Laura Vital She is an open, sweet, and intense singer with a magical voice. A person who radiates elegance and warmth, and a lot of friendliness, all so gratifying.cante and necessary for human relationships. A gift for the flamenco current –she has been doing it since she was very young–, as the album she gives us all is a gift, and there are already several in her brilliant career.
Five years ago, the age of her daughter Malena, I interviewed her for the sister magazine Jondowebsite, now completely gone from the Internet. We used to introduce it this way, which, of course, continues to serve us well, enhancing its merit and track record with more charm, more professionalism, and more beauty: «We are dealing with an artist, as we have written in these same pages in comments on her albums or shows, in full maturity. She embraces and displays tradition in the fullness of styles and personal variations – tonás, soleares, granaínas, fandangos, bulerías, etc., with echoes of Chacon, The Pearl of Cadiz, Mariana Cornejo, Maria Vargas, The Sallago and other leading and essential voices–».
A lesson well learned –we said then– that is not at odds with a kind of innovation, of joyful daring, of searching for crossroads where beauty and the joy of emitting and receiving it can be illuminated. It harmoniously combines with lucidity and mastery the purely flamencowith the sister melodies of Romani, Greek, or Moroccan music. There's no loss of identity or emotion; quite the contrary: Laura harmonizes musical nuances with grace, confidence, beauty, flexibility, and elegance. She also knows how to carry herself on stage like few others, as a complete artist: a master of styles, engaging with both the audience and the cast, with her arms and hugs open luminously.
She had just had a daughter, whom she gave a name of echoes flamencos, Malena. We wish her the best with her and her loved ones. Already recognized on stellar occasions, we know that her greatest joy comes from there. Awarded at the Biennial, in Lo Ferro, in Mairena del Alcor and so many other places, and a prophet in her land, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, she is a luxury for the cante, for him flamenco, for Andalusia and Humanity.
He made his debut in 1992, when he was twelve years old, in the Peña Flamenco Puerto Lucero from his land, by the hand of his father, José Vital, and his grandfather Rafael Gálvez the Tapó, who passed on their passion to him and with whom he was lucky enough to learn the first cantes. Now she is orphaned by that marriage, her father having passed away a few months ago and she is sunk, of course, in sadness whose severity will be softened by friendship, love for her daughter and dedication to her profession. Look at this humanity: the most important moment of her career was the first time she sang to her daughter, her little Malena. Also when they gave her the Giraldillo of Young People of the XI Biennial at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Seville, I was twenty years old, I was very young, and it was undoubtedly a catalyst for further growth, a springboard and one of his great moments of pellizco, in the show To my loneliness along with Jose Menese, singing seguiriyas. He dies with Thomas Pavon, The Lame Man from Malaga, El Titmouse –his madness, as demonstrated by the album we are discussing–, and with Pastora, Carmen Linares...
The latest shows and CDs have taken into account the intercommunication between the different cultures and music of the Mediterranean, to the point of becoming the headliners Mediterranean one of them. From a previous album, which we reviewed at the time, Weaving moons, we write as a final summary: «A vital voice for the flamenco of today, with an aura of meaning flamenco and artistic presence, personal sympathy on and off stage that make us feel her music as dream music, vital aura, pure vitality: Laura Vital».
"A work, 'Pura vida', well done, pure life, music, beauty, harmony and generosity. A tribute to flamenco and flamencoA rich dialogue with other music and languages, other cultures, yet so closely related, with a deliberate look at the past and present, tradition and innovation. It will surely be one of the best albums of the year.
This album now, very intentionally titled Pure Life, which his beloved father came to know during its conception, is full of tradition, of traditions, of tributes to artists such as Joan of the Stir or El Carbonerillo, with nods to other languages—Portuguese, Arabic—and music. It also features new releases, adaptations, and embraces of other musical fields, as can be seen in the incredible fado it delivers. All with a quality backing group, from management and design to the lyrics, by various authors, and especially the guitarists.David Caro, very good in his role– and other instruments.
Let's go by parts, as he said Jack the Ripper. Ten themes or cuts, ten little windows, as the artist writes in the dedication of the album she offered me, make up a musical field and flamenco Interesting: guajira tangos, fandangos, rumba, media granaína, taranta, jaleos extremeños, fado, tangos –from Aunt Juana, from Revuelo–, serrana with a verdial finish, and Song for Malena –his daughter–. Ten delights among the most genuine flamenco tradition, with the aforementioned tributes to styles or artists, such as the jaleos extremeños or the tangos of the Revuelo, respectively, along with other stops in innovation or adaptation, such as the cases of fado and song, on the music of the nostalgic Erick Satie, dedicated to her little girl.
The letters, so much to my liking as a philologist and researcher of the same, is another creative area to highlight in this work, since it brings together different solvent lyricists such as Jose Luis Rodriguez Ojeda, the various people gathered at the rumba –Francisco López–Cepero García, R. Venegas, A. Gabarri y Antonio Barrull–, Morsi Gamil, Aurelio Verde, Manuel Antonio, Francisco Zambrano Vázquez –for the jaleos, and which brings back such good memories of my time in Mérida as a teacher a year long ago–, in fado Francisco Ferrer Trindade y Joaquim Frederico de Brito, Martín Jiménez Cortés, Eduardo Domínguez Lobato y Fran CaballeroAnd the popular fandangos, like this much admired one that elevates El Carbonerillo to glory and that also reminds us of the triumph of Calixto Sanchez at the Seville Biennial in 1980, one of my personal moments of pellizco, of unforgettable transmission:
With tears he goes away
the great sorrow that is cried,
the great sorrow is the sorrow
that you can't cry
that one doesn't go away, it stays.
