Niño de Pura – Fuensanta la Moneta – Festival de la Mistela 2006. Los Palacios – Sevilla.

Text & photos: Estela Zatania

Two talented young artists who are no longer hopefuls but
realities, shared a recital Thursday evening in the Festival de
la Mistela celebrated annually in Los Palacios y Villafranca since
the nineteen-seventies. Since those early years, when many of the
town’s streets were dirt and where local dancer El Mistela,
who went on to become a major star, first danced in public, there
have been changes in format, length and infrastructure, but the
organizers’ objective of presenting classic flamenco of high
quality, always with special attention to young artists, hasn’t
wavered. Within the extensive activities, the program for the 26th
offered the special attraction of one of flamenco most noteworthy
guitar soloists, and an extraordinary dancer from Granada.

Compás with no concessions, and
phrasing which is unambiguous

Daniel Navarro has a baby-face that seems to justify his artistic
name, “Niño de Pura”, and belies his forty years.
Nevertheless, when he places the fingers of his left hand on the
neck of the guitar, and those of the right hand begin to dialogue
with the strings, we know we are watching a veteran of many flamenco
battles. He belongs to the prolific generation born in the sixties,
that of Manolo Franco, Gerardo Núñez, Juan Carlos
Romero, José Luis Rodríguez, Rafael Riqueni, Juan
Manuel Cañizares and Vicente Amigo, the first batch of guitarists
to artistically come of age in full thrall of Paco de Lucía,
and each one developed in his own way the universe of possibilities
the latter had opened up.

Rafael de Utrera / Niño de Pura

In this context, Daniel’s taste runs to the classic. There
are no “nayno” choruses, the percussion is discreet,
and relatively few extended chords are used. His long experience
accompanying flamenco dance and song brings to mind Sabicas’
famous admonition that in order to play concert flamenco guitar,
one must first play twenty years for dance and twenty years for
cante. The old maestro never specified if that was simultaneous
or consecutive years, but the fact is, Niño de Pura’s
guitar-playing is anchored in compás with no concessions
and phrasing which is unambiguous.

Rafael de Utrera’s voice embellishes several of the pieces,
a second guitar backs up part of the time, and the best thing of
all, the compositions retain all the color of the respecive forms.
He opens with taranta on his own, then is joined by the second guitar,
percussion, palmas and singer. When alegrías begins, there
is a beautiful effect of spilling notes that sounds like ocean spray.
Rafael de Utrera sings soleá apolá and finishes off
returning to alegrías.

The picado, a technique whose difficulty drives most guitarists
crazy, is seldom used any more these days, but that’s not
stopping Niño de Pura, perhaps because he picks cleanly and
swiftly with the greatest of ease, and knows how to administer the
effect. A guajira, taken at a clip, has a luminous sound, another
piece, “Fantasía”, has tremendous musicality,
and bulerías is rounded out with the voice of Rafael de Utrera.
Fandangos de Huelva is the odd choice to end the recital, but we
soon find out why. The composition incorporates bits and pieces
of cante from Extremadura, then suddenly the melody of an entire
verse of fandango is executed with picado at extraordinary speed
and with absolute precision, possibly the longest continuous picado
ever played. The effect has a tremendous impact, all those present
bolt from their seats as if by spring action and thus ends the concert
amidst cheering and applause.

Subtle gestures punctuated with brilliant
bursts of strength. God is in the contrasts.

Fuensanta la Moneta doesn’t dance the same way twice, which
is a good sign. At twenty-two she is going through a dynamic formative
stage. She is a dancer of inspiration and temperament, in each performance
she is searching for herself, and the good news is, the quest is
a successful one. An artist’s instinctive qualities are worthless
unless there is a sound foundation of technique and experience,
and this young woman has just that thanks in part to the years she
danced in the caves of Sacromonte.

Fuensanta La Moneta: temperamento

A few weeks ago this same dancer appeared at the Bienal de Flamenco
de Sevilla with a hyped-up performance overloaded with intensity
that tended to cancel itself out with each movement, possibly due
to an excessive desire to make a good impression at the prestigious
festival. In the humble working-class town of Los Palacios however,
she was in total control, making the most of subtle gestures punctuated
with brilliant bursts of strength. God is in the contrasts.

The first thing on the program reads “Alegrías (with
bata de cola)”, which shows this lovely accessory which is
the ‘bata de cola’ has become so rarefied it now deserves
special billing. Fuensanta has an energetic but natural way of managing
it that goes perfectly with her intense style of dance which is
a potent hybrid of the femenine poses of Argentinita and the dynamic
rhythmic force of Carmen Amaya.

Cantaor José Valencia does malagueñas, a form he
manages surprisingly well for a singer who mainly accompanies dancers.
He ends with “abandolao” rhythm (threes) with fandangos
del Gloria, a jabera that raises goose-bumps and a fandango de Granada
nicely rounded out with Fuensanta’s dancing. The two singers
trade off tonás which leads to siguiriyas for the last dance
which leaves no doubt whatsoever about the quality of this young
dancer in professional ascent.

Manuela Ríos, José Anillo, Rafael Rodriguez en el Pozo de las Penas

Each night of the Festival de la Mistela there is an after-hours
show at the Pozo de las Penas flamenco peña. On this occasion
we are treated to the guitar-playing of Rafael Rodríguez,
the cante of two singers from Cádiz, José Anillo and
Miguel Rosendo, and the profound, expressive dancing of Manuela
Ríos.

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