heard.  And he even came with some new ideas…few and far between, but they were there.  Like the ending of his opening taranta por abandolao, or the new falsetas of his amazing third bulerías….

Tomatito’s recital last night was for guitarists, in order to leave no doubt that yes, some young players have the sound, but in “La Chanca” they still know what’s what.  He was unbeatable in every one of the areas he ventured upon.

Tomatito bases his pieces on introductions taken from the slow numbers of his two “Spain” albums, and the progressive acceleration in various rhythms: tangos, the rumba “La Vacilona”, Argentine tango…  Always responding to each and every challenge, José has never given in to ambition, and only at the end, in the portion of dance with José Maya, somewhat irregular last night in form and ideas, could you see him take a back seat.  Until that point, the peculiar memory of Tomatito had vividly recalled Camarón.  His José.  In verses, falsetas such as the one he shared in the now distant “Cositas Buenas” of Paco de Lucía, and the recollection of his old times alongside the genius.  There were also memories of Huelva, of his uncle Niño Miguel, bulerías and other tributes to Paco the patriarch.

Throughout the duration of the recital, at no point did he stop being the hammer and anvil, concentrating and directing the band.

He closed “Luz de Guía” with an extraordinary cante recital of Simón Román and Morenito de Íllora, and the dancing of José Maya.  From soleá por bulerías to tangos and a fiesta finale por bulerías.

The second part was no less interesting.  Because Marina Hereda is no longer the eternally promising girl.  Now she is a true star, and each recital of hers is like further consolidation based on good solid cante.

On paper, the program that is, we get a glossary of the singer’s latest work.  But the first half of the recital was based on memories, oldies but eternal goodies.

Cartegenera and taranta to open.  Soleá apolá with guitarist Bolita, playing with countertime and coming out on top.  Alegrías with more strength than Cádiz subtlety, and the audience in the palm of her hand.  Cante in which a good number of the flamenco singers of the last 150 years were represented – what we said earlier about recollections.

See video Marina Heredia

And the second half, a real knock-down-drag-out.  With those fandangos del Albaicín which are truly diamonds in the rough for her, and for those singers who wish to follow her.  Fast-paced abandolao cante, exciting, with a brutally attractive aesthetic.  There’s plenty of material to be mined, and she was the first one to seek and find it.

Siguiriyas knocking on the doors of Jerez, the house of doña Francisca Méndez, “La Paquera”.

And here, at this precise moment, came the dilemma: Marina spoke of Morente.  Of his fandangos which she then interpreted.  And she sang others of Camarón and still others of Macandé…and it felt as if we hadn’t understood her correctly.  She was excellent, and her guitarists (keep an eye on that Ricardo Rivera), were capable of giving anyone a complex…except her that is, because she was sensational.  But there was confusion about the fandangos…who knows….

She wanted to remember, and that’s what there was.  Bulerías ending, a Bambino rumba and a tango encore where we did then clearly see Morente, still impossible to imagine him no longer in this world.  Even in the way she grabbed the edge of her jacket we could see don Enrique…

Memories will always be the domain of brave souls.  Those who forget tend to fly, like love stories of dust and sand.