April 21st and 22nd
Colegio Mayor San Juan Evangelista. Madrid.
Cante: José Mercé, Carmen Linares, Sonia
Miranda y Antonia Contreras.
Guitar: Moraíto, Miguel Ángel Cortés,
José Manuel León, Eduardo Pacheco and Chaparro
de Málaga
Biale: Fuensanta “La Moneta”
Text: Manuel Moraga
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas
TARANTO, ALMERÍA AND JOHNNY:
A SENSE OF JUSTICE
It’s now been thirty-six years of activity
at Madrid’s Club de Músic y Jazz San Juan Evangelista.
Over three decades in which flamenco has been on the agenda
with honorary members such as Juan Habichuela, Félix
Grande, Ángel Álvarez Caballero, Carmen Linares,
José Mercé o Enrique Morente just to name a
few. It’s good to have this perspective and recognize
the importance of the contribution of a non-profit organization
that has managed to offer flamenco fans so many wonderful
shows with no official sponsorship.
But above all we have to remember Menese’s “Romance
de Juan García” – presented when Spain
was still under a dictatorship – or the many magic nights
with Morente, Camarón, Mercé and so many other
maestros with Alejandro Reyes, president of the club, always
seated next to the column. Within the concept of “Johnny”
(as he is popularly known) of including flamenco as one of
the fundamental expressions with the university, is the Festival
Flamenco por Tarantos “A Almería”, ongoing
since 1980 and which at the time did include administrative
support from that city’s town hall.
The reason behind all this prologue is to underline the importance
the Club de Música y Jazz has had in the history of
modern flamenco, both in Madrid and in Almería, giving
the latter an honorary place in the world of flamenco. In
fact, the Almería town hall paid tribute to Alejandro
Reyes in recognition of the work he has done to promote the
Taranto in particular, and Almería flamenco in general.
And needless to say, taranto was the star of this 17th Festival
which featured José Mercé and Carmen Linares,
both of whom also figured in the early editions of this event.
The man from Jerez sang just as we knew he would, in other
words, solidly. He began with a malagueña de Chacón
which didn’t quite come together, but everything that
followed made up for it. He interpreted an assortment of cantiñas
including mirabrá, and his siguiriya and soleá
were phenomenally good. But in my opinion, the best cante
was the taranto, a style he doesn’t usually include
in his recitals but which he pulled off with tremendous drama.
Needless to say, his bulerías were excellent, and once
again Moraíto’s guitar was superb, an exquisite
sense of accompaniment and wonderful variations. I think there
is general agreement on this but that’s no reason not
to point it out, it’s only fair. Singers Sonia Miranda
and Antonia Contreras preceded him, both women with a strong
delivery, but short on expression.
Carmen Linares opened the second night. One of her strong
points is her knowledge of a variety of cantes, so flamenco
fans are always waiting for Carmen to recuperate obsolete
forms as she did with fandangos de Lucena and some soleares.
But the best moments came with the “Milonga del Forastero”
(a moving poem by Jorge Luis Borges which the singer interpreted
well) and of course, tarantos.
In the second part of the show we had the dancing of Fuensanta
“La Moneta”, an energetic girl from Granada who
has all the ingredients for becoming a major figure of flamenco
dance. She has personality and makes perfect use of her expression
looking for different effects charged with emotion. She is
strong but once in a while you wish she’d tone down
a bit. She did granaína with fandangos de Granada,
siguiriya and of course, taranto, magnificently sung by José
Valencia. And in all fairness, we have to mention the rest
of the fine group: in addition to José Valencia, Antonio
Núñez “El Pulga” and Antonio Campos
sang, and the guitarists were Juan Riquena and Dani Méndez.
Incidentally, since I’m not the owner or the director
of this web but a mere contributor with absolute independence,
I wish to underline the fact that this web also understands
and values the work of the Club de Música y Jazz San
Juan Evangelista and awarded them Special Mention at the last
Deflamenco.com prizes.
