FOURTH FESTIVAL DE OTOÑO DE GRANADA -DIEGUITO DE MORÓN, CHANO LOBATO, EL CHOCOLATE, FUENSANTA 'LA MONETA'

The third day of Granada’s Festival de Otoño
offered a buffet of flavors from four well-differentiated flamenco
areas, with the guitar of Diego de Moron from Moron de la Frontera,
the singing of Chabo Lobato from Cadiz and of El Chocolate, raised
in Seville, in addition to the dancing of the young woman from Granada,
Fuensanta “La Moneta”.

Journey
to an era that some would
say was more flamenco

Diego de Moron opened the program with the theater nearly full
for this interesting bill. Moron de la Frontera is guitar country
par excellence, with a style of playing that is unmistakable, and
Diego is the nephew of the town’s best-known guitarist, Diego
del Gastor, idolized by many foreign flamenco fans, a diamond in
the rough waiting to be discovered by Spanish followers of the art.
The nephew is absolutely faithful to the uncle’s style, and
for the audience at the Isabel la Catolica theater, his buleria,
solea and siguiriya offered a journey to an era that some would
say was more flamenco, and provided a welcome respite from the occasionally
insipid contemporary style of flamenco guitar.

Cadiz was up next in the person of singer Chano Lobato, what better
representative, with Fernando Moreno on the guitar. Tangos de Cadiz,
solea, an anecdote about Telethusa, the first “flamenco dancer”
from Cadiz to travel to ancient Rome, sent (according to Chano’s
delightfully tall story) by an ancestor of Antonio Pulpon who represented
flamenco artists during the nineteen-sixties and seventies. “Agents
were only taking ten percent back then”. Some alegrias, and
after taking a sip of water, “hey doc, did you catch that?”
Colombianas and bulerias to finish up, and the veteran cantaor left
the stage with the audience handily in his pocket.

Chocolate
continues to be relevant for lovers of fine flamenco singing

It’s no secret that at seventy-something Antonio Nuñez
‘Chocolate’ is past his prime, but his singing continues
to be relevant for lovers of fine flamenco. His is yet another pungent
flavor, this time of Triana and Seville’s Alameda de Hercules,
of the Pavon family of singers and of Manuel Torre. Malagueña
del Mellizo, taranto and solea, siguiriyas with verses that are
condensed and distilled, the struggle with diminished faculties
producing an uncommon sense of gravity, it all adds up to a great
flamenco experience. Pity that a double reprise of free-form fandangos
was excessive for most of the audience.

For dessert, the dancing of Fuensanta “La Moneta”,
still aglow from her triumph at last summer’s dance contest
at La Union. With guitarists Emilio Maya and Rafael Habichuela,
and singers Antonio Campos and Juan Angel “El Tirado”,
siguiriyas was the vehicle for the young Granada dancer to demonstrate
her strength, temperament, a penetrating facial expression and the
unmistakable lines of Carmen Amaya.

'Mis
70 años con el cante'. Antonio Núñez 'El Chocolate'.
Review & Interview .

Text & Photos: Estela
Zatania