When the twilight of February arrives, Jerez de la Frontera lights up. flamenco. Even more so than during the rest of the year. The world's largest dance festival floods the stage spaces of the city of wine, horses and art. jondo. That is a hotbed of fans who live passionately the poison that brings us here. And for fourteen years now, also The Angel's Lair, which brings to its timbers an intense offer to form the Off Festival as an alternative and complement to the official programming of the Jerez Festival.
This year's opening day closed with the cante sunbathed with Luis the Zambo, the fat bell guitar of Domingo Rubichi's and the syrup to the beat of the palmas de Ali from La Tota y Louis of RebecoThey uncorked the wineskin of sherry essences, spilling the aged aroma and the flavour of those that are already few and far between. Because Luis and Mingo shelter in their throats and between their hands the precious knowledge that comes from experiences, cultivated in the intoxicating nights of revelry, cante and it turned out that the university on the street gave them a doctorate in the authorities of the Jerez duende.
Crossing the centers of the seventies, El Zambo's throat continues to creak with double pleasures. How the nerves continue before stepping on stage to give themselves to the public who applauded him with enthusiasm. Every time Luis steps on stage, a party begins. Because the fisherman knows how to put his fingers in the guts, where it hurts, and touch the fibers of joy to erase the wrinkles from the gloomy faces. He is a master of bulería por soleá. And with that he opened his throat, at doubled flows and with ringing of bells. Still full of faculties, he took a walk along the cobblestone paths of the neighborhoods that cradled him. And I began to rub his moans on my chest to feel at least a stale sip of what only he treasures.
«The fisherman knows how to put his fingers in the guts, where it hurts, and touch the fibers of joy to erase the wrinkles from the gloomy faces. He is a master of the bulería por soleá. And with that he opened his throat, with doubled volumes and the ringing of bells»
In the tientos tangos he swayed the thirds at his whim, pushing with his imprint the melodies molded at will. And although he remembers Gaspar de Utrera, reinvents the cadences, filtering them with the singularity that gives each one of the gypsy's riffs. He did the same with a handful of stanzas, to which one could give names by breaking them down, but it would be useless to quote them without renaming them with his surname. Everything that Luis sings is painted with his captivating personality and distinguished.
The age of bulerías arrived. And Whoever says "ouch, ouch!" is a sign that he has been in pain. Short, from the earth, with the sound of a simple and flamencoand the rhythm of those who know how to mark the beats and cheer with grace. «Long live the holidays! Long live the red days!», the one from La Tota flirted with Mingo's Bajañí. And they could stay like that until the milkman arrived, because Luis is prolific in letters and is comfortable with anything that has a Jerez flavor.
In the soleá I tended to look for the corners of its streets. Even though I tempered those of Alcalá, Joaniqui o La Serneta Finish in the day you miss me and the rhythmic, lighter rhythms to which the body is accustomed. Then he broke into seguiriyas, turning the painful pinches of his torture into a dark lament. With jolts and attacks of his tanned nut, spitting out the little fatigues of the cante by right. Twisting the rib bones to get into the small hospital in Cai on the right hand side or publish the living wound that he has in his chest that was made by a gypsy who suffered torment.
After a consented tumble of poise and trapío, he closed the recital like no one else with bulerías. This house smells like heaven. And Luis too. May Undibé keep him here for a long time because As long as El Zambo splashes his gypsy spirit like this, he will remain a good old man. cante in Jerez.
Credits
Recital by Luis El Zambo
14th Jerez Off Festival
The Angel's Lair, Jerez de la Frontera
February 21th 2025
Cante: Luis El Zambo
Guitar: Domingo Rubichi
Palmas: Ali from La Tota and Luis from Rebeco
