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An old hand and two youngsters for the
second “Al Gurugú” festival
Cante: Antonio Núñez “Chocolate”, Guillermo Cano, Laura Vital Guitar:
Antonio Carrión, Eduardo Rebollar
It's not the most important cante festival
in Spain. Nor the oldest. In fact, the modest gathering celebrated
Friday, June 20th, 2003 in El Arahal, Seville is only into its second
edition. “Modest” in means, but not aspirations.
According to oral tradition, if not actual documentation, the
legendary flamenco singer Pastora Pacón Cruz, “La Niña
de los Peines” was born in El Arahal, and her biographer from
the same town, Manuel Bohórquez was in charge of presenting
the second Al Gurugú festival dedicated to the memory of
flamenco's lady of honor, a voice which many people in the know
consider the best of all time, male or female. We don't actually
know why Pastora sang those verses of tangos to the famous mount
which protects the destinies of Melilla and where so many Spaniards
fought for their country, but the tangos del Gurugú are forever
linked to la Niña, and from this the festival takes its name.
Bohórquez explained the organizers' aspirations and plans
for the festival to grow and eventually occupy a place of relevance
in the flamenco panorama. Parallel activities were held throughout
the week, from June 16th to 21st, and the event concluded with the
performance of Arturo Pavón and his show “Treinta años
sin Caracol” [thirty years without Manolo Caracol] with his
daughter Salomé Pavón singing, the guitar of Pepe
Habichuela and Jerez dancer Mercedes Ruiz.
Antonio Carrión's
wise and expressive accompaniment
would receive as much applause as the star singers themselves.
Guillermo Cano con Antonio Carrión
Seville province boasts the dubious honor of being the place on
earth with the highest ratio of bars to inhabitants, but sitting
in El Arahal's charming Plaza del Santo Cristo there was no way
to get a cold beer to combat the oppressive heat that was still
radiating from the thick walls of the old buildings on the shortest
night of the year at eleven p.m. when the festival began. First
up was a young man from Huelva, Guillermo Cano, introduced as a
perpetuator of the school of Niño Marchena, Manuel Vallejo,
Pastora Pavón and other historic figures, who started out
with tientos, or tientos tangos as they say nowadays, with Antonio
Carrión's wise and expressive accompaniment which over the
course of the night would receive as much applause as the star singers
themselves. Cano took care to include the tangos del Gurugú
and ended with styles from Triana. Immediately following, granaína,
a cante which is heard relatively little in festivals within the
geographical triangle where flamenco singing is said to have been
born, a set of classic siguiriyas with the flavor of voices past
and a total rejection of the Camarón school which has so
fascinated young singers for the last three decades. A further indication
of this young man's dedication to past times was seen when he avoided
the typical bulerías ending, opting instead for fandangos
which earned him a standing ovation.
Despite her best efforts,
we were left with
the impression that she would be better suited
to lyrical popular songs than flamenco singing.
The short roster of artists then brought Laura Vital, the girl
from Sanlúcar who won the contest for young interpreters
at Seville's Bienal in 2000. It would be hard to imagine a less
flamenco look, despite the polka dot skirt and red carnation in
her hair. And the contrived appearance was reflected in her singing,
very correct, but prepackaged and cerebral. Nevertheless her Pastora
style of singing went perfectly with the theme of the night in honor
of La Niña de los Peines. By contrast, her guitarist Eduardo
Rebollar didn't stick to traditional accompaniment and inserted
jazz-type chords that were somewhat out of place. Run-of-the-mill
cantiñas and peteneras. An excessively long series of fandangos
in the noble female tone of seven 'por medio' (“A” position)
which has a special vitality that 'por arriba' (“E-F”
position) does not afford. To end, bulerías complete with
a little dance that had all the looks of a dance school routine,
and you had the distinct feeling she was milking applause, all the
more so when the routine was repeated start to finish in a contrived
reprise. Despite the studious young woman's best efforts, we were
left with the impression that she would be better suited to lyrical
Spanish popular songs than flamenco singing.
Laura Vital con Eduardo Rebollar
We were transported to the Alameda de
Hércules with gooseflesh
raised, and the face of Tomás Pavón seemed to be hovering.
And then the stage was filled with the presence and art of Antonio
Núñez “El Chocolate” with his 70 years of
cante and snazzy electric blue tie. This fundamental component of
the modern history of cante, a child of Spain's lean war years,
the singer that Carmen Amaya advised to quit singing for dancers
because it was a waste of his talent, and winner of the Latin Grammy
began with malagueña del Mellizo. “That's it, Carri”
murmured Chocolate to Antonio Carrión, the young guitarist
who normally accompanies the maestro. With the decades under his
belt, Antonio Núñez takes the liberty of addressing
the audience like a tolerant but unyielding headmaster. When the
crowd begged for fandangos: “noooo…. chocolate-flavored fandangos
are for the end”. It was time for our taranto lesson, Torre-flavored
as is typical of singers not from the Levante area where mining
cante originated. Chocolate manages to find that difficult balance
between originality and an absolute respect for tradition. When
he began with the soleá “Tengo el gusto tan colmao”
we were transported to the Alameda de Hércules with gooseflesh
raised, and the face of Tomás Pavón seemed to be hovering.
After the soleá, the class once again begged for fandangos,
but the teach wasn't giving in: “You have to listen to the
basic cantes, if not, you're never going to learn what flamenco
really feels like”. The crowd obeyed and in the wings the two
young singers who went before weren't missing a thing. “This
siguiriya is dedicated to the memory of Tomás, Pastora and
el Pinto, the three people who really loved me”. Directly to
the crude “Reniego” style, without so much as a warm-up,
with the singer's classic version of the classic Triana style. Following
his mentor's example, and without leaving the neighborhood, “Y
Dios mandó remedio…”. Carrión looks happy and
gives his all with Chocolate, at the same time he's careful not
to overplay. What finer ending than “Dos días señalaítos”,
and the teach then decides to offer “a little something from
Málaga” which turns out to be tangos del Piyayo, a mixture
of short styles and one of the old long ones rarely heard any more.
And finally the moment had arrived, somewhat anticlimactically,
for the promised fandangos. The class is happy.
Antonio Núñez 'Chocolate'
And for homework, a round of martinetes between the odd crew, one
old tree and two young shoots. On the way home, the taxi's radio
was playing something called “flamenco chill” and at that
precise moment I took stock of the great privilege I had just enjoyed.
Recordings Antonio
Núñez ' Chocolate'
Text & Photos: Estela
Zatania
Interview
& review CD 'Mis 70 años de cante'
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