Text: Sara Arguijo
Photos: Remedios Malvarez
Jueves Flamencos Cajasol. Rocío Márquez «Romance» – March 12, 2015.
«Romance» of Rocío Márquez
Singing and director: Rocío Márquez. Guitar: Miguel Ángel Cortés. Percussion: Agustín Diassera. Palmas and chorus: Los Mellis. Series: Jueves Flamenco de Cajasol Lugar: Sala Chicarreros de Sevilla. March 12th, 2015. Attendance: full.
From the Romance de Córdoba on, it was all Rocío Márquez. The singer appeared Thursday within the Seville series Jueves de Cajasol, after traipsing through the fields of Marchena in the last Bienal, and stirring the mistrust of the most orthodox flamenco followers, with a recital of her own in which she demonstrated that her singing is full of experience and a vision of the future.
At this stage of the game, the Huelva singer knows herself perfectly. Not only because she knows her vocal quality and has made a point of exploring every possible path, but because she has accepted her artistic personality, and now defends what she feels comfortable with.
Rocío sings forms barely performed by those of her generation – jotilla de Aroche, caña, guajiras, peteneras, romances – and she does them using verses dug out of dusty old boxes nobody remembers anything about. Like we said, she's lost any hint of having a complex, and has avoided absurd arguments about her personal vision of flamenco that makes her different.
Her musical concepts break the misunderstood purist mold to open up to the world and find new melodies and tonal registers. This is why her recitals are original, and can be programmed in circuits not related to flamenco. Because in a certain sense, as someone next to me was overheard saying, she reminds you of lyrical singers with an intimate style from other musical genres, such as Pasión Vega and Sole Giménez, although in her case, flamenco is always present.
Her interpretation of tangos, accompanied by the excellent guitar of Miguel Ángel Cortés who gave us some of the best moments, as in the bulerías, allowed flamenco followers to appreciate this form from a different perspective. The way the singer has of putting aside the hard edge some cantes have, proposing a caress, sensitivity, pleasure…
Proof of this was the «Romance» of Pepe Marchena where Rocío reflected everything she stands for. Her way of not singing, but rather telling the cante. Narrating stories, doling them out little by little. This was where she got the audience to their feet, she fell in love and managed to convey the feeling of the arrow to her heart.
If in the first part, where she was technically perfect, a certain coldness and aloofness could be felt, but from the moment the singer began to give herself up to siguiriyas, she again triggered spontaneous applause, exhibiting absolute vocal control and majestic command. The same occurred with the unaccompanied fandangos she used to close out the recital.
Without a doubt, Rocío Márquez doesn't need anyone's blessing because she knows she's powerful. She is an aesthete, intelligent and coherent. But above all, she knows how to convey that in her singing personality, and through her savoir-faire on stage where she never forgets to thank even the technicians for their work. She is, in effect, a cup of tea with two lumps of sugar. A delight for those with a sweet-tooth who like to sip slowly.
