Music Review : Montoya Heads Flamenco Program

In this country we’re trained to think of flamenco principally in terms of the dance and the guitar, although locally Chenin de Triana has been teaching us about the essential vocal element in his own concerts. Monday at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, Jesus Montoya, a young cantaor from Seville, headlined a generally strong, exciting flamenco evening.

Vocally, Montoya is the real thing--earthy, passionate and powerful enough to make the heavy amplification used needless in such an intimate venue. He articulated soft-edged Andalusian Spanish with humorous point in folk song and cante chico selections, and proved highly original in phrasing in his few forays into cante hondo intensity.

A veteran of the Jose Greco Company and restaurant shows, Montoya was not without lounge-act hokum in his interpretations. Most disappointing was his Tarantos, turned into a weakly staged, tepid lover’s tiff, ennobled only by the crisp and inventive guitar of Antonio Duran.

Producer Kim Carter backed Montoya with something called Teatro Flamenco de Los Angeles, a gathering of some of the best of the local flamencos. Joining Duran on guitar was Benito Palacios, who supplied imaginative leads and demonstrated some unusual harmonies and inner parts in the tremolo passages of his solo Granaina. Patric Halago provided his characteristic flair on primitive percussion.

The first half of the program featured dancing as well as Montoya’s strong, charismatic singing. Luana Moreno stalked the Gallery stage with fluid grace, expressing both hauteur and humor in sinuous dancing that integrated hands, arms, torso, legs and heelwork in her Solea por Bulerias.

Lourdes Rodriguez contributed a characterful, perhaps overly flirtatious Lamentos por Solea, and Angelita “La Remolino” was all attitude and unconnected bursts of heelwork in her comic Garotin.

All three joined in bland company numbers framing the program, encouraged throughout by the jaleo cheers of the involved audience.