It is not fair to swallow repeated posters until you are sick of them. peñaand festivals with the same assortment of artists, having singers like Luis de Mateo. It's a poné. A good friend of mine nailed it yesterday: "Some people pee in wool and it makes more noise than those who pee in a can." So that's it. And I hope this review and the videos below serve at least a little to help fans and programmers sharpen their ear and sensitivity so they can give a few calls. flamencoThey're the kind of good ones who are waiting to be let into the circuits that some call cronyism and swindling. If they're not good enough, they're in the bin. But there's more firewood than burns. You just have to look for it. That's what they do in The Chains of Jerez or in The Bambera y Torres Macarena In Seville, for example. And last night they hit the nail on the head when they went to Campo de Gibraltar to pick up Luis, with the Chiclana native's guitar. Jose de Pura, that more gypsy –yes, I say it again– you can't play it anymore. At palmas, they watched over the compass Chúster y Fernando Canela. Presented with parsimony and spontaneity Julian AzcutiaIt was in the flirtatious La Gotera de Lazotea Theatre From Jerez de la Frontera. And without a PA system, as it should be. In the intimacy of a masterful silence and before a mostly young audience of devoted fans. There they go.
Luis chewed the willows of The Twin in the double malagueña, swaying without embellishment in the first body and squeezing without shouting in the second, more flowery and brave, to then finish with vigor in the Capuchinos neighborhood of Malaga by abandolao. It continued with tientos tangos with the swaying of the palo, tempering himself in his time, without rushing, drawing the melismas with his throat, giving away a very flamenco voice, well-toned, with warm pinpricks. From the beginning, the fondness for Antonio Mairena, but without the slightest hint of imitation. And… how beautiful Triana is! When Luis gets into the tangos. Things were growing. He came together strongly in the soleá and precisely remembered the maestro from Los Alcores in the first verse, continuing with two more. La Andonda evoking Fernanda from Utrera y Perrate, in whose echoes it is housed to fasten with packing the closure praying a creed to Christ, but not before returning to Triana to show off the bass in the Pineapple. The first half slammed the door, shining to the mellow rhythm of the romeras, less sung with their own entity: almost always threaded into some series of cantiñas. Luis wove the secrets of the cante.
"Algeciras native Luis de Mateo offered a canonical, orthodox, and first-class recital, mastering the bass and not shouting, mastering the verses and shielded by a simple, but not simplistic, guitar laced with brown hues. (…) I'd love to give it a little bit of a try, gentlemen."
He also did it in the second part, starting in the mines of Levante and throwing the higaíllas in the taranto of The Fool of Linares, well popularized by the master Phosphorite. And if the taranto ended with crying, it continued in the blackness of lament, complaining painfully through seguiriya. It looked into Antonio's depths again to ride on that of The Nitri, stand with Mairena in Jerez and squeeze his chest during the change of El Mellizo to boil the blood in the wound. The tribute continued for romance. That of Count Olinos, giving lessons of canteHe wanted to finish with bulerías. Tremendous, full of rhythm and knowledge, with nods to Utrera. But the huge applause called for an encore. And he played three fandangazos to finish the job, looking at himself in versions of El Caracol, Valderrama y Manuel Torre –his life was coming to an end–. Judge the repertoire for yourselves.
The Algeciras native offered a canonical, orthodox, and first-class recital, mastering the bass guitar without shouting, mastering the verses, and shielded by a simple, if not simplistic, guitar laden with brown hues, which carried him like a symphony throughout the performance. Clean, flamenco-tinged tremolos, piñonate falsetas, pinching drones, rests and thrusts, double or clipped strums, a quintal of gypsy flair in the strings. This is how Joselito de Pura's guitar stands out. And Luis has come to stay. I'd love to give him a little bit of an account, ladies and gentlemen. I fell in love with Luis de Mateo and his cante by right.
Credits
recital of cante by Luis de Mateo
Peña Flamenca The Chains, Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz
25th October 2025
Cante: Luis de Mateo
Guitar: José de Pura
Palmas: Chúster and Fernando Canela
