March 6, 2014 Circulation: 40000

March 6, 2014
Circulation: 40,000
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March will bring two very different guitar recitals on a single night - San Francisco c...
http://www.examiner.com/article/march-will-bring-two-very-different-guitar-recitals...
C o a c h e l l a i s s t r e a m i n g o n Yo uT u b e a l l w e e ke n d l o n g : Wa t c h L o r d e , O u t K a s t & S k r i l l e x l i v e
March will bring two very different guitar
recitals on a single night
Stephen Smoliar
February 23, 2014
SF Classical Music Examiner
|
I have recently been writing about the fact that March will be a
month in which serious listeners will have to wrestle over making
Related Photo:
some very hard choices. It turns out that this proposition will
extend even to those with specialized interests. Even in the middle
of the week of the middle of the month, guitar lovers are going to
discover that they will have a choice to make.
On the one hand the next concert in the 33rd Dynamite Guitars
season, organized by the Omni Foundation for the Performing
Arts, will be a special event presented in association with The
Flamenco Society of San Jose. This will be the San Francisco
courtesy of the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts
debut of the renowned flamenco virtuoso Tomatito (José
Fernández Torres). He will be performing with his sextet, whose
other members are guitarist El Cristi, singers Kiki Cortiñas and
Simón Román, percussionist Lucky Losada, and featured dancer
Paloma Fantova. The program will feature a diverse selection of
flamenco approaches to different forms of song and dance.
This concert will take place on Wednesday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Palace of Fine Arts Theater (3301 Lyon
Street). Ticket prices are $65, $55, and $45. They may be purchased online through the event page for this concert
on the Omni Foundation Web site. Tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-242-4500, which will also provide
further information.
In a totally different style, John Zientek, currently in the Master’s program in classical guitar at the San Francisco
Conservatory of Music (SFCM), will be giving a diverse recital that same evening. On the classical side he will
perform the first of Mauro Giuliani’s “Rossiniana” compositions; but the remainder of the program will be far more
modern. Of greatest interest will be an arrangement of Toru Takemitsu’s orchestral composition “To the Edge of
Dream” for guitar and piano. This arrangement was prepared by Joseph Colombo on commission from Zientek,
and the pianist will be Keisuke Nakagoshi.
For the second half of the program, Zientek will perform with percussionist Elisabeth Hall. The first selection will be
a partita by Paul Lansky. This will be followed by “Ghosts of the Alhambra” from the first volume of George
Crumb’s Spanish Songbook. The vocalist will be Efraín Solís, currently an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco
Opera.
This concert will begin at 8 p.m. in the SFCM Recital Hall. The venue is located at 50 Oak Street, a short walk from
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14/04/14 14:08
“Tomatito” cierra festival de flamenco || El Tiempo Latino | Noticias de Washington DC
http://eltiempolatino.com/news/2014/mar/14/tomatito-cierra-festival-de-flamenco/
“Tomatito” cierra festival de flamenco
El martes 18 de marzo en el Lisner Auditorium de la Universidad George Washington en DC
DC. El guitarrista José Fernández Torres se presenta el martes 18. | EFE
El guitarrista de flamenco José Fernández Torres, conocido como “Tomatito”, cierra el martes 18 el Festival de Flamenco en
Washington DC, que presentó a varios reconocidos artistas de este género en el Lisner Auditorium de la Universidad George
Washington.
El tour anual Flamenco Festival 2014 inició este mes en Miami, seguido de DC y continúa por 24 ciudades de los Estados Unidos y
Canadá.
La fiesta anual, que nació en 2001 en Nueva York, se lleva a cabo en medio de un luto por uno de los grandes exponentes del flamenco,
el guitarrista Paco de Lucía, quien falleció de un infarto el 25 de febrero. Lucía tenía 66 años.
El festival en DC abrió el 4 de marzo con una “Gala Flamenca”, dirigida por Ángel Rojas, en la que se presentó el maestro Antonio
Canales, el coreógrafo, Carlos Rodríguez; la mexicana, de ascendencia española Karime Amaya y la joven estrella del flamenco Jesús
Carmona.
