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The Madrid-born singer was dominant in the show ‘Without singing or tuning’, blending flamenco, tropical and urban registers, and bringing together around thirty musicians and three unexpected guests, Estopa, Jorge Drexler and Kiko Veneno
From the bad boy of urban music to the host of the Latin common house: C. Tangana staged this Saturday his jump from the ragpicker niche to hot music with a broad spectrum, scoring the favors of his elders, such as Kiko Veneno, Estopa and Jorge Drexler, program surprises. He did it in a show of unprecedented bill, the one of that tour, with an ironic title, called ‘Without singing or tuning’, with thirty musicians, a carousel of guests and a staging with informal profiles and an overwhelming festive impulse.
Antón Álvarez, C. Tangana, seems to have conceived this tour to be historic, and it will be difficult to contradict him considering the push of a concert with which, at the Palau Sant Jordi (sold out, 18,360 attendees, according to promoter The Project ), he was dominating without even needing to hog the spotlight. Pucho (for friends) was the chulapo with gangster manners who managed to get not only the troupe of wind or string musicians to dance around him, and accomplices such as the marvelous Rita Payés (trombone at the ready in ‘I venerate you ‘, seconding him when he sang phrases like “Julián Muñoz, Jesús Gil, I learned all that from you & rdquor;), but also El Niño de Elche, with a pasodoble, or a Jorge Drexler who invited the venue to sing ‘Invitao’ in full lung.
table singing
Rumbero and flamenco Tangana, akin to the dark electronic treatment on ‘Yelo’ and bachata on ‘Bobo’, set the style on ‘Too many women’, the shocking opening track of the album ‘El madrileño’, while a waiter served drinks at the little tables arranged on stage. We thought that in Sant Jordi we had seen everything, but not a show of that nature, entangled in a coming and going of instrumentalists and extras in an atmosphere worthy of Corral de la Pacheca that halfway deviated towards the ‘tiny desk’ format. Literal after-meal, reminiscent of the famous video, which told us about music as a shared, regenerating act, open to own compositions and those of others: ‘We’re not crazy’, by Ketama, with the signature of Carmona’s guitar, and nods to New Order (‘Bizarre love triangle’) and Ray Heredia (‘Joy of living’).
Tremendous noise in the room with the appearance on stage, and on the screens, of David and Jose Munoz (Estopa), ready to join the hubbub of the scene with a fiery assault on ‘Tu calorro’ that connected generations of rumba fans and led to another hot piece, ‘Ingobernable’. It was still a concert by C. Tangana, although Kiko Veneno made himself heard with his self-confidence in ‘Los idiots’.
From bossa nova to rock
Tangana’s mission is ambitious, almost impertinent, in attempting to integrate the venerable discoveries of bossa nova (‘Eat you whole’) or salsa (‘Muiendo de envie’) as if nothing had happened, blending them with subtle urban plots. But the whole was compact, as well as the shocking loans by Rosario and Alejandro Sanz in ‘ Nunca está’.
Pucho came to tell us that he is here, almost nothing, to seize the legacy of Latin music, make it his own and expand it from his artist frame made in this second decade of the 21st century. Exciting purpose. There, he turned out to be more of a killer in that deconstructed rumba called ‘Tu me dejaste de amar’, which set the encore on the hand (and waist) of La Húngara on fire, than in a piece as showy as ‘Hong Kong’. But surely this has only just begun.
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