The closing of the I Biennial of Flamenco from Granada It raised a lot of expectations among the curious and fans who did not want to miss what was announced as the creation of a new palo de flamenco, the SosegáA new commitment to the flamenco by its creators in which, based on a mixture of ternary and binary time signatures, they intend to put into circulation their own style, still undefined except in the rhythm and with melodic lines that respond more to choruses than to already made and consolidated literary metrics. The original idea comes from Javier Limón, who acted as presenter, showman, and protagonist, almost more than the artists themselves. He got on stage nervous and excited to present the big news. It seemed like the presentation of a new car model hidden under a blanket that had to be discovered at a packed event eager to hear, knowing that it had already been unveiled for several months and has barely generated any excitement or interest among the audience. flamencos.
The night was reminiscent of those of June 13 and 14, 1922, when the First Competition was held. Cante Jondo of history. And it was in Granada. Three years later, Granada's flagship beer brand would be created. Alhambra and as a consequence Limón proposes the creation of palo in the first centenary. There are many similarities between the two events. In both, great figures were used to dignify the objective and intentions of the proposals. This was not achieved in either case, although the first of them was the origin of the competitions. cante. As for the second, it's too early to say whether it will continue or remain a fleeting anecdote. There are precedents, The Basket Maker de Camarón y Las Galeras of the Lebrijano, who had a debut and farewell with their creators. There were also positive ones with the Colombian Pepe Marchena, but nothing more. Create a new palo It's no trivial work, and it takes much more than a non-stop show featuring great artists to convince flamenco audiences. They already did so in 1922, hiring the best of that generation, but it didn't help much.
Now, figures like Carmen Linares, Dani de Morón, David de Jacoba o Sandra Carrasco, among others, experimented with the eight-beat rhythm divided into two ternary and one binary, as we have pointed out.
«La Sosegá is a kind of song with the air of a concurrent and repetitive chorus far from the classic and traditional forms of cante"That doesn't diminish its value, far from it. We can't dwell on the past; we can look to the future, but it's unpredictable and sometimes treacherous."
Javier Limón grabbed the microphone and wanted to inject the emotion of announcing the new palo that would be heard at the end of the night. Excited and eager to hear himself, he gave way to Dani from Morón, who made a modern and calm composition with the percussion of Ane Carrasco y Juan Carmona HabichuelaThe concert itself was a succession of styles led by Dani, in which the rest of the artists participated. After a bulería by Dani, David de Jacoba to sing shrimp tarantos, Saúl Quirós He again revived the bulerías, which were played several more times, and the Sosegá could have been played to keep the verse. Antonio Cortes He performed soleá with Triana airs in harmony with those of the Serneta performed with great taste, a talent to be discovered by the enthusiast. He also performed tangos from Extremadura. They all sounded like Porrinas from Badajoz y Camarón de la Isla, was in the cante that it was. It appeared later Joseph Maya To demonstrate that he's a true dancer, with a lot of influence on the stage, using his toe tapping and excessive hair movements. In other words, he danced with his head.
Antonio Cortés, who remembered, stayed on stage alone with his guitar. Lole and Manuel, in the particular aesthetic with the vertical guitar and with the sones that changed the course of modern bulerías, the slow ones, those of Tardón. For some reason unknown to me, and probably to everyone present, Javier Limón interrupted the performance, coming back up on stage to speak without a microphone, without anyone knowing what he was saying, and to put Cortés in a difficult position to sing a cappella fandangos. But it must have caught him off guard, because there was no way to get them in tune despite his good abilities and his attempt to sing the country fandango of José Cepero.
It was Sandra Carrasco's turn, who pulled out all the stops and brought some order to the stage with sevillanas and fandangos from her homeland. Here is a tremendous singer with a thrilling personality, one of the few around today who dares to take on anything and excels at it all. She set the bar high, because after her came the queen of cante, Mrs Carmen Linares, who was in charge of shooting for Graná in the granaínas and remembering Dying in the lyrics and in the music Gayarrito, and then back to Ronco del Albaicín with his personal rondeña. He collected the alegrías that he has recorded in his memory. Anthology of women in the cante, accompanied by Edu Espín on the guitar and the rest of the artists with the palmas de Gem y Samara Carrasco. If we found it incomprehensible that Javier Limón got on several times during the show, he did it again to introduce the musicians and give way to Sosegá, the palo Without haste, as they have wanted to call it. Why without haste? In fact, it was surprising that he got the audience to keep time to the rhythm of the phrase "Yo setocar a compás-yo setocar acompás", which translated into syllables is a binary time (silencio-yo) and two triplets (se-to-car, a-com-pás), like a school teacher teaching his students. In short, Sosegá is a kind of song with the air of a concurrent and repetitive chorus far removed from the classical and traditional forms of canteThis doesn't diminish its value, far from it. We can't remain stuck in the past, but we can look to the future, but it is unpredictable and sometimes treacherous.
It really is an experiment with soda, and we will have to wait and see if this Sosegá consolidates itself as a new cante which will be part of the family tree of the cante Or rather, it will be a new one, because it is not born, grows, and almost does not reproduce in any of the rhythmic forms already historically predetermined. So much so that it barely lasted a few bars and everything ended in a finale por bulerías with a little kick from David de Jacoba, José Maya, and Ané Carrasco and a Lorca-esque finish with the Go Jaleo and the choruses of Fly de Paco de Lucia.
Credits
The Sosegá. The palo no hurry
I Biennial of Flamenco from Granada
Sacromonte Abbey, Granada
27th September 2025
Cante: Carmen Linares, Sandra Carrasco, Antonio Cortés, Saúl Quirós, David de Jacoba
Dance: José Maya
Guitar: Dani de Morón and Antonio Cortés
Percussion: Ane Carrasco and Juan Carmona
Palmas: Gema and Samara Carrasco