Al iniciar el tour, Rodríguez dijo que en todos sus espectáculos “dejarán bien claro la persona tan influyente que fue Paco de Lucía para
todos nosotros”.
Por su parte, el maestro Canales lamentó que “el flamenco se haya quedado huérfano” con la partida de Lucía.
A la lista de presentaciones siguió el 7 de marzo “Lluvia” de Ballet Flamenco Eva Yerbabuena.
Y este martes 18 cierra el festival “Tomatito”, quien también hará un homenaje a Lucía.
“Tomatito” —apodo que adquirió por su padre, también llamado Tomate, y el de su abuelo, Miguel Tomate— empezó su carrera
musical desde niño.
El guitarrista se inició participando en los festivales flamencos andaluces y poco a poco se hizo conocer al acompañar, desde muy
joven, a famosos cantaores como Enrique Morente y La Susi.
La presentación será a las 8pm en el Lisner Auditorium ,730 21st St. NW. Washington. Más información: 202-994-6800.
Also of interest
Festival de flamenco enciende Washington
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15/04/14 10:45
Contemporary flamenco, in all its flavors, gets showcase - Theater & art - The Bosto...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/03/06/contemporary-flamenco-all-its-flavors-...
You can now read 10 articles each month for free on BostonGlobe.com.
By Karen Campbell
| GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
MA R CH 0 6, 20 14
YI-CHUN WU
World Music/CRASHart brings the Flamenco Festival, including Karime Amaya (above), to Boston for the 14th year.
For going on 14 years, World Music/CRASHarts has been warming up cold nights with the heat of flamenco.
Flamenco Festival 2014 brings two concerts from Spain that embrace the range of the art form.
“Stars of Flamenco” March 8-9 features six dancers and seven musicians, showcasing the contrasting dance styles
of veteran powerhouse Antonio Canales, Carlos Rodríguez (Nuevo Ballet Español), Karime Amaya (grandniece of
Carmen Amaya), and young dynamo Jesús Carmona.
CONTINUE READING BELOW ▼
A March 16 concert by the Tomatito Sextet marks the Boston debut of José Fernández Torres (Tomatito), one of
the world’s top flamenco guitarists, along with his musicians and dancer Paloma Fantova.
Both productions are curated by Miguel Marin, artistic director of
the Flamenco Festival, an organization that tracks the pulse of the
art form in Spain and packages groups of Spanish artists to tour
internationally. He has been involved with World
Berklee Performance Center,
Music/CRASHarts’s annual flamenco celebrations since the very
Performing company: Stars of Flamenco
beginning. He is especially excited by the opportunity with “Stars
andTomatito Sextet
of Flamenco,” directed by Ángel Rojas, to present a diverse slate of
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flamenco artists from different generations. Marin spoke with the
Globe recently via phone.
Also performing: World Music, CRASHarts
10/04/14 13:39
Tomatito's Stunning Flamenco Display : San Francisco Classical Voice
https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/omni-foundation-for-the-performing-arts/tomatitos-stu...
Log in or Register using
March 12, 2014
Tomatito's Stunning Flamenco Display
OMNI FOUNDATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS (/EVENTS-CALENDAR/ORGANIZATION-PROFILES
/OMNI-FOUNDATION-FOR-THE-PERFORMING-ARTS)
BY SCOTT CMIEL (/AUTHOR/SCOTT-CMIEL)
The Omni Foundation for the
Performing Arts presents one of the
world’s foremost guitar series. The
primary focus is on classical guitar, but
it also does an outstanding job of
showing the breadth of the guitar’s
appeal, including programs by
superlative flamenco, jazz, and
world-music guitarists. On Wednesday
at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, in
partnership with the Flamenco Society
of San Jose, Omni presented Tomatito
and his Flamenco Sextet in a stunning
display of the depth, power, and variety
of contemporary flamenco.
Tomatito
José Fernandez Torres, known as Tomatito, is one of today’s most-admired
flamenco guitarists, known for his mastery of traditional rhythms, his classic
work with singer Camarón de la Isla, and his pioneering efforts in establishing
Nuevo flamenco by augmenting traditional flamenco with music influenced by
classical, jazz, blues, rock, pop, bossa-nova, tango, or fado. His program gained
depth by being dedicated to the memory of Tomatito’s friend and mentor Paco
de Lucía, arguably the most influential flamenco guitarist of the modern era, who
died unexpectedly just last month.
