Hotel Don Miguel,
Marbella. December 26th to 28th, 2003.
For the third year running the Don Miguel Hotel in Marbella
was the center of flamenco over the Christmas holidays with
the last festival of the 2003 calendar. Organized by Selected
Hotels in cooperation with Turismo Andaluz and the Bienal
de Flamenco de Seville, it was an unequalled experience where
artists, journalists, both national and from abroad, as well
as the public at large shared flamenco from morning ‘til
night. Exhibits, workshops, conferences, presentations, meetings,
flamenco, flamenco-jazz, breakfast, lunch and dinner…there
was flamenco in every corner of the Don Miguel Hotel.
• Presentation of the Festival Mundial – Guide
to Flamenco, English edition and Flamenco Routes
• Show reviews
• Workshops: dance, Carmen Cortés; percussion,
Cepillo; guitar, Gerardo Núñez; cante, Juan
Peña Lebrijano
• Conferences. Manuel Curao, José M. Gamboa,
Manuel Bohórquez.
• Presentations: Gerardo Núñez, Juan Peña
Lebrijano
• Exhibits: Paco Sánchez, David Zaafra, Paco
Olea, La Chunga, Rafael Romero
• Related links
Manuel Macías, director of the Oficina Telemática
del Flamenco de Turismo Andaluz held a press conference to
present the English language version of the Guía del
Flamenco (Guide to Flamenco) pointing out that German, Japanese
and French versions are in preparation. Macías highlighted
all the activities sponsored by Turismo Andaluz such as the
last Feria Mundial del Flamenco, Womex 2003 in Seville and
the Festival Mundial del Flamenco within the framework of
the Festival Internacional de Golf with the objective of attracting
tourists, “flamenco travelers” as he called them,
from all over the world.
With
this objective in mind a series of Flamenco Routes (seven
to date) have been drawn up, and routes number 4, “The
route of the basic cante o 3X4 compás of Seville and
Cádiz” and number 7 “The great artists
from Seville to Málaga” were unveiled. Each route
covers four days during which time conferences and shows will
be offered, including cante, dance and guitar, passing through
representative flamenco towns such as Seville, Alcalá
de Guadaira, Utrera and Lebrija among others, with artists
such as Lebrijano, Moraíto or Fernando de la Morena,
prestigious speakers, tourist excursions and interactive classes.
Route number 4 is scheduled to take place from March 1 –
4 winding up in Jerez just in time to catch the eighth Festival
de Jerez.
Macías also outlined the socio-economic study regarding
flamenco in Andalusia and the objectives of flamenco travelers
who visit the region’s main festivals throughout the
year with the ‘Rutas’ scheduled to wind up during
Seville’s Bienal de Flamenco.
During the presentation of the Festival Mundial, the Bienal’s
sub-director, Ángela Mendrano stood in for director
Manuel Copete and underlined the Bienal’s activities
for 2004 to be celebrated on the 25th anniversary of the historic
festival. Many parallel activities have been programmed to
take place throughout the year…courses, special events,
shows…with the entire cycle culminating with the actual
Bienal beginning on September 14th and ending October 10th,
coinciding with the Feria Mundial del Flamenco 2004. In Mendrano’s
words: “Our responsibility is to see that Seville breathes
flamenco from every pore of its body throughout the entire
year”.
During the presentation of the Festival Mundial personalities
such as Juan Peña Lebrijano and Gerardo Núñez
representing the performing artists, as well as Paco Olea,
David Zaafra and La Chunga representing painting, photography
and other products spoke about the festival in general.
WORKSHOPS
Starting at six in the evening each day a dance studio was
mounted in the hotel’s Atalaya salon. Floorboards and
mirrors were erected so fifteen students could receive Carmen
Cortes’ master class, while an admiring audience looked
on as if it were a recital. At the same time Cepillo held
his master class in percussion with more than ten young people,
each with cajón, and the sound attracted passers-by
unable to resist tapping out compás anywhere they could
find.
The changing of the guard took place at a quarter past seven
as a group of guitarists gathered round Gerardo Núñez
to soak up every detail. One excited student was overheard
to comment “In these three days we’re going
to learn more than you could at home in an entire year”
while he picked up Gerardo’s sheet music at the stand
for books and CDs set up in the salon.
In another area of the hotel, Juan Peña ‘Lebrijano’
with his nephew Pedro Mª Peña on the guitar attracted
attention with Lebrijano’s master class, half instruction,
half conference…a little singing, some anecdotes and memories,
conversation… For many flamenco-lovers the opportunity to
share these moments with the singer from Lebrija was the high
point of the festival. An interview with the maestro is soon
to be published at Deflamenco and will include details of
the talks he gave during the festival.
CONFERENCES
On December 26 Manuel Bohórquez opened the series
of conferences with an abridged version of the magnificent
presentation offered at many flamenco peñas regarding
the figure of Pepe Marchena in honor of the singer’s
centennial. José Manuel Gamboa, guitar in hand, gave
his entertaining talk about some of the most representative
guitarists throughout flamenco history and Manuel Curao presented
an introduction to the most basic flamenco forms supported
by videotaped illustrations.
PRESENTATIONS
A preview of Gerardo Núñez’
new recording.
“Caminante”
is the tentative title of Gerardo Núñez’
new record scheduled to come out in March or April. “I’m
a guitarist who reached a point where I decided to go for
freedom of expression” said Gerardo. His most recent
records were released by his own company, El Gallo Azul, and
the last one included the collaboration of Cepillo, Paolo
Frsu, Perico Sambeat, Pablo Martín and Mariano Díaz.
It was recorded at the Gallo Azul studios but released on
the German label ACT guaranteeing wide distribution.
The new record contains soleá, soleá por bulería,
taranto, bulerías, minera, rumba, bulerías in
E flat and Ímpetu, an original composition of Mario
Escudero’s, “a guitarist who’s always fascinated
me, and the royalties will come in handy for him at this point”.
The record also contains a piece from ‘Yerma’
which he composed for Carmen Cortes’ company.
.
Listen to a sample of the Bulería.
“Yo me llamo Juan” –
Juan Peña ‘Lebrijano’s new record.
His
name is Juan, Juan de la Santísima Trinidad, and just
so everyone knows it, he decided to call his new record “Yo
me llamo Juan” [‘My name is Juan’]. At 62
Lebrijano continues to have boundless energy. Although he’s
decided to step down from performing at 65, he announced that
he will first record two more records, in addition to an anthology
of 3 or 4 CDs. After that time he plans to offer his accumulated
knowledge in classes and conferences. Lebrijano has always
defended his passion for cante although he realizes the business
has a life of its own and as he says “we have to
support the marketing of flamenco”.
During the entertaining presentation of the CD, the singer
commented on many of the songs included, explaining the origin
of each, singing some verses and even requesting bulerías
palmas from the audience to back him up. A true maestro.
EXHIBITS
The hotel’s Atalaya room was the setting for presentations,
workshops, conferences and nightly jazz-flamenco recitals
with Gerardo Núñez and musicians such as Marc
Miralta, Pablo Martín, Cepillo, Rafael de Utrera and
Carmen Cortés. The ambience was thick with flamenco,
from the wardrobe and accessories exhibited by designer Paco
Olea, to photographer David Zaafra’s latest work, to
La Chunga’s paintings “L@s Gitanit@s”, to
Paco Sánchez’ photography. Also of interest was
luthier Rafael Romero who set up shop and gave practical demonstrations
of his craft and his guitars.
