Acting with authority and recognized power does not presuppose a specific hierarchical position, but rather an ability that combines a vision of reality, the skill to explain it, and the ethics to anticipate the future based on present behaviors.
Combining memory with the tradition born from history in order to predict what we will find beyond the present is, broadly speaking, the aim of the city of Écija, which in the lead-up to the XLVI Écija Flamenco Night has presented the Interpretation, Study and Documentation Centre of Flamenco Manuel Martin Martin, a space with six exhibition halls, as well as classrooms for conferences and recitals, and which draws on the entire archive compiled by the undersigned over sixty-two years.
This entire collection has been of interest to numerous public administrations and private collectors, with proposals to buy or exchange it, but the owner's decision, obviously agreed with his heirs, is that it should remain in Écija, provided that the local council shows respect and interest in satisfying the cultural needs of the city and guarantees its preservation.
And so it was accomplished last Friday, June 26th, with the mayor of the city receiving, Silvia Heredia MartínAnd the Councilor for Culture, Laura Hurtado GálvezA completely free donation consisting of 1.200 books, 316.000 newspaper archive files, 36.000 photos, the complete collection of the 29 magazines published from 1886 to the present, a sound archive that, between wax cylinders, shellac discs, cassettes, LPs, singles and compact discs, adds up to more than 10.000 hours of listening, and which, together with the thousand DVDs, constitute a material whose sole purpose is to guarantee Écija and the world access to information and, therefore, to provide a public service of educational and cultural interest.
These audiovisual contents were received by the city of Écija already ordered, organized and digitized for the six rooms of the Center, both in their original format and on CD, to which is added a computer program that can be requested with what criterion to make the classification request, that is, by alphabetical order, by date of publication or making subclassifications by theme or by author, where other complementary data can also be requested.
The transfer of the aforementioned resources is complemented by other assets such as awards, national and international journalism prizes, statuettes, plaques, recognitions, etc., etc. Personal funds that remain under the custody and safeguarding of Écija City Council, which, as an institutional medium, will continue to receive all the updated information monthly while also acting as a channel for the transmission of knowledge flamenco and thus constitute the foundation for the development of a strong cultural community with a long-term projection.
Furthermore, this donation is not for consideration, but gratuitous, and therefore has no profit motive and does not allow for expert appraisal. However, what does allow for valuation is the action of Dorants at the start of the XLVI Flamenco Night of Ecija, a real luxury for a festival that years ago left behind the Pleistocene postulates and that yesterday, Monday the 29th, enjoyed the pianist and composer for the sake of a complex and demanding program in the hands of someone who always prepares them with rigor and seriousness.
"The new Interpretation, Study and Documentation Centre of Flamenco Manuel Martín Martín has compiled material with the sole purpose of guaranteeing access to information for Écija and the world, and therefore providing a public service of educational and cultural interest.
His clear conception, his phrasing, his vision poured into the subject Lasagna The concept and the contrast of the tempo in its birth in Lebrija give good account of this, without overlooking its expressiveness, so abundant in it, as well as the way of creating a pause, a suspension of the sound, which however small it was, we perceived as a delight.
Another interpretation we make of Dorantes' concert is when The more leisurely moments are diluted in contrast to the fast ones, which are truly marked., and left with the impression that destiny catches up with us, passes us through, and prevents us from continuing our journey, as if in Slide, in which the listener has the feeling that the experiential music of Lebrija does not allow us to continue because it overwhelms us, with marked moments, perhaps because it combines an enormous interpretive taste with a variety of nuances and a surprisingly secure technique.
The critic also retains the alegrías, which we underline in our notebook as a fantastic example of polytextuality, in which the question-answer structure is the basis of the piece, resulting in exquisite music of remarkable value, not only in the purely aesthetic, but also musicological, as it provides us with vital data to understand in a global way the treatment that the piano gives to flamenco compositions.
Dorantes also remained, Content, elegant, sober and very solid by seguiriyas, performing very well both in the most demanding parts and in the passages that required greater forcefulness, with lines that evoked the tremolo of the bullfighting de Manolo Sanlucar and that reached us with the desired clarity in all its passages.
And it drew our attention, precisely, in the jazzy touches, which sounded natural, free of artifice, where all the nuances, colors, expressiveness and flexibility of the percussive elements were at the service of the music, worked from refinement and playing with the contrast of nuances, which explains why it achieved very successful moments in sound balance and interpretive elegance.
The pianist from Lebrija projected himself, therefore, with a sound that was very cohesive in all sonic parameters, very nuanced and detailed, as when he closed his concert with Orobroy, a piece as overwhelming as it is moving, providing moments where enjoyment was evident on the faces of the audience that filled the auditorium.
The audience, mostly young people, demanded an encore from Dorantes, and when he was introducing the piece, the alarm at the Palace of PeñaThe flower prevented its execution, even damaging our inner ear. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but no one present knew the key. The concert was called off.
However, they were all filled with IdentityA truly personal interpretation, unique in its accents and with an impeccable technical result, impressive in its execution and with a consistently round, smooth sound, fulfilling its purpose of to leave the listener with a burning sensation of pleasant warmth.
Credits
Presentation of the Interpretation, Study and Documentation Centre of Flamenco Manuel Martin Martin
Old church of Las Gemelas, Écija (Seville)
26 June, 2026
XLVI Ecijana Flamenco Night (I)
Identity, by Dorantes
Palace of Peñaflower, from Écija
29 June, 2026