Tomatito is an enormously charismatic musician who entered the hall with a regal
bearing, modestly gracious and yet unsurprised by the adulation expressed by a
large audience that showed its appreciation before the first note was played.
Tomatito began to play, as a soloist, an introspective, melancholy, and
rhythmically free Rondeña. After he drew the audience in with his understated
magic, the members of his sextet gradually joined him, with second and third
guitars playing rasgueo, the complex strumming patterns that characterize
flamenco guitar; other members performing palmas, or syncopated clapping
patterns that add rhythmic vitality to the music; and all members of the ensemble
and even audience members adding jaleo, or words of encouragement for the
performers, sometimes spoken, often shouted.
Flamenco has a long and complex
history with ancient roots. Tomatito is
Omni presented Tomatito
much loved both as an embodiment of
its deep traditions and as a leader in
and his Flamenco Sextet in a
contemporary developments in the
stunning display of the
form. Like American blues, flamenco
began as the music of poor people, so
depth, power, and variety of
its emergence is poorly documented. It
contemporary flamenco.
has been traced to the 15th-century
arrival in Spain of Gypsies whose
musical traditions blended with those
of Christians, Arabs, and Jews to create unique forms, modes, and rhythms. In
the late 19th century the music became popular in cafes throughout Spain,
launching a great debate about the depth of the original music and the loss
alleged as the music changed and became more widely popularized.
In 1922 composer Manuel de Falla and poet Federico García Lorca organized El
Concurso del Cante Jondo (Contest of the Deep Song) to celebrate and promote
the depth of traditional flamenco. Although it began a steady rise in the status of
traditional flamenco among Spain’s cultural and intellectual leaders, a shallower,
more tourist-oriented version continued to dominate the field. In post-Franco
Spain, an appreciation for the more-profound traditional flamenco, embodied by
artists like Antonio Mairena and Nino Ricardo, was combined with an openness to
influences from jazz and world music. Artists such as singer Camarón de la Isla
and guitarist Paco de Lucía embodied these trends and created today’s Nuevo
flamenco; as a young man, Tomatito worked closely with both of them and is
today flamenco’s most-prominent guitarist.
Tomatito’s sextet, featuring two
singers, two guitarists, a
percussionist, and a dancer, is an
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Tomatito is much loved both
10/04/14 15:15
Tomatito's Stunning Flamenco Display : San Francisco Classical Voice
https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/omni-foundation-for-the-performing-arts/tomatitos-stu...
accomplished and flexible ensemble
as an embodiment of deep
able to project a complex range of
traditions and as a leader in
feeling in a widely varied program.
They gave skillful performances of
contemporary developments
traditional flamenco forms, including a
in the form.
joyful Alegrias, a powerfully rhythmic
Bulerias, and a soulful and
show-stopping Solea. Jazz influences
infused the performances of Two Much by pianist Michel Camilo and Our Spain
by great bassist Charlie Haden and lent a complex flavor to Tango Argentino and
Rumba.
Each selection featured Tomatito’s outstanding solo performance, while many
included vocals by Kiki Cortiñas and Simón Román, always accompanied by the
fantastic rhythmic pulse of the sextet. Twice, the spotlight shifted to Paloma
Fantova, the group’s featured dancer. Briefly near the beginning of the concert
and in an extended 10-minute solo in the concluding Solea, Fantova amazed the
eyes and melted the hearts of the audience with her movement, by turns fluid,
graceful, fiery, and brilliant.
In the encore, Tomatito graciously gave each member of the ensemble time to
shine; they included El Cristi and José del Tomate on guitars, Moisés Santiago on
cajon, and vocalists Kiki Cortiñas and Simón Román.
Scott Cmiel (http://www.sfcv.org/author/scott-cmiel) is Chair of the guitar and
musicianship departments at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Preparatory Division and Director of the guitar program at San Francisco School
of the Arts.
