The time has passed XXIII Biennial of Flamenco of Sevilla. The one that was, it was said in the circles, the one of the return to flamencoI have attended five shows to review them. And I am happy.
On Thursday, September 12, I was at the Opening Gala, Capacity, dedicated to Paco de Lucía, with flashy names like Tomatito, Farruquito, Aurora Vargas o Poveda along with others who are on the road to stardom such as David of Arahal o Israel Fernandez. With those sources, with those materials, one could only hope to enjoy it to the fullest. And so it was, even though there was not that moment of spark, unforgettable, because that is how it is flamenco. Something, by the way, very subjective. Perhaps the best of the night, the most emotional, what touched me the most inside was the first performance of Tomatito, his song was a delight. Two much, Michel Camillo, which they recorded on the album Spain. I'll stick with the version of the night, the truth is, the guitar creating a sentimental universe of the first order, great and deep, with all the admiration for which I comment and which you can see in this link to the YouTube video of Michel Camilo on the piano and Tomatito on the guitar:
On Wednesday 18th, in the incomparable setting of the Real Alcázar, Of well and moon He brought us the singers Ines Bacán y The Macanita with the piano of Pedro Ricardo Minho. Three diamonds flamencos that left us all, critics and audiences, with honey in our bodies and souls. Inés penetrates us, invades us, seduces us, soothes us like few singers. She demonstrated this through her lullaby, romance and the song The axles of my cart by the Argentine composer and singer-songwriter Atahualpa Yupanqui, a lesson in truth and philosophy, which in her voice touched the bottom of the well, purity, and the flight of the moon, feeling. For this interpretation, Inés has received, by the way, one of the prizes awarded by some of the specialized critics, the Fatiguillo for the best magical moment. The other singer, La Macanita, with a long and recognized career already, convinces with a cante Full of strength, tonal and stylistic variety, angry and sweet at the same time, cante typical of a time that is neither ancient nor current, but eternal. Through malagueñas with an abandolao ending, through soleá with traditional lyrics and sung with substance – it is one of its strengths –, tientos with a tango ending, and bulerías. A good part of the night passed through the air flamenco: Manuel Torre, El Caracol, Fernanda, La Serneta… And Utrera, Lebrija, Jerez, Cádiz, Triana… Pedro Ricardo Miño accompanies both of them and performs solos with brilliance and the flamenco glued to the keys of his piano, singing from them with a special charm and strength. And, at the end, like the icing on a very appetizing cake, the classic tonás and martinetes, some lyrics in duet, embraced, united by the cante The two artists possess a hallmark, a personal voice, something that immediately distinguishes them. Two compelling, natural, ancestral, healing voices that enrich our lives and console us from the bitterness of life, the main function of art and music.
The elegance called Eva It arrived on Wednesday 25th at the Teatro de la Maestranza. I have been following it for a long time as one of the essentials, if not the most. Like in the dance Javier Baron, Eva, Barón and Eva, are my personal favorites, admiring, as I admire, so many other dance artists, as well as cante and the touch. Eva Yerbabuena, only in Seville She showed us Eva as she is, that is, vigorous and ancestral, as in the start of the show with a dance, bulería por soleá, frenetic, intense, with hints of the volcanic Carmen amaya, in the traditional lane, and at the same time, as in the tientos and tarantos, a modern dancer, close to the contemporary. The first dance mentioned left me personally with goosebumps, something that, with this peak, was difficult to maintain, always from our perspective.
«Inés Bacán penetrates us, invades us, seduces us, soothes us like few singers. She demonstrated this through her lullaby, her romance and the song 'Los ejes de mi carreta' by the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanki, a lesson in truth and philosophy, which in her voice touched the bottom of the well, purity, and the flight of the moon, the feeling»
One of the singers in his group, Second Falcon, has received the aforementioned Fatiguillo award, in his case for cante of accompaniment. I assure you that, after seeing him with such dedication and mastery, I wrote a WhatsApp to Segundo congratulating him and telling him that, if there were prizes, he would be a strong candidate. The truth is that sometimes everyone agrees that what they saw was pure glory.
