Flamenco masters join Egyptian band Mawawil
The makeshift small theater at Makan was intimate. The crammed space blurred the line between the flamenco musicians and their eager audience, who didn’t seem to mind the discomfort. Captivated by Curro Piñana’s powerful melodic voice, they forgot all about the hard, rustic chairs.
Curro Piñana, an outstanding flamenco vocalist, was accompanied by his brother Carlos on the guitar. The grandsons of Antonio Piñana, the “patriarch of cantes mineros (traditional mine songs), and the sons of a master guitarist, the duo hail from a family of flamenco artists. In this show, they were accompanied by percussionist Miguel Ángel Orengo, who played the rich rhythmic background music that gives flamenco its intensity.
Combining formal complexity with a generous display of the possibilities of voice and guitar, with powerful intensity and daring originality, is the hallmark of their style.
The unembellished stage left little to distract the audience from the rich music.
The song is the most important element in flamenco, and listening to Curro’s emotive rendition of saetas (religious) and cantes mineros songs, it is clear how mastering such an art is no easy feat.
The tempo sped up then slowed down, teasing the listeners and soliciting fervent cries of “Olé .
The Piñana brothers also performed their rendition of the poems of Ibn Arabi, adding a new dimension to the traditional show.
Known as El Sheikh El Akbar in the Muslim world, Ibn Arabi was born in Murcia (Spain) in 1165, and is one of the greatest Muslim mystics, whose philosophical works has inspired and amazed readers throughout the centuries.
The Spanish Embassy in Cairo has organized a series of concerts by the fraternal duo Curro and Carlos Piñana. Following a workshop, local band Mawawil will join the flamenco troupe for a fusion performance combining both traditional musical arts.
The events are held in collaboration with The Egyptian Center for Culture and Art Makan, El Sawy Culture Wheel, The Cultural Development Fund of the Cairo Opera House, and the Culture Center of Jesuits in Alexandria
The two musical styles of flamenco and Mawawil have more in common than meets the eye. The mawwal (traditional Arabic narrative ballad) has links to historical forms of Arabic song and poetry, where singers demonstrate their skills with melodic improvisation on a poetic narrative text, adding or substituting their own phrases to the poet’s original verses.
Like flamenco music, it is rooted in common popular culture.
Dressed in traditional galabayas, the Mawawil band joins the Piñana brothers. Not to be upstaged by Curro’s talents, the female singers’ galabayas are glittery. One woman dons a sparkling purple dress with a matching headscarf; her full make up a sharp contrast to the Spanish trio’s somber black clothing.
The result is surprising.
It was almost like an informal jam session. The flamenco guitar accompanied the kawala (an oblique flute with six holes), the arghoul (an ancient double clarinet characterized by two pipes of unequal length) and the rababa (a double-stringed spike fiddle). The percussionist played to the beat of the tabla and sagat (cymbals). Curro sang as the Egyptian women joined in the background. Then they took their turn in the spotlight belting out traditional lyrics, playfully adding new phrases praising the Spanish musicians.
Soon the “Olés were sprinkled with calls of “ya eini and “gameel from the crowds.
I left the performance with a strengthened conviction that music is, indeed, a universal language. Although there is little in common between the Spanish and Egyptian musicians, they accomplished what few diplomats could do in under a week: real dialogue, set to music.
