XLIV Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas – Vicente Amigo & Rafael del Carmen

Rafael del Carmen,
Vicente Amigo

Saturday, August 7th, 2004. La Unión (Murcia) 10:45pm

Vicente Amigo’s group: Second guitar, José
Manuel Hierro. Singer, Blas Córdoba. Voice and percussion,
Patricio Cámara. Bass, Antonio Ramos “Macca”.
Percussion, Paquito.

Once again in La Unión the first plate of the day
was a conference about Enrique Morente to open our appetites
for the show at the market-theater-cathedral which included
Vicente Amigo in the first part, and dancer Rafael del Carmen
in the second.

At
the Museo Minero writer, journalist and flamenco scholar Balbino
Gutiérrez offered his lecture titled “La pasión
por las artes según Enrique Morente” in which
he detailed the Granada singer’s numerous experiments,
collaborations, adaptations and other derivative work. Following
this the cultural awards were presented.

Leader of the second wave of flamenco
guitar innovators to come after Paco

There was a packed house for the guitar prodigy from Guadalcanal.
Twenty years younger than Paco de Lucía who recently
received the Príncipe de Asturias award, Vicente Amigo
is the leader of the second wave of flamenco guitar innovators
to come after Paco. In fact, young guitarists consider him,
at only 37, an “old maestro” – flamenco
is transforming such a rapid pace, today’s stars pass
the torch before reaching middle age.

Amigo opened on his own with a free-form introduction letting
sumptuous notes flow from the spring of his guitar to carry
us, wafting gently, through what turned out to be a soleá,
with no more showy effects than the sheer genius of his inspired
musical sense. But the dream was short-lived and five musicians
appeared for the second number, including electric bass, percussion
and chorus, the sextet formula popularized and recently abandoned
by Paco de Lucía.

Flamenco lovers of a certain
age are unable to assimilate the mixture of jazz with flamenco

Not having recorded since 2000, the variety of themes he played
that went from fandangos to alegrias, tangos and bulerías,
mostly taken from his record “Ciudad de las Ideas”,
were very familiar to his fans who have come to La Unión
to breath the same air as their idol. Nevertheless, a certain
segment of the audience seemed to be disappointed –
the eternal debate, the worrisome division that tend to come
down to generational lines. Flamenco lovers of a certain age
are unable to assimilate the mixture of jazz with flamenco
that has the younger generation so enthralled. In the large
plaza outside the Cathedral of Cante where informal debates
take place over drinks night after night, I asked one guitar
fan of about 55, from Córdoba no less, to express his
dissatisfaction: “flamenco, by nature, is dynamic and
expressive, but the kind of jazz they’re trying to blend
it with is laid-back and soothing…these are incompatible
concepts because one or the other will always dominate”.

It’s a delicate issue because when Amigo sinks his
teeth into the compás there’s flamenco galore.
One thing however, it does seem high time to wean off the
custom, begun over thirty years ago by Paco de Lucía
and abused to by others, of beginning every composition with
a free-form introduction. If flamenco has to evolve as they
say, fine, let’s start from the attic and get rid of
this musical crutch. The ubiquitous smoke machine is also
beginning to symbolize another era, that of Queen and the
Rolling Stones, and the percussion solo is corny if not boring.

Flashes of great inspiration interrupted
by certain artistic excesses

After
a brief intermission, dancer Rafael del Carmen offered a change
of pace with his group. A long and impressive background says
this 35-year-old from Seville is worth some consideration.
Rafael tends to have flashes of great inspiration interrupted
by certain artistic excesses that would be very easy to tone
down. In that grey area between chance-taking, and simply
dancing beyond one’s capabilities, lies greatness. This
dancer goes for broke every time, he longs to impress but
miscalculates too often. He fails to make use of contrasts
and goes through the whole catalogue of acrobatic tricks,
always done full out, and the result is a percussive blur
that says little. But where you going boy?..take it easy,
breathe deeply, how many others would die for what you’ve
got…don’t throw it away, less is more, pace yourself…

Noteworthy for his cante solo por soleá, was singer
José Valencia, a regular with all the top dance groups
but just as efficient up front on his own, with cute dance
included in the fin de fiesta package where barriers fell
and Rafael del Carmen gave us a glimpse of what he’s
really capable of.

The cante recital at the Escenario Bienal de Arte Flamenco
rounded out the long day on just the right note.