On the 27th and 28th I was enjoying myself at the Turina space. On the 27th David de Arahal presented his second album with his group, Alley of Art. First, green sea, from 2021, we discussed it on the now defunct website Jondoweb, receiving it with great interest. It continues with the intimacy and musical lyricism, the flamenco full of technique, but without stridency, the homage to the masters who preceded him or who still live by his side and, again, the attention to personal, daily, family detail. If in the first album it was his grandmother who appeared, now there are characters from his town like the great fan Rafael Frias Fernandez The Car Park Attendant, to whom he dedicates a song, or a neighbour who gives away little boxes of jasmine to her neighbours. This man with the face and voice of a shy child is great in his music and great in his attitude towards life and people. With the guitar he says everything he has to say, which is a lot and good. Here you can listen to the tribute to Rafael:
He offered a program with varied palos and beautiful titles (we always pay attention to this): Red carnations —Granaína—, Alley of Art —Jaleos—, Soleá of the Shinings —Solea—, San Francisco -Cane-, Parking attendant -Levant-, Jazmín —Tanguillo—, Jet Blue —Bulería—, Poem of my loneliness -Couplet-, Avenue of the Swans —Joy—. A great surprise was added to this: some seguiriyas with the cante de Manuel de la Tomasa and some fandangos from Huelva with Sandra CarrascoHe plays regularly with both of them, forming an excellent artistic partnership, and with Sandra he has published the double CD dedicated to Pepe Marchena, a musical gem, one of the best albums of this year. David seemed like a giant of the new flamenco guitar, made up of the best of the past and the best of the present. Thank you for so much wisdom, generosity, simplicity and quality. And he has also received the Fatiguillo award, in this case for Best New Artist.
And finally, on September 28, my personal finale as an assistant and critic of the 2024 Biennial, I had the luxury of attending the show The one who goes with me and I, by the guitarist and composer Juan Carlos Romero. The title coincides with the last album, which he presented with his group. Elegant and varied guitar concert with support from the classics of Trio Arbós and all flamencos companions, in good agreement with Romero. A demonstration of flamenco intimate and complete, as in the opening taranta, and flamenco of rhythmic liveliness, as in bulerías or tanguillos. Life, always on the rise, and the absent, always in memory, as Manolo Sanlucar —the topic Ausentes He highlighted it with great quality—or his beloved mother, who apart from his music in several songs—in the bulerías he said "my mother's handkerchief / was the one of joy", moved us later in That blue cloud— and his words as a grateful son for his lesson in joy above all, he remembered the handkerchief he carried and showed us throughout the concert.
Here we see him at a past Biennial, in 2016, performing We sing about what is lost:
Romero, Juan Carlos Romero, a man faithful to his guitar, to his world. A sure guarantee of quality, also endearing for his capacity to be grateful to those who have loved him and have taught him the best of life, the best of the flamenco.
And a goodbye, Bienal, or a see you later or see you forever…
I have lived the Biennial of Flamenco from Seville, as a critic, always from a magazine or more recently from a website, for many years now, since 1994. Thirty years is nothing, and fifteen editions is a lot. This Cenizo —Jiménez, by name José, Pepe for his friends, which is all of you— has offered his humble opinion on the shows and various activities that every two years arise interwoven around the event flamenco most important in Seville and one of the most important in Spain and the world. By personal decision, I stop doing reviews of shows at the Biennial, and very soon of other cycles and peñas. I will also stop reviewing literary books. I need to stop this activity for a while, collect my writings and devote myself more to literary creation.
I have published in paper magazines that are now defunct and beloved such as The olive y Chords of Flamenco or websites like Jondowebsite, also disappeared with all its virtual content, and, in recent months, in the Music section of the digital newspaper Cultural Light and on my own blog The Giraldillo, in addition to spreading everything on networks like Facebook, Twitter or X - I'm no longer there by my own decision - and WhatsApp. It's not the platform - as I said Amos King—daily, a newspaper with continuous publication, which is what people read, of course, but I have been making these comments, reviews or critiques, whatever you want to call them.
