Fringe 2023 Flamenco Fringe Daniel Martinez YOTEL August 27th Review
Flamenco Fringe at Yotel Queen Street is one of three different shows that guitarist Daniel Martinez has brought to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Sadly, this is the only one that I had the time to review this year, and even then nearly at the end of his dates, but as always with any of Daniel’s shows the wait was worth it.
Flamenco Fringe is a show that runs for some 75 minutes or so and in this time Daniel Martinez gives all of us in the audience a small taste of what being at an authentic Spanish tablao feels like. Tablao is a colloquial term for the Spanish "tablado", floorboard, and this is where Flamenco shows are performed. It is also the term used for the platform floor on which a flamenco dancer performs. Daniel Martinez has many years of experience in performing in tablaos, and the ease with which he relaxes everyone in a room to make this show a very warm and friendly experience adds much to atmosphere of “Flamenco Fringe”.
At its heart the traditional tablao bar is a community event, a gathering of friends who each, if they want, add their own contribution to the evening, singing songs, playing music, dancing and of course sharing stories whilst having some food and a few drinks together. Flamenco/tablao has much in common with a traditional Scottish ceilidh. In this show, Daniel Martinez simply wants to share with us his love of his music and his culture and invites us all into his tablao for a short while to savour the experience with him, the singers and dancers.
As a guitarist, Daniel Martinez is an exceptional talent and every time I have watched him play over the years I have found some little detail in his playing style that I have not noticed before. Here is someone for whom Flamenco music is not just a form, a technical exercise, but a living and breathing force of life itself, one that for him encapsulates the very people, the very sounds of his Spain and in particular his homeland, Cordoba, a city in Andalusia, Southern Spain.
Daniel Martinez is a Flamenco guitar player who is fluent in a wide range of Flamenco styles and techniques, but always there is a wonderful warmth to anything that he plays, and unusually (from what I can see at least) there is no difference in the skill levels between his right and left hands when playing, and that takes a very long time and an incredible amount of practice hours to achieve.
Bringing their own contributions to the music and dance were singers Inma Montero and Danielo Olivera (who both also danced) and principal Flamenco dancer Jara Perez. It is here when they start to dance or sing that the real magic of Flamenco and Daniel Martinez as a guitarist start to happen.
In traditional Flamenco music, improvisation is everything and the unspoken fluidity between everyone on stage is very much like watching a jazz combo work together, only here the voices of the singers are instruments in their own right and driving that rhythmic pulse of Flamenco is the dancer’s steps on the wooden Tablao. Watching Daniel Martinez watching every step of the dancers while he constantly improvises his music on guitar to whatever they want to perform is always something special to watch, and even though his eyes are rarely on his guitar that technical precision never falters for a beat.
Daniel Martinez is always working on new shows, on new ways to bring the music and sounds of Flamenco to new audiences, so if you get the chance to go to any of his shows in the future take it, as Daniel Martinez and the dancers, singers and musicians that he works with are as they say “the real deal”.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Flamenco Fringe is a show that runs for some 75 minutes or so and in this time Daniel Martinez gives all of us in the audience a small taste of what being at an authentic Spanish tablao feels like. Tablao is a colloquial term for the Spanish "tablado", floorboard, and this is where Flamenco shows are performed. It is also the term used for the platform floor on which a flamenco dancer performs. Daniel Martinez has many years of experience in performing in tablaos, and the ease with which he relaxes everyone in a room to make this show a very warm and friendly experience adds much to atmosphere of “Flamenco Fringe”.
At its heart the traditional tablao bar is a community event, a gathering of friends who each, if they want, add their own contribution to the evening, singing songs, playing music, dancing and of course sharing stories whilst having some food and a few drinks together. Flamenco/tablao has much in common with a traditional Scottish ceilidh. In this show, Daniel Martinez simply wants to share with us his love of his music and his culture and invites us all into his tablao for a short while to savour the experience with him, the singers and dancers.
As a guitarist, Daniel Martinez is an exceptional talent and every time I have watched him play over the years I have found some little detail in his playing style that I have not noticed before. Here is someone for whom Flamenco music is not just a form, a technical exercise, but a living and breathing force of life itself, one that for him encapsulates the very people, the very sounds of his Spain and in particular his homeland, Cordoba, a city in Andalusia, Southern Spain.
Daniel Martinez is a Flamenco guitar player who is fluent in a wide range of Flamenco styles and techniques, but always there is a wonderful warmth to anything that he plays, and unusually (from what I can see at least) there is no difference in the skill levels between his right and left hands when playing, and that takes a very long time and an incredible amount of practice hours to achieve.
Bringing their own contributions to the music and dance were singers Inma Montero and Danielo Olivera (who both also danced) and principal Flamenco dancer Jara Perez. It is here when they start to dance or sing that the real magic of Flamenco and Daniel Martinez as a guitarist start to happen.
In traditional Flamenco music, improvisation is everything and the unspoken fluidity between everyone on stage is very much like watching a jazz combo work together, only here the voices of the singers are instruments in their own right and driving that rhythmic pulse of Flamenco is the dancer’s steps on the wooden Tablao. Watching Daniel Martinez watching every step of the dancers while he constantly improvises his music on guitar to whatever they want to perform is always something special to watch, and even though his eyes are rarely on his guitar that technical precision never falters for a beat.
Daniel Martinez is always working on new shows, on new ways to bring the music and sounds of Flamenco to new audiences, so if you get the chance to go to any of his shows in the future take it, as Daniel Martinez and the dancers, singers and musicians that he works with are as they say “the real deal”.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com