Twelfth FESTIVAL FLAMENCO 'CAJA MADRID' 2004 The magic of deep song

The second day of Madrid’s flamenco festival, and
a special night to pay tribute to Jerez guitarist Paco Cepero with
nearly a half century of professional activity under his belt. The
evening began with performances by Esperanza Fernández and
Chocolate who helped dignify the occasion at the nearly full Teatro
Albéniz.

Click on the images to enlarge.

An
overhead spot throws light on the right-hand side of the stage,
and a great poet recalls Antonio Machado with some verses that serve
as presentation for a singer born in Triana whose heart is in Lebrija.
Esperanza Fernández starts out with tonás occupying
the spot where Felix Grande just stood, ‘oles’ and applause.
She sits alongside Miguel Angel Cortés and begins to sing
a soleá which takes us to Alcalá, and the guitarist’s
tremolo triggers an ovation. Esperanza’s voice is smooth but
with a distinct edge as she creates her own style, contrasting with
the guitar. Time to go further south in Andalucía, to Cádiz,
where the land ends and the sea begins. Intense blue on the floor
of the stage helps set the tone for the singer’s heavenly
cantiñas where she exhibits her fine sense of compás.

Siguiriyas follows with a full natural voice, strong but measured,
taking us through to bulerías. Esperanza dances, she sings,
she feels…even her hair ornament is so surprised at the abundance
of art it goes flying off on a tangent. Everything comes off as
natural, as if there were no audience out front, even when she sings
away from the mike.

Felix
comes out once again to present Antonio Núñez “Chocolate
de la Alameda”. The almost Sevillian, born in Jerez, began
with Cádiz cante from the Santa María neighborhood,
Enrique el Mellizo’s malagueña. This was followed by
taranto and soleá, before getting into serranas. The maestro
wanted to spotlight this counterpart of seguiriyas (the best thing
he sang) since it is a seldom-heard form nowadays. Seguiriyas with
a Triana sound, including a nod to Tomás Pavón, and
at his point Chocolate announced he was feeling relaxed and in form,
a poignant touch to think such a great artist could have certain
feelings of insecurity on stage. A round of his “fandangazos
chocolateros” as the artist himself likes to call his fandangos,
and the verses spoke of love lost and betrayed to close out a respectable
performance that was well-accompanied with the classic sounds of
Antonio Carrión. In actual fact, Chocolate did not have one
of his best nights. Some dissonances here and there, but we make
allowances for this seventy-something maestro whose vast knowledge
carries him through most any situation.

Rhythm
and compás are two different things, related but different.
Compás brings us closer to flamenco perfection and these
measures of time may even seem too rigid. Rhythm lives in a world
of warm basic pulses of time. Rhythm and compás, two sides
of the same coin. This is the theme Felix Grande elaborates on to
introduce Paco Cepero moments after the latter accepted the sculpted
hands of the award that represent Madrid’s recognition. And
it was an appropriate introduction since both concepts were abundantly
on display from the very start of the performance that followed,
“Noche Andalusí”. Backup guitars José
Ignacio Franco and Miguel Salado, percussion by Luis de Periquín
(a regular with Navajita Plateá, son of Jero and promising
hopeful), with the ‘jaleo’ of Luis and Ali de la Tota.
Listening to “Aguamarina” it comes to mind that this
rumba could have reached the heights had it been promoted on a grand
scale, but despite the enthusiastic audience reaction, it would
be difficult to point to the highlight of Cepero and group’s
performance. Some poetic souls maintain that flamenco is actually
a musical way of playing with silence, and in the case of Paco Cepero,
this certainly applies. From a purely personal point of view, more
than highlighting or analyzing any particular moment of this show,
it is worth noting the high level of execution which is where an
artist’s true personality is revealed. Provocative silences
that resound. If obliged to mention a particular detail, it would
be the moment of solitary darkness when the guitarist’s hand
recreate the voice of Pastora Pavón from the middle of the
last century, going to the “sierrecita” with Manuel
Torre’s siguiriya. At that precise moment we realized just
who Paco Cepero is, and why legendary singer Manolo Caracol brought
him to Madrid to play at his Canasteros tablao. What more can be
said?.

Jacinto
González

Phtos: Rafael Manjavacas

Interview: PACO
CEPERO – «I realize something was missing…it was playing
solo guitar”