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10/04/14 15:15
Tomatito recordará en JazzFest el legado de De Lucía, "un virtuoso tímido" - NotiCel™
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Tomatito recordará en JazzFest el legado de De Lucía,
"un virtuoso tímido"
Por: Rita Portela López
Publicado: 27/02/2014 06:27 am
El productor del Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Fest, Luis
Álvarez, confirmó que se recordará el legado del
guitarrista Paco de Lucía con la intervención en la 24
edición del evento de uno de sus discípulos, Tomatito.
En la imagen, el virtuoso de la guitarra Paco de Lucía
quien falleció el miércoles pasado. (EFE/Archivo)
Se trata del cierre del sábado 22, a cargo del también guitarrista flamenco, que estudió bajo la tutela
NotiCel en las redes sociales
del fenecido músico.
Seguir a @noticel
“Me parece una triste coincidencia, pues por la noticia de la muerte de Paco, pero podremos
recordarlo esa noche con uno de sus estudiantes más anegados que sigue echando su legado hacia
delante”, recalcó Álvarez al tiempo que especificó que el evento tendrá lugar del 10 al 23 de marzo
67.3K seguidores
Me gusta A 177 922 personas les gusta esto. Sé el
primero de tus amigos.
en el Anfiteatro Tito Puente.
ver más
Repórtalo
El empresario recordó a De Lucía como un “virtuoso tímido, pero exigente cuando de su música se
trataba”. “Era una persona sencilla que nunca quiso limosinas ni suites durante su estadía en Puerto
Rico”, añadió el productor al anotar que la última presentación del fenecido artista fue en el 2012
como parte del Jazz Fest que se le dedicó q Abraham Laboriel.
De hecho enfatizó en que los puertorriqueños “somos privilegiados” de haber podido ver en su
mejor momento a De Lucía.
Cobran el Ivu y no te lo
dan
Comentó que tras la presentación del guitarrista español en el país se reunieron en la casa del
productor para departir de temas variados. Entre los invitados estaba la esposa e hijos de Paco, así
como Rubén Blades y varios allegados. “Nos sentamos a hablar de música y salsa, porque a Paco
le gustaba mucho la música de El Gran Combo y otros temas de política y sociedad. Era un virtuoso
No dan Ivuloto
en todo el sentido de la palabra y nos duele su partida”.
En un parte de prensa Tomatito, cuyo nombre de pila es José Fernández Torres, expresó que “no
puedo encontrar las palabras para describir lo que siento desde que escuché lo de la muerte de
Paco. Sé que estas palabras serán compartidas por todos los artistas y seguidores del flamenco
que lo conocieron. El trabajo de Paco definió el flamenco como un arte. Él logró que la guitarra se
convirtiera en un instrumento de entendimiento universal. Gracias a su entrega otros intérpretes e
incluso yo mismo podemos compartir música hoy en día alrededor del globo”.
No dan el Ivuloto
Accidente
Tuiterías
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10/04/14 15:13
Tomatito carries on after death of flamenco 'father' - SFGate
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Tomatito-carries-on-after-death-of-flamenco-5...
Tomatito carries on after death of flamenco 'father'
Aidin Vaziri
Updated 7:53 am, Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The great Spanish flamenco guitarist José Fernández Torres, known as Tomatito, was talking on a recent afternoon about his mentor,
Paco de Lucía. "All flamenco guitarists learned from his beautiful music and technique," he said through a translator. "He is our father."
Tomatito didn't know at the time that just a week later he would be one of the pallbearers at de Lucía's funeral, after the 66-year-old
virtuoso died of a heart attack while on vacation with his family in Mexico.
The news must have been devastating. De Lucía not only opened doors for multiple proteges by making flamenco music palatable for
audiences worldwide but also had a direct hand in Tomatito's career, discovering him as a child prodigy and mentoring him through his
formative years.
De Lucía's influence will no doubt be apparent when Tomatito makes a rare West Coast appearance Wednesday at the Palace of Fine Arts,
part of a mini Spanish flamenco festival that also features performances at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall by the dancer Eva Yerbabuena on
Wednesday and vocalist Estrella Morente on Friday.
Tomatito has won several Latin Grammy Awards for his bold playing style, which over six solo albums and multiple collaborations has
stretched the traditional Gypsy flamenco template with elements of jazz and funk. His latest is called "Soy Flamenco," which translates to
"I Am Flamenco."
