“Of Essence
and Time” was commissioned by Next@19th in October 2012. It's a concert in which we were looking to expand the traditional aesthetic and authenticity of Jewish culture present around the
world, without loosing its essence, and in this case, with a special interest in the Sephardic
culture.
This concert
feeds of common elements in the Andalusian and Sephardic musical traditions, transforming
and shaping them in order to create a sound and visual universe, which is an
important part of our musical life experience.
This aesthetic,
riding along between contemporary flamenco, traditional Sephardic and popular Andalusian music and the Mediterranean elements, creates a new and
particular sound that results in “Of Essence and Time”...
Enjoy the pictures and the video..
Reza Filsoofi (percussion and setar), Renyel Rivero (bass), Romulo Bernal (percussion) and Federico Britos (violin)
Niurca Marquez (dancer and choreographer)
Jose Luis Rodriguez (guitar and compositions)
Thanks to Stephen Malagodi who came to the concert and took the time to write a review.... here is what he wrote..
Superlative restraint. Now that's something we really appreciate
in South Florida, right?
Friday's concert of Nu Flamenco [hey, this isn't hip-hop, let's
spell Nuevo correctly!] at the Dade County Auditorium was indeed superlative,
and made so by its intelligent restraint.
With compositions by Flamenco guitarist Jose Luis Rodriguez
(Spain), Flamenco dance by Niurca Marquez (USA/Cuba), and singing by Susana
Behar (Cuba/Venezula), it was definitely Flamenco. Of course Flamenco is a
cultural form loaded, often overloaded, with Mediterranean melodrama, and
melodrama is something I can always do without, particularly if it's supposed
to be music. But the principals never went over the top. Behar delivered the
songs, which in Spanish must have revolved around love, longing and exile,
freedom and death, etcetera, without weeping all over the place. We got the
poignancy without the puddles. Her voice was clear, comfortable and solid ;
always in range without any sense of strain. While I am in no way qualified or
even capable of saying anything about dance, Niurca Marquez gave us dance not
drama. Stern-faced but not tragic, arms articulate but not flailing, the timing
of her percussive footwork, particularly on the opening duet with Rodriguez,
was perfect, at least to my ears.
Now about the Nuevo parts. There was no attempt to force
something Nu here. There was the unmistakable base of Flamenco, but the
addition of violin virtuoso Federico Britos (Uraguay), percussionist Romulo
Bernal (USA/Equador), bassist Renyel Rivero (USA/Cuba) and Reza Filsoofi (Iran)
on setar and Middle Eastern percussion made for a music that was entirely
historic and natural. Thankfully there was never any kind of forced fusion into
something hip and modern. From Spain, through North Africa and the Levant, it
all worked together in an integrated music that was an organic expression of
the people, the centuries of people, who actually lived, worked, loved and
traveled together for thousands of years. You don't create that sound out of
nothing, and if you try, it's worthless. Or rather, it's the equivalent of
eating a strange 99 cent industrial meat burger versus a complete culinary
composition at an old café with friends.
I think a lot of the success of this anti-Nu, Nuevo Flamenco has
to be credited to the composition of Jose Luis Rodriguez. The massive talents
of Britos and Filsoofi seemed intentionally constrained to the compositions,
which allowed the deliberate structure of the music to work. If the composition
itself were not so well crafted, or if the individual musicians were allowed to
run free, the whole thing would have been a mess. As it was, it produced a
music that was exactly what its marquis declared, the historical Essence of
great and varied peoples and the rhythmic Time of their cultures, together.
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