By Luis M. Pérez. Seville, April 16, 2018. Photos by cienxcienflamenco

We didn’t want to miss Parada’s Flamenco Cultural Week (“Semana Cultural de Actividades Flamencas de Paradas”), an event beloved and cherished by flamenco aficionados and considered to be the realm of serious and traditional cante. Miguel Vargas’ birthplace seldom disappoints and it usually hosts first-class artists. This year’s edition, honoring the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla, has included in its lineup José Mercé, Lole Montoya, El Pele, Manuel Cástulo, Miguel de Tena, María Terremoto and Juanito Villar, who this time had to delegate to his son Antonio due to health issues.

Pele’s night was a dark, stormy night, a downpour. Manuel Moreno Maya El Pele (b. córdoba, 1954) asked saint peter to ease the deluge falling on the stage’s roof, so his voice could be heard over the racket. “i’ve never sang por soleá with such a wonderful orchestra”, he said after finishing a round of soleás de Alcalá, Lebrija and Cádiz. The two first ones were performed in the traditional way, showing that he’s a fount of wisdom when singing this palo. After the flood was under control, he embraced what he called “his own way”, a spring of melodies which can only come out of his prodigious and well-tuned voice. That could have annoyed a handful of locals and a few others who came from nearby Arahal or Mairena, purists who are becoming increasingly scarce in this province.

Here there is little tolerance for mixing apples and oranges, such as when he started singing Chacón’s malagueña “Que te quise con locura” and ended with the malagueña doble del Mellizo. La Trini’s lyrics “Siquiera por compassion” became embroided like gold in a new malagueña based on a version by Baldomero Pacheco. What did you expect? It’s El Pele, and Manuel does whatever he wants with the verses, because he knows how and he’s able to. Indeed, these days when rookie boys and girls show up claiming that they’ll revolutionize cante, this cantaor from Córdoba is a clear and uplifting example of how it’s possible to be creative in cante without compromising flamenco purity, understood as the truth within the artist, not as an absence of blending. El Pele is a creator, a genius of cante, without a doubt. Many years from now, his soleares, malagueñas and seguiriyas will be classified as personal styles.

After some forgettable cantiñas, El Pele and Severiano Jiménez Flores Niño Seve (b. Córdoba, 1982) tackled the omnipresent version of “Dime Ana”, a song por tangos which Pedro Peña wrote for Enrique Morente. The seguiriyas which Don Manuel sang that night will remain in the memory of the attendees as if they had been branded with letters of blood. What a way to interpret and convey sorrow! What a manner of swallowing cante and then throwing it out in the humid air of Paradas! He did so putting El Nitri’s lyrics into a melody by El Fillo, though (they were related, after all), and then putting El Fillo’s lyrics into a melody by Tío José de Paula. He ended up singing the styles of Manuel Cagancho and Loco Mateo and the cabal de El Tuerto de la Peña. Those in the traditional style, because it’s El Pele, because he’s earned it, because he can.

Event notes:

Show: El Pele
Series: XXVIII Semana Cultural de Actividades Flamencas de Paradas
Place and date: Aula Municipal La Comarcal, Paradas, Sevilla. April 12, 2018
Cante: El Pele
Guitar: Niño Seve
Percussion: José Moreno