"There's nothing profound about it," he said. "It's just what I am. I've done a lot of different music styles, but my real love is flamenco."
Born into a musical family in Almería, Spain, he was given the nickname "little tomato" after his grandfather and father - both guitar
players, both called Tomate. His uncle was the famed guitarist Niño Miguel.
Tomatito started his own career when he was 12 years old, alternating between solo work and a lucrative creative partnership with the
vocalist Camarón de la Isla that lasted nearly two decades.
"That was one of the best times of my life," Tomatito said.
Following Camarón's death in 1992, Tomatito set off on a collaboration with the pianist Michel Camilo. Their album "Spain," released in
2000, received a Grammy Award for best Latin jazz recording and saw them playing at festivals around the world.
For the upcoming concert in San Francisco, Tomatito will be accompanied by a sextet of musicians and dancer Paloma Fantova.
"I'm very happy to come there, very excited," he said. "I just want to give everything that I can to the audience."
Tomatito and His Flamenco Sextet: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (March 12). $45-$65. Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon St., S.F. (415)
242-4500. www.omniconcerts.com.
Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle's pop music critic. E-mail: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF
© 2014 Hearst Communications, Inc.
1 de 2
10/04/14 15:11
Tomatito and His Flamenco Guitar at the Rose Theater - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/arts/music/tomatito-and-his-flemenco-guitar-at-...
http://nyti.ms/1g3AK60
MUSIC
|
MUSIC REVIEW
Flamenco Proves Contagious for the Ear and for the Eye
Tomatito and His Flamenco Guitar at the Rose Theater
By BEN RATLIFF
MARCH 17, 2014
If you put any faith in the notion of mirror neurons with regard to listening — the theory that an empathic
region of your brain can make you experience the neural impulse to play the notes that you are hearing
someone else play — then you may have been very interested in Tomatito’s performance at Rose Theater
on Saturday night.
Tomatito is the most eminent guitarist in flamenco, especially since the death of Paco de Lucía three
weeks ago. For American audiences, he is often on the bill with other eminences. He first came to
prominence as a teenager, playing with the singer Camarón de la Isla; his last two appearances in New
York were alongside the singer Enrique Morente, in 2005, and the pianist Michel Camilo in 2006. But he’s
now on a North American solo tour, and on Saturday, he sat in the middle of a seven-unit semicircle: two
singers; two other guitarists (including José del Tomate, his son); one percussionist, who mostly played
the wood-box cajón; and one dancer.
He began the concert alone with slow-gathering lines phrased outside of a steady rhythmic unit. The
music of this first few minutes, generally speaking, was dark, alert and resonant with his thumb hitting the
lower strings, letting them resound and roar against the chords. Gradually, the supporting guitars and the
palmas, the clapping accompaniment, entered the picture, establishing the rhythm. And in these first few
minutes — from nearly the first second and as he moved from no-rhythm to rhythm — Tomatito played
with such clean intent that it was possible for you to feel the energy and gesture and contrast in those
individual notes and phrases as if you were playing them yourself.
Theories aside, I don’t think all musicians accomplish anything like this. Even a good one might
manage it only in flashes. But Tomatito, from Spain, has managed it in its extended, almost continuous
state: If we can talk in terms of neurons firing, and if we can imagine the firings as lights going on, I felt
myself lighting up for minutes at a time. (One of the few sustained power losses, however, was basically a
crossover move: a version of Mr. Camilo’s soft-pop ballad “Two Much.” )
What gave the performance this effect? A possible explanation is that all Tomatito’s playing implies a
sure command of traditional flamenco rhythm, so sure that he can get outside it without losing it. And
when he gets outside it, he disrupts constantly, with strong percussive, exclamatory strums, accents on
what sounded like upbeats, with sudden runs and minor fadings of energy for effect, and control and
evenness all around. He creates texture, basically, in mysterious but decisive acts, within a recognizable
frame.
Paloma Fantova, the dancer, joined in the palmas, and at several places, she arose. She stiffened first
and walked to center stage headlong, then slowed down but pushed forward with iron purpose, as if
entering a wind tunnel, before she unfolded and imposed strength and will within a three-foot perimeter.
