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Paleto -> RE: Manolo Sanlucar (Dec. 4 2003 17:46:22)
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The concert was very good.
We had 2nd row seats and I saw both his hands quite well. I tried to enjoy the music, but also picked up a thing or two about his playing in general. Manolo is quite short, and so has small hands and fingers. He was a master at the economy of movement technique, getting the most out of playing in a particular position.
His posture was similar to classical, but the guitar was on his right knee, he also used a foot stool. He had quite short nails, and it appeared they weren't thick or thin, but medium hard and it also *appeared* that he had nothing on them, no glue or acrylic or silk or anything. Again, I couldn't say for *absolutely sure* but it appeared to be the case that there was nothing on his nails.
He played 4 peices of older material, alone, which while complicated in articulation and phrasing, were fairly straght forward in terms of harmonic development - tonic-dominant or cadencia andaluza - the basic bread and butter flamenco preparations.
Then came material from Tauromagia which he played with Santiago Lara, a young prize-winning guitarist who accompanied Manolo very well. It was wonderful to experience him playing these pieces live. That recording, Tauromagia, most seem to agree was his best. He did the tremolo piece Oración, probably the best tremolo ever recorded by a flamenco guitarist (my opinion), Maestranza, Tercio de vara (a great, complicated and interesting bulería), as well as perhaps one or two more which are escaping my poor memory.
Then it was on to lots of material from Locura y brisa de trino with cantaora Carmen Grilo and Santiago. This was very complicated repertoire and all 3 of them performed it really well. We were all impressed by the delivery. I don't know how many of you have listened to that cd, but the music requires intense concentration and and a heck of an ear. The cantaora knew exactly where she was going, and given that the key changes required landing on non-traditional tones I was very, very impressed. Carmen has a little bit of a softer voice, not ronca, more sweet and I think it was very nice. For some, it might be payo to present flamenco that way, but I liked it.
Manolo introduced each piece, but has a tendency to mumble, so I didn't understand a lot of what he was saying. He bent his guitar mike to speak, but then sat back in his seat a little to introduce each piece, mumbling a paragraph or so about it. The sound tech ought to have increased the volume for the moments he was speaking, but didn't.
No dance. I like dance, but it was refreshing to see just cante and guitar. The sound system was not so good, but there are much worse. The main annoyance was some clipping when Carmen sang loudly. Apart from that there was one feedback incident which was loud as hell and developed so quickly that there was no time to head it off. I think it startled Manolo as much as me. I have gotten used to listening to some recordings from marecordings.com, a label known for intimate, natural recordings done in acoustically accurate and adequate structures. And so, I have been trying to gently prod them into recording some flamenco. So my ear is tuned to high end recordings.
Any way, I encourage everyone to see Manolo if at all possible.
Anthony
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