Congrats to Lisner Auditorium on its tenth year of hosting the Flamenco Festival! February 21, 2010

It's probably Sunday February 28th when you're reading this, but I actually wrote this blog entry a few days earlier and used a feature in Movable Type to automatically publish the entry a few days later. Pretty cool in a geeky way, no? :-)

Anywayz, Lisner Auditorium's 10th annual Flamenco Festival has come and gone. I realize ten is just an arbitrary number to celebrate, but I still think it's something worthy of praise. It's not easy to fill-up a 1500 seat auditorium for all the festival concerts year after year. Kudos to the director and staff of Lisner Auditorium!

But while the festival presenters do have to strive to at least break even, it's not unusual to take a risk with performances to broaden the DC audience's exposure to flamenco. Dance concerts almost always sell well, but cante concerts are another story.

I can remember in February 2004 when singer José Merce came to DC and performed a cante concert with guitarist Moraíto and only half the seats were filled. Still a very good concert, but a little disheartening to see so many empty seats for such a well-known and respected flamenco singer. Same turnout with singer Rafael de Utrera in October 2004. The point is that as inspiring and important as cante is in flamenco, it usually doesn't sell very well with the DC general public—I can't speak for other cities around the USA, but I'm sure it's probably the same elsewhere, or not. (Flamenco aficionados from other locales, please feel free to contradict me and leave a comment below!)

Singer Marina Heredia with Mateo Romero, Hector Márquez and Miguelito. February 21, 2010

I had heard of Marina Heredia before. My friend Juan Martín (not the famous flamenco guitarist from Málaga) gave me her debut CD Me duele, me duele way back in 2001. Was one of my favorite CD's for a while and 9 years later, I never thought I'd have the pleasure of hearing her sing in DC. But thanks to Lisner, I did!

It was 90-minute performance with no intermission. She was accompanied by guitarists José Quevedo "El Bolita" and Luís Mariano with chorus and palmas by Ana Rivera and Reyes Martín as well as Marina's sister Jara Heredia who danced a few numbers.

My guitarist friend Behzad Habibzai kept track of and wrote down each and every flamenco palo featured in the concert which alternated between flamenco and Arab-Andalusian and a mixture of the two. Sometimes all the musicians played together. Other times the flamenco guitarists rested their hands while the Chekara Arab-Andalusian Orchestra of Tetouan played. The "orchestra" consisted of violinist/vocalist Jallal Chekara, Abdelaziz Sansaoui on the qanun, oud player/vocalist Youssef el Joussaieni, Mouhssine Koraichi on the darbouka. (Note: I'm just copying the names from the concert program...so it won't reflect any last-minute changes in artists.)

Guitarist José Quevedo "El Bolita" with Mateo. February 21, 2010

I didn't find any reviews in any Washington DC-based news sources. But here's a review of Marina Heredia's New York performance.

So after the concert, I did what I always do: go backstage to meet the artists. Not that I'm a groupie or anything—OK maybe a little. :-) Actually I'm just doing my job as self-appointed historian of the DC flamenco scene: meet and greet with the performers and take a few pics. Somebody's gotta do it, so it might as well be me.

I do this backstage visit so often that the flamenco festival tour manager already recognizes even though she only sees me once a year at Lisner. After making it past security, I usually go into the green room and approach whoever happens to be there. Usually the star of the show hangs out in his/her dressing room and is inaccessible. But this time around, the tour manager, Lola, actually invited me to meet Marina!

This caught me off guard...I wasn't prepared for this. Sure enough, 30 seconds later Lola gestured me to follow her down the hallway and knocked on Marina's dressing room door and there she was! And I froze for a moment to think of something to say beyond the customary "Felicitaciones!"

In my limited Spanish, I expressed on behalf of the DC flamenco community our appreciation for her coming to DC and performing. But what was cool was how down-to-earth she was and that she was willing to meet me and my two friends who came along, Hector Márquez and Mateo Romero, who I think were just as speechless as I was in meeting Marina.

Violinist Jallal Chekara and oud player Youssef el Houssaieni of Chekara Arab-Andalusian Orchestra of Tetouan with Miguelito, Hector and Mateo. February 21, 2010

I know what you're thinking now: "So Miguelito...did you ask Marina and the musicians to hang out afterwards?" The answer is "No." Usually I leave that up to them to ask me. And it has happened a few times over the years. Back in 2000, I ended up hanging out with Farruquito and his guitarist El Perla and a couple of hotties...but that's a story for another time. :-)

Between Snowmageddon (or "Snomenco" as Lisner marketing director Carl Graci describes it) and having to work on nights that coincided with concert dates, I was only able to go to one of the five concerts* in the flamenco festival series this year. Oh well...usually I don't mind the tradeoff and while I have a blast performing flamenco several nights a week, I have to admit that being busy working at night does have its disadvantages. Hmmm...so for the 2011 flamenco festival, I'll ask the Lisner staff to schedule the concert dates around my gig schedule. Yeah right. :-)

