Guitar
Manuel Moreno
Junquera
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José Mercé
Sadler's Wells
9 February 2004
Listening to José Mercé's charismatic, visceral, heart-soaring singing, aided by the exquisite playing of guitarist Manuel Moreno Junquera (better known as Mora'to), is an intense and powerful experience. It was best when Mercé abandoned the microphone and came to the front of the stage; then it was just him, with his deep, smokey voice and Mora'to's guitar.
Even the numbers without Mercé were beautiful. Mora'to, accompanied by Manuel Nieto and Marcelino Fernandez, produced compelling rhythms, and Desiree Soto followed to clap, foot tap and back Mercé along his husky journey.
The music reaches into the soul (and if anyone did not have a soul beforehand, he or she definitely had one after this performance). Flamenco is gypsy music, melded with Jewish and Arabic cadences - tantalising , vibrant and complex, occasionally haunting, dark and sorrowful, but always vivid and intense.
The rapport that Mercé had with the audience - who sang along occasionally, egged him on frequently, and clapped in fascinating, pulsating Flamenco rhythms - was palpable. By the time Mora'to got up to dance with Merce after the last encore, the non-Spanish minority in the audience had made up its mind to learn that language and then the intricate traditions of Flamenco itself.
Janet Isaacs-Gottlieb
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