«All that about the Biennial is forever part of my personal joy and my sentimental flamenco education, of my musical imagination, a complement to what I experienced before and even in other cycles in theaters or peñas flamencos. For all this, my deepest gratitude. Thank you, Bienal»
There is so much that flamenco It has been with me since shortly before I was twenty, when I was forever dazzled after seeing the singer live Miguel Vargas en Stops —Sevilla—, my dear people, I can only have words of gratitude for them, their music, their poetry, their fans. And deep gratitude to the various teams of the Biennial since 1994, to one of whose directors, Manuel Herrera Rhodes, I want to remember with special affection for my personal friendship with him. I interviewed him for The olive in 1998. I mischievously asked him who he would give accreditation to first, The olive or to a magazine of Norway, and, with his natural elegance, he answered us both in this way: "Here I can't do as I do." Solomon: try to split the entrance to see who loves the Biennial the most. So there should be another alternative. The olive would feel closer to the Biennial, more theirs. On the other hand, the Norwegian magazine would be a voice that would take the Biennial to the confines of the North Pole. The Solomonic solution that I should adopt, I think, would be to ask the Press Office to make an extra effort and I would give them an entry to each magazine, okay? Of course, okay, dear, admired and remembered friend. There he also told us clearly that what satisfied him the most was having participated in the ITEAF to help older artists with limited means. A gesture of solidarity and nobility. By the way, among my tastes flamencos these old men of the flamenco They have a very special place and that is why I am very grateful that they have been made public. I wish that public institutions believed more in the flamenco, something that always seems to leave dissatisfaction. And, of course, being an icon of the peñismo flamenco, wanted to bring the Biennial to the peñas, or vice versa, that effort that always seems to approach and move away like apples from Tantalum...
Of all these Bienal teams, I also want to show special gratitude to those I have known best: Jose Maria Sousa and, above all, to Maria Antonia Ruiz Diaz, the person in charge of press and communications, with whom I have had the most personal contact and from whom a friendship has developed. María Antonia has been the face of the Biennial for me, a friendly face and efficient management. Thank you very much.
If I have ever had to show my displeasure about something, I have shown it. Fortunately, it has been minimal. And if I have ever had to show displeasure, justifying it, about a show I have seen or part of it, I have done so, perhaps more recently than recently - it must be a matter of age. And I have done so or have tried to do so politely, seriously, in a constructive way. After all, a critic's opinion is nothing more than an opinion, one among thousands, and each one sees a different show contemplating the same thing. If I have ever bothered anyone with my analytical writings, I apologize.
My admiration for art flamenco It is of the highest level, being, as I am, a lost music lover, who finds pellizco or hair-raising in other musical styles, luckily for me. The duende, the pellizco, as we say, is not exclusive to flamenco and flamencos. And it is also a rara avis, it is not so easy to find it and, therefore, it is something subjective. As I like to say, in my duende or pellizco I am in charge. Thus, each Biennial I attended, as an accredited critic, several recitals, not many because of the various occupations that one had - family, school, University, publications... - I have not always been given the recitals that I asked for, something that is understandable, because there are many requests and I always went with a non-daily, modest, very modest and limited means, although very flamencoI have been able to see and comment on shows by great figures such as Manuela Carrasco, Carmen Linares, Orange from Triana, Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlucar, Salvador Tavora, Javier Baron, Eva Yerbabuena, Israel Galvan, Antonio Canales, Calixto Sanchez, Bernarda of Utrera, Dorants, Manolo Franco, The Paquera, The Macanita, Mayte Martín, among others. Absolutely magical and unforgettable moments remain in my retina and memory: Paco de Lucía in splendor, the immense Eva Yerbabuena always dazzling me, Naranjito's farewell with full faculties, the excellence of our lady of the cante Carmen Linares, the astronomical power of Manuela Carrasco, the elegance of my favourite Javier Barón, the mastery of Calixto, the magic piano of Dorantes, the hurricane jondo from La Paquera, the tribute all musical and poetic sensitivity of Mayte Martín to Manuel Alcantara, the unrepeatable recital of the “old men” of flamenco like Bernarda, Flat Island o John the Beds, among others, and with many more moments, because I have enjoyed a lot of them, many of them, fortunately, even though the critic does not go to the performance relaxed because of what he has to analyze afterwards.
Here you can listen, as a tribute to all those elders mentioned, already so many in memory, some fandangos by Juan el Camas, remembering the Cross-eyed AmateThis really gets to me, to be honest.
All of that, we are talking about the Biennial, is forever part of my personal joy and my sentimental flamenco education, of my musical imagination, a complement to what I experienced before and even in other cycles in theaters or peñas flamencos. For all this, my deepest gratitude. Thank you, Bienal.