* Just an added note for those of you not from the DC area. Lisner Auditorium's 10th Annual Flamenco Festival included the following:

• Gala Flamenca featuring Pastora Galván, Manuel Liñán, Belén López and Rocío Molina
• Compañía María Pagés
• Compañía Rocío Molina
• Marina Heredia & the Chekara Arab-Andalusian Orchestra of Tetouan
• Compañía Israel Galván

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Ginettte and Sara Hart dancing Sevillanas at Las Tapas. January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

It's 5-something pm on Friday as I type these words. I know I'm behind schedule on my weekly-promised blog quota but I have this past week's Snowpocalypse (aka snOMG2) here in DC as an excuse! Nearly the whole metropolitan area shut down for a week, not to mention the fact that we broke the historical record for snowfall for DC!

Anywayz, most of my readers I imagine are from the Nation's capital so I don't need to rehash what went on this past week. Question is: how did it affect the flamenco scene?

Well...just about all the venues canceled their shows. Although some, like Cafe Citron and Vinoteca took a chance and stayed open on the weekend (despite the record-breaking snow accumulation), they canceled the flamenco anyway. And although I could've used the money and would've enjoyed getting out of the house and performing, I would've dreaded dragging 100 pounds of sound equipment in the snow.

Enough about the snow! Let's look at some flamenco pics!

Singer Hector Márquez and guitarist Miguelito. January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

So like almost two weeks ago, I was doing a private gig at Las Tapas for an organization called Things To Do DC that puts together events where young professionals can network and socialize. It had been a while since I've worked with dancers Ginette and Sarah Hart so I decided to call them to join me for this gig. As an added bonus, singer Hector Márquez joined us onstage.

Sarah Hart dancing tientos/tangos. January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

When I think about it, Ginette, Sarah and Hector are all pretty much half my age. They are literally part of the younger generation of flamencos here in the DC area. But don't let their youthfulness fool you: they've all got quite a bit of performing experience, mostly tablao.

Let's see...the first time I did a tablao gig with Ginette was in 2004 at the Andalucía Restaurant—that's about six years ago! Sarah Hart made her tablao debut in 2006, also at the Andalucía Restaurant. And the first time Hector worked with me was in 2007 at Tapeo.

January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

When I was part of the younger generation of DC flamencos, playing regularly in tablaos for the first time in 1995, I can remember veteran guitarists Paco de Málaga and Torcuato Zamora acting as my mentors, giving me tips and advice. Thanks Paco and Torcuato! As for myself, almost 15 years later, I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a mentor, but I can definitely say I gave Ginette, Sarah and Hector all kinds of practical tips and advice over the years.

January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

One thing that I can say they picked up that can't be learned in a dance class environment is the confidence that comes from performing on a weekly basis. Yeah I know—performing in tablao isn't always the ideal performing situation with the waiters walking around and customers chatting away and babies crying as you pour out your heart and soul onstage. But you learn how to tune them out or better yet, focus on your performance to the point where nothing will distract you. A good book to read on this topic is Barry Green's Inner Game of Music. It's not easy, but with experience you learn!

Singer Hector Márquez. January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

They've all come a long way from when I first played for them years ago. So I'm proud to be sharing the stage with them today! They're not the only ones though. The list of dancers that I've grown with over the years is too long for me to mention here, but you all know who you are!

Ginette and Sarah Hart in bulerías. January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

Fast forward to today...I'm at home on a Friday night. Kinda sucks because my private gig last night was rescheduled and I was counting on that extra cash to make up for the gigs that got canceled the week before thanks to the DC Snowpocalypse. Plus my gig that I had scheduled tonight was canceled, again thanks to the snow. Grrr!

Hector Márquez, Sarah Hart, Ginette and Miguelito. January 31, 2010 (photo by Rachel)

I so wanted to go see the Compañía Rocío Molina concert in Lisner Auditorium's 10th Annual Flamenco Festival this Sunday. And while I do have the cash right now to buy a ticket, common sense dictates that I should be saving it for essentials like food. And besides, I just got a call to do a rumba gig that night. It is Valentine's night after all, so I'm making some money (thankfully I'm doing something I love to do: play guitar).

My apologies to Rocío (not that she knows me personally), but I'm going to have to work instead of enjoy what will surely be a very inspiring show. Do go if you are free that night. More info at Lisner's website. And someone please do me a favor, and take some backstage photos with Rocío posing with some DC flamencos.

I can say that I did meet Rocío before she made it big. In January 2002, I was invited to a reception at the Embassy of Spain. At the time, she was a member of the prestigious company of María Pagés—not too shabby! Little did I know that she would come back to Lisner three years later as a soloist in Los 4 Elementos! This Sunday she's bringing her own dance company to Lisner at the ripe "old" age of 25!

All I can say is keep an eye on the young flamencos! They are the future!

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