Thirty-third Festival de Cante Grande de Casabermeja

Twenty minutes from the Costa del Sol, in the mountains
of Málaga, for the last thirty-three years the Festival
de Cante Grande has been celebrated annually in the town of
Casabermeja, one of the most veteran festivals if not necessarily
the most famous. Nowadays, when there is a great deal of talk
about revamping cante festivals, it has become obligatory
to comment on the festival itself, and its infrastructure.

As you park near the edge of this small town, and aromatic
trail of fresh mint strewn on the ground leads the way just
like the yellow-brick road of the Wizard of Oz. This simple
poetic gesture which also characterizes the festival of La
Puebla de Cazalla prepares those attending to get in the mood
for enjoying some good cante.

Fernando Terremoto

Despite being held in an athletic field, an effort is made
to provide atmosphere, and the glossy handbill, hardly typical
of a summer cante festival, contains photographs and biographies
of all the performers. The program proudly states: “The
area is distributed in such a way that the audience is seated
at tables without the trapped feeling of a theater or other
closed space – at Casabermeja you eat, and drink, and
listen to good cante”. In fact the audience made up
of local and out-of-town flamenco fans as well as tourists
from abroad was respectful and appreciative. So we might paraphrase
American defenders of privately-owned firearms and say “food
and drink don’t make noise, people make noise”.
Easier to criticize perhaps is this festival’s custom
of having each artist perform twice, in the first and second
parts, which is unnecessarily repetitive for the audience,
and brutal for the artists themselves.

With Esperanza, flamenco fans
have won at least one battle because her taste for the experimental
has so far not been any obstacle to her ability to deliver
quality cante.

A
singer from Manilva, Málaga opened the festival in
a dignified manner. Nearly unknown outside the province, the
veteran Andrés Lozano not only has great knowledge
of cante – his favorite form is siguiriya – but
a very flamenco voice and unique style, something all too
rare these days. He was accompanied by the fresh young guitar
sound of Paco Javier Jimeno for taranta, cartagenera, an assortment
of malagueñas, alegrías, siguiriya and tangos
de la Repompa, a cante not often interpreted by men.

After requesting an applause for the late Antonio Gades,
emcee Manuel Curado pointed out that Antonio Núñez
‘El Chocolate’ has earned the title of “excelentísimo
señor” after having been awarded the Medalla
de Andalucía, and he cited the singer’s famous
sentence: “For me to sing well, I have to like the faces”.
We must have looked fine to the gentleman because his rough
voice, soaked with ‘duende’, circulated without
shortcuts or side-trips through the roads of taranto, soleá,
siguiriya and fandangos with his inseparable “Carri”,
Antonio Carrión, whose traditional but fresh guitar
accompaniment brought several bursts of applause.

Fernando Terremoto, a favorite singer in Casabermeja, was
right at home with another young maestro of the guitar, Antonio
Higuero from Jerez. Flamenco’s Pavarotti interpreted
tangos, malagueña, siguiriyas, fandangos and bulerías
to finish off, with his little dance that always reminds us
of the father, as much or more than does his cante.

Faraonic dignity and a flaming-red
outfit which seemed to shout “listen up everyone, flamenco
dancer here!”

This is Esperanza Fernández’ year, the singer
who inherited her respect for traditional cante from her father,
singer Curro Fernández. She offered the malagueña
of la Peñaranda with the fandango of Frasquito Yerbabuena,
soleá based as always on Utrera and Lebrija, tientos
tangos with the authentic sound of Triana, alegrías
of Pinini which some experts insist on calling “cantiñas”
even though Pinini himself and his descendents never used
that label, less satisfying with siguiriyas apologizing beforehand
that “it’s very hard to follow the maestro Chocolate”,
and a lengthy bulerías. With this woman flamenco fans
have won at least one battle because her taste for the experimental
has so far not been any obstacle to her ability to deliver
quality cante.

The
goddess of flamenco dance, Manuela Carrasco is at the peak
of her artistic output. Faraonic dignity, infallible compás,
good taste, inspired intensity, a mature but beautiful figure,
a lovely smile flashed at precise moments and cleaner technique
that in her youth when at times her footwork showed signs
of insufficient rehearsal. The “Carrasco experience”
goes beyond dance itself. She commands more with a simple
hand gesture or merely standing still than the two young men
of tonight’s entourage, Rafael del Carman and Torombo,
both of whom aspire to the Farruco school while lacking the
necessary qualities. Singers Enrique el Extremeño and
Antonio Zúñiga offered high-quality backup for
romance alboreá, and after intermission with mint-laced
broth for all, Manuela’s classic soleá in a flaming-red
outfit which seemed to shout “listen up everyone, flamenco
dancer here!”.

Manuela Carrasco

In retrospect, a festival that offered the best of how festivals
used to be, and little or nothing of the negative aspects,
because the tradition of ending no earlier than five o’clock
in the morning is for us, and many others, as much a part
of the experience as the after-hours fiesta and hot chocolate
with fritters at sunrise.

Texto y Fotos: Estela
Zatania

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