Those entrances were special; they were almost enough. But her escobilla sequence in the concert’s second
half, when the focus shifted to her own heel-stamping improvisations against the steady pulse, seemed to
pick up from Tomatito’s language of decisive phrases and silences. They created, in a few places, a similar
effect on the brain.
1 de 2
10/04/14 13:37
The Bay Area's Flamenco Convergence: Performance | KQED Public Media for Nor...
http://www.kqed.org/arts/performance/article.jsp?essid=134666
Photo: Olga Holguin
Since Camarón's death, Tomatito has established himself as one of flamenco's greatest guitarists. He's won a series of Grammys and
Latin Grammys, while collaborating with numerous jazz artists like Dominican pianist Michel Camilo, with whom he won a Grammy
for the 2000 album Spain. He credits De Lucía with sparking his interest in jazz.
"When Paco De Lucía started playing with Chick Corea, Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin, that influenced all the younger musicians
from his school," Tomatito said. "That was the beginning of it."
De Lucía's legacy will also be in the foreground at Bay Area Flamenco's April 6 program at Brava Theater, an event that pairs an all-star
ensemble with the Bay Area premiere of Andrea Zapata Girau's hour-long music documentary Guitarra de Palo. The live performance
includes the great Spanish flautist and long-time De Lucía collaborator Jorge Pardo, New York trumpeter and percussionist Jerry
Gonzalez, a Latin jazz pioneer who led the great Fort Apache band, Israel "El Piraña" Suárez, a maestro of the box-like cajon, who
worked extensively with De Lucía and now tours with Buika, bass master Javier Colina, and guitarist Raimundo Amador.
"Raimundo is a Gypsy from Sevilla and hails from an important clan," says Nina Menendez, the founder and artistic director of Bay
Area Flamenco, the organization that presents the annual Bay Area Flamenco Festival. "The great pianist Diego Amador is his brother.
He grew up in the community playing straight ahead flamenco, but they fell in love with B.B. King and that whole blues/rock thing in
the sixties, when they were young teenagers. He does this amazing fusion of flamenco and blues."
While major arts presenters like Cal Performances and SFJAZZ play an important role showcasing top flamenco artists, over the past
decade no one has done more to build bridges between Andalusia and the Bay Area than Menendez (who's a fine flamenco singer
herself, and the daughter of the storied jazz/blues vocalist Barbara Dane). She's busy planning the ninth edition of the Bay Area
Flamenco Festival in June, when she'll present the incandescent Farruquito Dance Company at Zellerbach, but before then she's bringing
the legendary singer and dancer Miguel Funi to Berkeley's La Peña Cultural Center on April 12, and Santa Cruz's Kuumbwa Jazz Center
on April 13.
Though flamenco has lost its greatest international star with the death of De Lucía, the art form is as vital as ever, with strong roots and
ongoing cross-pollinations that end up enriching and expanding the ancient tradition.
Cal Performances' Focus on Flamenco starts Wednesday, March 12 at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. For tickets and information visit
calperfs.berkeley.edu. Tomatito and his Flamenco Sextet peform Wednesday, March 12 at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts. For
tickets and information visit omniconcerts.com. To learn more about the upcoming Bay Area Flamenco Festival in June, 2014, visit
bayareaflamenco.org.
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14/04/14 14:07
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March 26, 2014
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SMF Review: Tomatito
by Jim Morekis
jim@connectsavannah.com
@jimmorekis
The Savannah Music Festival scored a major coup when it
brought the legendary godfather of Flamenco guitar,
Paco de Lucia, to the Johnny Mercer Theatre in 2012.
The great de Lucia passed away just last month, but one
of his protégés and collaborators, Jose Fernandez Torres
– aka Tomatito – did a masterful job keeping his
mentor’s spirit alive this past Thursday at the Lucas for
opening night of this year’s Festival.
Like the de Lucia show, this performance echoed the
usual no-intermission Flamenco/Gypsy style stage
presentation: several black-clad players seated in a
semi-circle around the virtuoso main guitarist, including
a pair of singers, a percussionist on the cajon, a couple
of rhythm guitarists, and of course a dancer (more on her
later).
