Son De La Frontera

Tim Cummings praises Son de la Frontera at the Barbican in The Independent UK, giving the show 4 stars:

“She last appeared in London supporting Angélique Kidjo at the Barbican in the autumn. Six months on and Mayra Andrade has been nominated for a Radio 3 Award for World Music and returned to the Barbican, this time heading a double bill with flamenco group Son de la Frontera. So it was ironic that this triumphant return was almost blown away by the passion of Son de la Frontera’s opening set.

Guitarists Paco De Amparo and Raul Rodriguez, on the double-stringed Cuban tres guitar, flank the dancer Pepe Torres, hand percussionist Manuel Flore, and singer Moi de Moron.

The delicate tones of the tres spiral through flamenco’s falsetas – the scales and arpeggios that are its equivalent to jazz riffs – and the precision playing between the two is as breathtaking as the complex rhythms they keep on the boil.

Vocalist Moi starts with an impassioned buleria. On “Solea de Pepe”, the young dancer Torres returns to perform a blistering 10-minute dance that earns huge applause. Pure flamenco, muy macho.”

The Financial Times‘ Mark Espiner praises Son de la Frontera’s set at the Barbican.

“Late last year, Mayra Andrade’s debut album had just been released and she was playing the support slot for the Benin singer Angelique Kidjo at the Barbican. Then, with a confident set, she practically sang her off the stage. Six months on she has a nomination for best newcomer in the BBC Radio 3 World Music Awards, is the headline act and has sold out the venue. This time her support band, Son De La Frontera (Sound of the Frontier) - also nominated for an award in the Europe category - threatened to do to her what she had done to Kidjo.

This five-piece band from Spain are aptly named; their music pushes at the borders of traditional styles with a daring mix of traditional Flamenco and Latin American sounds. As band leader Raúl Rodríguez said: “We offer you the best of our tradition and the best of our creation.” It was an offer the audience liked, rewarding a marvellous duet that set Rodríguez’s clean-picked Cuban tres guitar against Paco de Amparo’s frantic Spanish strumming with a standing ovation. Unusual for a supporting act.”

Read the full article at Sequenza21.

“Flamenco provides one of the rawest, purest, and most sophisticated musico-dramatic experiences on the planet.  And the 6-member Son De La Frontera, presented by The Bay Area Flamenco Partnership at The Yerba Buena Center for The Arts Theater Saturday 1 March, are masters of this ancient form…Son De La Frontera delivered it clearly, honestly,and without regret. Virgil Thomson once declared that composers did everything but speak the language of the heart. But these Spaniards, who paid tribute to composer-guitarist Diego Del Gastor (1908-1973) here, certainly did. And their music, which comes from Del Gastor’s, made the divided chambers of the heart visceral, and incredibly real.

…Del Gastor’s was ripe with subtle yet powerful touches and myriad colors, like a dream of Spain’s fairest flower. Things got obviously more intense when guitarists Raul Rodriguez and Paco De Amparo took the stage with singer Moi De Moron, and the compas, or rhythm section provided by him — handclapping on the palmas, or the sordas — and Manuel Flores, and Pepe Torres, who also danced. Rodriquez and De Amparo’s unisons and solos were a harmonic and coloristic anchor to the intricate polyrhythms of the other three musicians, especially the phenomenally fancy footwork, or taconero, by Torres, who had  tons of that essential flamenco ingredient, duende, and whose turning, lurching, and jumping was powerfully controlled, the scarlet back of his black vest the only note of color in the show….

…The group also gave knockout performances of the fiesta, cantina, sevillana…And I was reminded of the late great Spanish mezzo Rocio Jurado, who sang on the soundtrack of Carlos Saura’s 1985 film of De Falla’s El Amor Brujo, when listening to Moi de Moron. You don’t have to know or even “hear”  the words to feel whats he’s saying. It doesn’t get any better, or more real than this.” - Michael McDonagh

Son de la Frontera is featured this week on Cyloop, the social networking site for Latin artists and fans, by Hoodiny. Click here to see the group’s Cyloop profile; click the banner to see the feature on the homepage.

Wonderful review by Sarah Bardeen on Rhapsody about the San Francisco show last Saturday:

Photo by Heather Sarantis

“When Spanish flamenco sensations Son de la Frontera came to San Francisco on Saturday, March 1, the hip, educated Bay Area audience thought it was ready. There’d been a stellar article about the rough rural outpost, Morón de la Frontera, where most of the band members come from and the region’s passionate, raw music. The show opened with a video clip of the band’s inspiration, guitarist Diego del Gastor, and his vocal collaborator La Fernanda de Utrera. The Bay Area Flamenco Partnership even gave not one but two introductions before the show started. But nothing could prepare the crowd for what they would experience over the next hour and a half: a live show so stunning it defied all classification.

Reviewers might be given to hyperbole when discussing Son de la Frontera, but it’s for good reason. The show opened acoustically — no mics, no instruments, just five guys in black suits and black shirts standing before a teeming, sold-out concert hall. Singer Moi de Morón, an unassuming man, opened his mouth and let out an ungodly wail — a lament so deep, so gruff, so ancient that it sent shivers through the crowd. A peppering of “ole”s burst from the flamenco aficionados in the audience, as if against their will: they sounded as if they’d been struck in the gut. When Moi was done singing, dancer Pepe Torres, whose grandfather was the noted Gypsy dancer Joselero, stepped forward and began to knock his shoes against the board below him. It was the first of many breathtaking dance (or baile) sessions — and just a taste of what was to come….

At one point, Torres took such a long baile solo that the audience broke in with rapturous applause and ovations three times before it ended. He strode off the stage, leaving the crowd in a frenzy, and the band wisely kicked into a well-mannered bulería that gave the audience a chance to cool down and collect themselves…

The show ended with a hilarious dance by Manuel Flores, whose playful moves echoed spontaneous pueblo dances done by drunk uncles, and a guest appearance by Juan del Gastor, Diego’s nephew. Again the group left their microphones behind, performing with nothing between themselves and the audience, while del Gastor sang with the drama and humor of a true veteran. When the lights went up, the crowd let out a mighty exhalation and went out, very reluctantly, into the night.”