Sixth Festival de Flamenco de Solidarios

Sixth Festival de
Flamenco de Solidarios

Flamenco for the homeless

Flamenco for everyone and all tastes at the sixth flamenco
festival organized by the ONG Solidarios para el Desarrollo
which on this occasion gave the proceeds of the concert to
the program for homeless persons.

The artists who so generously contributed their talents gave
their all for the recital which had a massive response. Madrid's
Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones, the new venue for this
festival, was chosen to accommodate increased attendance.

Paco del Pozo is
proud of his traditional leaning

Paco del Pozo came on strong with tonás, singing with depth,
cranking out the tortuous melody. The young Madrid singer
who recently released his first record, is proud of his traditional
leaning and sang a fine seguiriya well-accompanied by guitarist
Felipe Maya. He also sang alegrías and showed off his knowledge
of mining cante. The singer is a holder of the prestigious
Lámpara Minera de La Unión.

Dorantes was in charge of demonstrating that the piano can
also sound very flamenco. After a display of virtuosity he
accompanied Esperanza Fernández' versatile voice with such
beautiful songs as «Di Ana». The cantaora also sang soleá
finishing with bulerias, always so flamenco this woman from
Seville.

El Cabrero always
manages to connect

After intermission El Cabrero came on. This unusual singer
offered a series of styles with his characteristic natural
delivery, singing many original verses with political overtones
such as anti-war or in favor of liberty as in the verse «who
cares if a priest is gay?» which he sang for fandangos. He
went on to interpret soleá, seguiriya, a song-poem of Alberto
Cortez to bulerías, malagueña, toná… To be sure, El Cabrero
always manages to connect and the audience begged for more,
but in this type of festival where there's a big lineup of
artists, you have keep it moving along so each one can put
a grain of sand and others waiting in the wings to please
a wide variety of tastes. The important thing is, El Cabrero
threw himself into it heart and soul, admirable considering
the nature of this concert.

Farruquito…strength,
elegance, control, depth…

Dancer
Farruquito and family put the icing on the cake. Each one of
the dancers of the dynasty came out dancing por soleá,
starting with Barullo, then Farru and Farruquito to end up.
All with that special style the family cultivates but each with
his own personality. Strength, elegance, control, depth… Farruquito
and his family get it all together and manage to captivate their
audience with their dynamic vision of male flamenco dance. If
Farruquito is the boss with his wonderful style and flamenconess,
his brother and cousin are no slackers either. Bulerías
is the vehicle for a smash ending by the trio.

Dorantes took charge of the grand finale, with Esperanza
Fernández singing and Farruquito and family taking
care of the dancing. Everyone doing their utmost for a good
cause at this spectacular flamenco benefit.

Text : Sonia
Martínez Pariente