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Guest -> Juan Martin in Manchester. Review. (Feb. 25 2004 10:29:24)
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Last night saw Juan Martin and a trio of entertainers from Spain
descend into the chill drizzle of Manchester,s NEC centre.
The 42 million pound state of the art Bridgewater Hall is about as
unflamenco a venue as the mind can conjure. Seating almost three and
a half thousand spectators, (maybe three-quarters full last night)
this austere home of the Halle Orchestra is designed for one thing:
musical appreciation. In that, it has few equals. Sitting beneath a
space-age steel structural canopy,the large, gleaming,almost white,
two-level floor would do justice to a world ballroom championship
venue. The customary three straight-backed chairs and floor mikes of
the performers looked almost appologetic against the deep purple
richness of the backdrop that, for the night, hid the mighty master
organ from sight.
There were no filmy curtains, silhouette shows or anvils beating, ala
Paco Pena, and not a castanet in sight, just Juan Martin as lead
guitarist and soloist, one cantaor and two young dancers. The
Cantaor, Chato Velez (after his home village of Velez Malaga)doubled
as second guitarist, the male dancer played cajon,(sparingly and in
complimentary mode rather then a Gene Krupa wanna-be) both dancers
and the cantaor payed palmas and, surprisingly, audible pitos.
Juan Martin is a frequent and experienced campaigner in the art of
touring and entertaining foreign audiences, (as Manchester University
is home to many Spanish student and the city has several Spanish
restaurants, the crowd contained a sizeable segment of homies) and
the reception was warm and deserved. Reviewer shock one came when I
went to purchase a programme. There were none on the night. Shock two
came when the reason for this became quickly apparent; the advertised
programme of mainly ida y vuelte palos, guajiras, colombianas and
cuban-inspired rumbas had dissapeared in favour of...???
The Show:
We were soon to be pleasantly surprised. The maestro appeared and
immediately went into a solo tarantas. The rich black chords of this
palo needed no programme note and it is a palo Martin does so well.He
followed it with a lively and traditionally easily identifiable
zapateado and the reviewer began to relax. After warm applause, senor
Martin made the lack of a programme a non entity as he told the
audience briefly what he was doing.(my touch of self satisfaction
dissappeared as the little bald guy with glasses sitting beside us,
who now knew as much as me, informed his wife in a stage-whisper,that
they had just heard a "zippadeedoodah" Hmmmm.
The next item was a lively alegrias in perfect compas, and the young
gypsy girl dancer from Cadiz made mincemeat of it, intersparsed with
the surprisingly good voice of the Malagan cantaor. It is pointless
to state it finished por bulerias; almost everything does and, IMO,
its entry is intruding fuerther and further into palo space..however,
it was punchy, well worked and, amidst the clever lighting that threw
the dancer's shadow hugely onto the side walls, highly audience
appreciative.
A darkened stage and sigueryas sobered down the alegrias ambience and
this was sung with respect and well danced by the young male bailoro
(unfortunately, this is where the programme was needed as I didn't
get his name).Walking canes appeared and beat out the contra tiempo
rythmn as the dancer displayed his art, a touch reminiscent of
Antonio Gadez and Mario Maya with clever balanced turns that had no
pueblo heritage but rather that of the ballet class. The sigueryas,
(spoiled for me with one touch of Charlie Chaplin vaudeville in
kicking the walking cane around, became the inevitable por bulerias,
but well done and indisputably flamenco based. Faultless compas
throughout. Rumba, unashamed fun, on two guitars with lively contra-
tiempo palmas ended the first session to great applause and
appreciation.
A quick visit to el aire libre for a tobacco injection and we were
back in our seats in time for part two: Again Martin entertained with
an opening solo that displayed perfectly his guitar virtuosity. A
Moorish influenced own composition without any title I heard, but
reminiscent of his "Girls of Algiers" from the "Picasso Portraits"
album saw him wandering into aras beyond the twelfth fret that I wold
need a passport to visit. His control of the fretboard and clever
percussive effects, whilst making a determined effort to avoid all
the hackneyed descriptive phrases so beloved of flamenco reviewers,
made me close my eyes and be in another place, another era;
the sultana's garden in Granada's Alhambra was not too hard on the
immagination in the warm theatre and.....enough. Masterly invocation
of Moorish influence, flamenco, no, excellent music, decidedly!
A two guitar bulerias instrumental, a well sung por tangos of the
Juan Villar mode accompanied by another great dancing attack from
the young female Gaditano and a clever shadow of a massive abanico
(fan) across the walls whilst the male dancer did palmas and cajon
and rapturous applause ended a lively opening. Then it was the turn
of the male bailoro to portray solea. Dressed in a plain black street
suit and waistcoat that neither paid homage to high fashion or threw
back to national dress, this dancer showed great control of his
taconeo and could be forgiven for demonstrating his craft with a few
clever crowd pleasers. His solea was compas correct and his bulerias
ending had much of the gypsy, ballet-free, humourous and intimate
approach that put the audience completely in his pocket.
The fin de fiesta was typical, dancing cantaor (even Juan dropped his
guitar and shuffled a few steps) singing young female dancer(hey, a
good cante voice going begging here) boy, girl duet ala Antonio
Serano/Maria del Mar berlanga of a previous troupe and three encores
to enthusiastic and well deserved applause brought a thoroughly
enteraining evening to a close. Lacking the intimacy of tablao, but
bringing it to the masses with traditional respect, it was great
value for money.
Footnotes. A quickly grabbed couple of minutes with the maestro
amidst the throng of autograph hunting CD buyers, brought this: For
the guitar nuts:
Me: "Juan, what guitars are you playing. " Mainly a Conde Hermanos
with a rosewood back and unusually white top. My second guitar is by
a Granada luthier, Juan Carmona."
"And flamenco itself, where do you see it heading? Will it make a
return to the traditional, or are we about to be "Chilled to death"
(brought a wide grin)
"Well, flamenco is changing, there's no doubt people are doing a lot
of things now they didn't do before"
Me: "Like the fact that no one is reording traditional cante at this
moment".
"Well, I have just released a new CD with Chato, and he sings the
traditional stuff on it. He's very good".....
And away from flamenco and into the Manchester night air we went with
me clutching (yes I confess it) a signed copy of "Camino Latino". Well
, I just have to know what's happening...don't I? (((-:
Jim.
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