Almost always beginning with an extended solo lead-in
from Tomatito – age 55 but looking much younger, a full
head of long curly black locks – each sinuous, sexy song
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built on the previous one, amping up the intensity level
to a predictably transcendental climax.
The intricate, mutable, overlapping time signatures of
Flamenco – 6/8, 3/4, 12/8, 4/4 and more, often
switching on a moment’s notice, as with jazz – added to
the hypnotic effect, a preternatural vibe emphasized by
the passionate, almost primal vocal stylings of dual
singers Kiki Cortiñas and Simón Román, who, in
Flamenco style, seem to wring up every imaginable
human emotion from deep within their bodies.
If de Lucia’s playing was known for its lightning speed,
silky smoothness, and angelically lyric phrasing,
Tomatito’s styling is more rock ‘n’ roll – a greater
emphasis on rhythm and more clearly defined notes, with
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SMF Review: Tomatito | Music Reviews | Connect Savannah - Savannah, Georgia n...
http://www.connectsavannah.com/savannah/smf-review-tomatito/Content?oid=2367...
phrasing that’s less adventurous but still strongly
compelling in its own right.
Amid the frequent “oles” to each other on stage,
Tomatito only spoke to the audience three times, briefly,
and only in Spanish. One was thanking Savannah for the
warm welcome, and another was a tribute to Paco de
Lucia while introducing one of de Lucia’s pieces,
performed with emotion and aplomb.
I’m pleased to report that, unlike some Music Fest
Flamenco shows of past years, the audience at the Lucas
seemed fully prepared for the aural and emotional
intensity of the show – Flamenco being one of the most
viscerally earthy folk genres and quite different from the
watered-down, sterilized, and generic Western pop
culture most of us are used to.
Indeed, judging by the many enthusiastic shouted
encouragements from the audience and their obvious
understanding of Tomatito's stage patter en espanol,
there was quite a large number of Spanish speakers in
attendance – surely a welcome first for me in years of
observing Music Fest shows and audiences.
As is often the case with Flamenco shows, the audience
really comes alive when the dancer is taken by the spirit
and steps onto the hardwood performance floor in their boots – or in this case,
heels. Flamenco dancing is typically a mostly male pursuit, but Tomatito’s
concerts feature the fiery, dramatic, and aggressive dancing of young Paloma
Fantova.
While only dancing twice all night – the first appearance being teasingly short –
Fantova closed the show and brought the house down with a nearly 20-minute
tour-de-force of hard-soft, fast-slow percussive dynamics: twirling, stomping,
tapping, and snapping, in a mostly improvised performance responding to the
building drive of the full band and Tomatito’s guitar.
While dancing Fantova wears a serious, almost grim visage, fitting the drama of
the music. But as she finishes and basks in the audience’s applause, her face
lights up in a grin more befitting her young age.
In all, a hard Festival opener to top!
Tags: Music Reviews, Savannah Music Festival, Tomatito, Paco de Lucia
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Se luce en Nueva York Tomatito, heredero natural de Paco de Lucía - NotiCel™
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Se luce en Nueva York Tomatito, heredero natural de
Paco de Lucía
Por: EFE
Publicado: 16/03/2014 01:16 pm
Nueva York - Heredero natural de Paco de Lucía, José
Fernández Torres, más conocido como Tomatito, reinó
junto a su sexteto en uno de los templos del jazz de
Nueva York, el Rose Theater del Lincoln Center, y ofreció
un recital en el que, desde la humildad, desglosó todas
las posibilidades de una guitarra.
El guitarrista flamenco conocido como Tomatito se
presentará con su sexteto en la noche del sábado 22
de marzo en el Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest 2014
en el Anfiteatro Tito Puente. (Archivo/EFE)
Tomatito no pudo evitar empezar honrando a su maestro.
NotiCel en las redes sociales
Seguir a @noticel
"Es el mejor guitarrista de la historia, de atrás y de 'alante'", había dicho a Efe en una entrevista
minutos antes del concierto. "Paco de Lucía ha abierto las puertas del mundo para nosotros y ha
inventado una forma de tocar. Cuando me dicen que ha fallecido y me parece que no es verdad",
aseguró.