Let's listen, as we say in the flamenco, these fandangos:
Antonio Manuel's calls attention for the use of a word like toxic, but let's not forget that some great ones of tradition talk about railways, for example, or that Bécquer used a machine or banknote, not to mention those that The Pele o Mercé They sing with words that are used now, in short:
How toxic is your silence,
cover my lips with dust
like the furniture of a dead man
and it infects my eyes
of the guilt that I have no guilt.
Very beautiful, on the traditional path, are those of the jaleos of Zambrano:
The Gypsy I Love
who has blue eyes
from looking up at the sky so much.
Or this one by the same author that summarizes the state of the art of the cantes extremeños:
The troubles begin in Badajoz
and around the Plaza Alta
Porrina recreated them,
The Marelu and the Musicina,
Miguel Vargas, Juan Cantecalm,
Alejandro and Kaíta.
El Miguel Vargas guitarist, not the singer I admire so much and to whom I have dedicated a book, of course. By the way, I seem to remember that during my stay in Mérida I came into contact with the aforementioned, as well as with the Dr. Zambrano.
From the same vein are the ones that La Revuelo sang, for example this lilt that we remember in her and now Laura revitalizes, because for that she is very vital and her last name is Vital:
That he left me as an inheritance,
that my dad left me
a candle, a wick.
What times these lyrics reflect, aren't they? A sublimation of poverty. In short, that's one of the functions of art: consolation, idealization. These tangos end like this: you have to eat:
Oh, what joy,
I dream of him night and day;
and for twenty reales
I sell my little lamp,
which is my father's.
Domínguez Lobato's lyrics have what many lyrics have: that macho perspective, that man's perspective, with censorship, no matter how much it's done with euphemisms. By Serrana:
There are the little doors
from this mountain range
more preachers
that the bells,
everyone knows
which is a little door to the countryside
with many keys.
We were somewhat surprised by the singer's choice of these lyrics, for the reasons stated, but at the same time it implies courage. And the lullaby or song with lyrics by Fran Caballero for the little girl Malena:
Mother of the terrace, the sun descends to the sea.
is to be born to die
walking backwards all the way.
I feel you are me,
I feel I am you.
I am reborn again
woman in the woman I inhabit.
Also worth highlighting is the excellent work of layout, design, and photography – by the award-winning Remedios Malvarez–, production, etc., along with the accompanying artists on their instruments, including David Caro's guitar, but also others. And a very special collaboration in the craftsmanship, Malena Vázquez Vital, Laura's beloved daughter.
Among the cuts or songs we personally liked the most from this well-rounded, compelling, and emotional album, we can highlight the following. You can highlight these or others, as the book of tastes is yet to be written.
The opening of this album is one of them, the guajira tangos with a Cuban touch, a tasty mix, very rhythmic, rumba and flamenco, a cheerful and buzzing cocktail, lively and happy that gives that, happiness, with its ending and that Mauralo, mauralo which brings us Pepe el de la Matrona, all with lyrics by the maestro José L. Rodríguez Ojeda, about whom we have already written so much and so well that we never tire. Also, the corte seguido, the fandangos, a true homage to Carbonerillo at the beginning, followed by others such as Manuel Vallejo or María la Sabina –Dark and without light-, which revived the series Rite and geography of cante–, a monument to the fandango by someone who has such good modulation and timbre of voice that he cannot resist a palo like this one. And others would be the jaleos, where his voice and his dedication shine, without the company of any other instruments other than the guitar, and the palmas, with excellent atmosphere with the choir of the boys and girls of the Alalah Foundation of the South Polygon, that great work through the flamenco which Laura's generosity has wanted to add to her project; fado, a musical prodigy for me, in Portuguese, a song that has seduced me with its music, a wonderful adaptation, I have to say beautiful, of fado Cançao do mar of the queen of the same Amalia Rodrigues. Finally, the tangos of Aunt Juana, from Revuelo, who brings us her memory in an intense, fresh, vivid way, because Laura's voice moves very well at the party, very well again with the chorus of Alalá, and the closing of the album, that song for Malena, her five-year-old daughter, adapting the lyrics of the aforementioned Fran Caballero to the nostalgic music of Erick Satie, whom I also follow among my varied hobbies, classical music.
Here you can listen to the fado, which has seduced me with its music and Laura's voice:
In the others we can see various adaptations and novelties, always with quality: the rumba with the memory of the rumba and electronic world of The Paquiro -It had to be You–, The Greeks -I don't want to think- Or You will cry with sorrow de Zingaro, among others; the granaína, with some Arabic and instrumentation; the taranta, with more personal and rhythmic lyrics; the serrana and verdial, also with instrumentation and a finale that we really like.
A job, Pure Life, as they say, well done, pure life, music, beauty, harmony and generosity. A tribute to the flamenco and flamencos, a rich dialogue with other music and languages, other cultures, yet so closely related, with a deliberate look at the past and present, tradition and innovation. It will surely be one of the best albums of the year.
We bid farewell with joy, with tangos dedicated to Aunt Juana la del Revuelo:
Photo, in Seville, from my personal archive, as well as the album cover, along with images next to the flowerpots in my patio – which is, of course, private, and when it rains it gets wet like everyone else, well, no, because it has a hat.
→ Laura Vital, Pure Life, Self-publishing, 2025.
