XVI Festival Flamenco Caja Madrid 2008. Enrique Morente & Pepe Habichuela. Review, photos, videos…

Text: Manuel Moraga
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas

DEVOTION AND OBLIGATION

Two old cronies once again together on the same stage.  Enrique Morente and Pepe Habichuela opened the Festival Flamenco that the Obra Social of Caja Madrid, in collaboration with Cultyart has been offering now for sixteen years, including this edition.  The two maestros from Granada inaugurated this important Madrid event in grand style.

You could sense the expectation.  Morente draws a very special audience, militant hardliners devoted to his art, and that can also be sensed in the air.  Among others, Inés Sabanés of the Izquierda Unida, poet Felix Grande, photographer Jerónimo Navarrete, writer Balbino Gutiérrez, painter Luis Romeral and dancer choreographer José Porcel.  Two things were in doubt: on the one hand, what would he do?  Or better yet, how would he surprise us?  And on the other hand, somewhat more mundane, would there be an intermission to slip out for a drink?  Starting with the second concern, no, there was no pause and Morente went on for nearly two solid hours.  We left the theater with grumbling tummies, but no one can accuse the maestro of being a shirker.

And regarding the first doubt, we saw classic Morente…which in the case of Morente means exactly the opposite, in other words, the truly “classic” was barely alluded to, everything was of his own creation.  And I say “creation” because, as we all know, Enrique doesn’t limit himself to stylizing existing cante, but rather he turns traditional cantes into new ones.  It is an ongoing creative process.  It is pure Morente.

And in that same line, we saw a Morente of the nineteen-sixties: the alegrías sounded like those “Alegrías de Enrique”, he recuperated his moving version of “Elegía a Ramón Sijé”, recorded before Serrat popularized his own version, and even did some consciousness raising for the theater we were in, the Albénez, which is destined to become a “sausage factory” or somesuch.  He criticized the fact that money was the force behind this kind of decision that affects the cultural life of a city, and suggested that instead of that sad ending, the Albéniz be turned into a flamenco center.  Too bad “Esperancita” as she’s known in Madrid, was not present.

With a certain lack of continuity, there were two parts to the recital: a first part in which the creative voice depended solely on the tremendous guitar-playing of Pepe Habichuela, and a second, more choral part, where we could hear the voice and compás of young José Enrique Morente and maestro Ángel Gabarre.  Soleá, nice and slow, siguiriyas, alegrías, cabales, soleares that flirted with polo and the above-mentioned Elegía made up part of the repertoire, while bulerías, tangos and tonás were to be heard in the second part.

It must be said that this was not Morente’s most brilliant performance.  Obviously, after so many wonderful evenings enjoying his talent, the best passages are recorded on one’s “hard disk”, and we’re always looking for that level.  That’s the bad thing about memory.  Even so, I think all flamenco fans, especially professionals, should look to the Granada singer as a source of knowledge, an example of artistic integrity and proof that not everything has been discovered in flamenco yet.

It’s scary to think of all the music that must be in that man’s head: music of the maestros from whom he learned, and music of his own that flows non-stop.  Let’s not forget that Morente’s privileged ears know the forms of Aurelio, Bernardo, Varea and Pepe de la Matrona among so many others.  And let’s not forget that Morente never sings the same thing twice: today he emphasizes one thing, and tomorrow another, the next day he cuts here and adds tones there…  The thing is, his nature is permanently inquisitive, and from exercising his imagination so freely and often, there are times when everything comes out as he imagined it in his dreams.  At such moments it’s impossible to remain seated.

Like I say, we enjoyed the professionalism and polish of it all, although the spark was missing.  And even so, I repeat, like it or not, amateur or professional, looking to Morente is more than devotion: it’s an obligation.

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