Montse Cortés, the flamenco singer from Catalonia
who lives in Madrid, has one of the sweetest, warmest and
most flamenco voices in flamenco today. The gradual ascent
of her musical career was not overlooked by Paco de Lucía
who had her participate in his most recent recording “Cositas
Buenas”. But Montse possesses more than sufficient quality
to sing solo and make her own records. On Thursday November
25th she presented her second recording, “La Rosa Blanca”
which, like the previous one, “Alabanza”, is produced
by Javier Limón.
Bulerías and tangos dominate this new work: sweet,
melodic, catchy, and with good choral backup as in the bulerías:
“Río de Azúcar”, “las Alfareras”,
“un Olé a tiempo” and “Nostalgia
añadía”, or in the tangos: “Y si
no es verdad”, the title song “La Rosa Blanca”
and “Hiere”, a lovely, danceable, hummable melody
with all the ingredients for becoming a hit – the main
reason Montse chose this theme to end her concert with the
obligatory curtain call for the audience that fill the auditorium
of the Casa de América.
One of the sweetest, warmest
and most flamenco voices in flamenco today
The
record also includes an excellent group of guest artists,
some of whom were at the presentation such as Piraña,
Alain Pérez, Diego del Morao and Eduardo Cortés.
Also taking part in “La Rosa Blanca” are Tomatito,
Niño Josele, Potito, Bernardo Parrilla and Farruquito,
author of one of the songs – others were composed by
Javier Limón, Arcángel and el Panki.
Everything Montse sings sounds good because her voice is
warm and expressive. The chorus of “Jesús de
Nazaret” is sung with great feeling, and although she
did a find job with tangos and bulería, her talents
were best appreciated in the soleá “Lloran al
lao mío”, as this is where the very flamenco
quality of her voice really shines through. Without meaning
to criticize, and taking into account that bulerías
and tangos are the most commercial items these days, one misses
hearing Montse in other styles because she’s a versatile
artist whose voice allows her to take on anything without
a hitch and the record might have been more varied. These
observations aside, Montse captivated her audience once again
with this new work.
