Review: The art of flamenco that enchanted Tallinn - Festival Jazzkaar

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29/04/2014 Review: The art of flamenco that enchanted Tallinn

News Jorge Poveda

Las Migas means Spain, love, heart, fervour, passion, folklore, south, warm blood, melancholy, emotions, dark beauty, women’s strength, intensity, Spanish guitar and violin. This makes an incredible new and fresh flamenco that teleported everybody in Marina Pavilion to a typical Andalusian tableao flamenco

 

The place was crowded the same way it was for Vaiko Eplik’s and Kristjan Randalu’s concert. It was a pleasurable sight as it shows that Estonians love Spanish culture. 

The mixture of southern Spanish and Catalonian passionate women dressed elegantly in a typical Spanish flamenco outfits dazzled the audience as they were ready for an entertaining evening. 

Las Migas started with Con toda palabra (With all word), first song of their last album Nosotras Somos (We are). A Lhasa De Shela  cover impacts in your heart and soul. It started slowly showing the sweet voice of Alba Carmona and became more powerful with the impressive guitar riffs from the main composer and the only one from the first group back in 2004, Marta Robles. Roser Loscos playing the violin made a delightful, perfect combination of flamenco and tango sounds every time.

They are a multicultural band and La Plaça del Diamant (Diamond’s square) was in Catalonian. It is very emotional song that gives the essence of post civil war in Barcelona and also describes the novel by Mercé Rodoreda of the same title. It is a song that manifests the differences between Spanish and Catalonian language.

An energetic bulería (a complex flamenco variety) called Dime que sí (Tell me yes) invited the audience to clap to the sentimental voices of Alba and the amazing guitar riffs from Marta and Alicia Grillo. 

Las Migas caught the audience in to their hands and the show really started after Dime que sí. All the members made a connection with the demanding Estonian audience ­despite of their lack of English by showing good mood and trying to speak something in Estonian. Also the amazing zapateados (percussion with heels) and exotic flamenco dance of Alba Carmona made the audience vibrate and feel the power of traditional Spanish folklore with their song Los peregrinitos (The pilgrims).

They performed some brand new songs like Déjalos que digan (Let them say) or Vente Conmigo (Come with me) from their new repertory because the band has faced to many changes in all these 10 years of history, especially in 2013. Sentida Canción (Heartfelt song) was, as the title says, a very emotional love ballad from Venezuela. The song talks about life, love and time passing in relationships. It was a nice change of registry. The music notes from the violin, two guitars and passionate voice introduced in people’s hearts and I saw people really soulful at that moment.

There was also a moment for a guitar solo. Of course, it was the work of the actual leader Marta Robles who is standing with the band since its formation. It was Rondeña (flamenco variety from Málaga) created  by  the  guitar  genius  composer  Ramón  Montoya. Then  Soñé  (I  dreamed)  was performed, a song composed by Marta that mixes flamenco lyrics extracted from literature  and chill out tunes kind of “habanera music” from Cuba.

Another  brand  new  song  was  announced  by  Alba,  who  wrote the  lyrics,  as:  “Next  song  is dedicated  to  all  grandmothers  and especially to my grandmother, Carmela.” It was music full of melancholy and emotions.

The best moment came during the prelude of Larga vida al loco (Long life the mad). It showed many  different registries starting with soft melodies, developing into total devotion and intensity with sad lyrics written  by  David  de  la Chica. After this song  the concert became totally crazy and finally the Estonian crowd lost their shyness. The vocalist Alba was strongly connected with the audience and there was a moment for people to participate with singing  and clapping. A Catalonian rumba related with Barcelona, Gitana Hechicera (Gypsy sorceress) and a gypsy tango La guitarrina  (The small guitar) were the perfect moment to make the crowded pavilion sing words as “Marabú” or “pero tus ojos azules” (but your blue eyes) with nice sense of humour. It was an epic end and the audience’s farewell to the performers was standing up and clapping non­stop.

Las Migas is an unique experience to get into the deep culture of Spain through music.

 

Las Migas

April 26 at the Marina Pavilion

 

Marta Robles (guitar), 

Roser Loscos (violin),

Alba Carmona (vocals),

Alicia Grillo (guitar)