67.3K seguidores
Me gusta A 177 922 personas les gusta esto. Sé el
primero de tus amigos.
ver más
"Two Much / Love Theme", que grabó para su álbum "Spain" junto a Michel Camilo como homenaje Repórtalo
a De Lucía, fue la canción que le puso en contacto con un público que se entregó a su magia y la de
lo que él llama su "familia", esto es, el sexteto que forman sus compañeros de guitarra (José del
Tomate y El Cristi), Moisés Santiago en el cajón y la batería, Kiki Coriñas y Simón Román en el cante
y Paloma Fantova en el baile.
Cobran el Ivu y no te lo
No dan el Ivuloto
Coló acordes de "Entre dos aguas" pero, conforme avanzaba el recital, empezó a contradecir sus
dan
modestas palabras, pues los niveles de virtuosismo, su manera de desglosar las posibilidades de un
mástil y seis cuerdas, le acercaron al olimpo flamenco al que pertenece De Lucía.
Tomatito era uno de los platos fuertes del Festival Flamenco a su paso por Nueva York. Llegaba de
Cleveland y destacó del público estadounidense "que es 'calmaíta' y respetuosa". Raro es oír un
"olé" o contagiar unas palmas. Pero en este país, en cambio, siente que hay un vínculo común con
otro género musical tan de las barras y las estrellas como es el jazz.
"El soul, que luego fue el jazz, como el flamenco, es música que sale de la verdad, del pueblo, de la
tierra. No es una música colona. Viene de la tradición, de la marginación. Los negros, como los
gitanos, estaban sufriendo en la fragua", aseguró.
No dan Ivuloto
Accidente
Tuiterías
El guitarrista, que aprendió en la calle y que reivindicó esa escuela como la más completa que
cualquier academia homologada ("ahora, desafortunadamente, aprenden en YouTube", dice), no
sólo ha secundado a Camarón y a Paco de Lucía, sino que lo ha hecho con Frank Sinatra y ha
ganado un César por la música que compuso para Tony Gatlif en "Vengo".
"Los que somos un poco más jóvenes que los grandes maestros Camarón y Paco, tenemos la
suerte de que el flamenco dejó de ser algo raro. Yo he podido gracias a ellos tocar en el 'Blue Note'
(en Nueva York) y que viniera a verme mi ídolo, George Benson", recordó.
En
dio
pronto
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aunque
tango
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bolero.
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el concierto
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ro.
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o..
1 de 3
10/04/14 14:56
Se luce en Nueva York Tomatito, heredero natural de Paco de Lucía - NotiCel™
http://www.noticel.com/noticia/157387/se-luce-en-nueva-york-tomatito-heredero-nat...
"Toco un poco de todo", dijo quien todavía disfruta desgranando los temas de su último disco en
directo, "Soy Flamenco", omega hasta ahora de una discografía cuyo alfa se llamó "Rosas del
amor", allá por 1987.
Tomatito, en el escenario, se ganó con el sudor de su frente ser la cabeza de cartel, pero cedió
espacio para su equipo, hasta dejarse en segundo plano en beneficio de la bailaora Paloma
Alerta Progresista
7m
@aprogresista
#ElCostoDelELA:
@pnp_pr @CamaraPNP @SenadoPNP
pic.twitter.com/dWAD4ircWZ
Fantova, que puso al público en pie con su frenético taconeo, que casi incendió el escenario
ocasionalmente convertido en tablao.
"El baile tiene los zapatos y el vestido. El cante es el instrumento natural que te da la vida, la voz
que llega directa al corazón. Pero con la guitarra tienes que creértelo. Tienes que pasar del corazón
a la madera y las manos", resumió.
Esta noche en Nueva York ("cómo suena decir que estás en Nueva York, siempre suena bien",
reconoció) consiguió sin duda que el sentimiento llegara a la platea, que se puso en pie para investir
al gran heredero de las mejores guitarras flamencas.
Tomatito se presentará con su sexteto en la noche del sábado 22 de marzo en el Puerto Rico
Heineken JazzFest 2014 en el Anfiteatro Tito Puente.
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