From the stalls you can hear this loud exclamation point: “You are the best guitarist in the world!” This display of exaltation, shared by a dedicated audience, standing and in a wave, is summarized with the term tomatazo.
Dressed in the black suit of elegance, or of the mourning of the gypsies, José Fernández Torres, Tomatito in the world of music, receives the ovation and praise from the audience at Town Hall, in the center of Manhattan, with a framed smile by his hair and clinging to his guitar as if it were the shield that protects him in his shyness.
The Town Hall is the first New York stage where flamenco arrived, in 1959, with the help of a legendary guitarist like Sabicas. One of Tomatito’s references.
“In New York you feel important, wow New York! Who can doubt this city, a capital of the world that sounds a lot,” says the man from Almeria in a talk prior to his concert, which opens the 23rd edition of the New York flamenco festival, which has spread its tentacles to other cities in this country such as Miami, Boston, Washington, Chicago or Los Angeles.
After celebrating the week of tribute to Paco de Lucía, this edition of the festival also pays tribute to the Algeciras maestro. The 17 companies participating in this contest (from March 1 to 17) agreed to make a tribute tune, a personal interpretation of a creation by the most celebrated guitarist.
“All the artists have received the proposal with affection and of the 17 none have repeated Paco’s theme,” remarks Miguel Marín, creator and director of this contest, already an institution in the Big Apple. “What keeps us going is the New York public and the Flamenco Festival is part of the cultural scene of this city, we are not an event that comes and goes. They are waiting for us, we are in thirteen different locations. The theaters have confidence in the festival,” he emphasizes. Among those numerous artists, ‘The New York Times’ already dedicated a page this past Sunday to Olga Pericet’s dance.
After starting with a rondeña and some alejas, Tomatito announces what will be his personal tribute “to the greatest guitarist that Spain has ever given”, one of the few phrases that came out of his mouth (the guitar speaks). The title is ‘Two much’, a composition by Michel Camilo for Fernando Trueba’s film and which the guitarist included in collaboration with the Dominican pianist on his album ‘Spain’ (2000).
“Once in a while it escapes me and in between, Entre dos aguas comes on, which people really like and applaud, but for Paco de Lucía, not for me,” he comments discreetly in this conversation. Tonight the applause is thunderous, the attendees are on their feet.
Talking with Tomatito, at 65 years old, has a point of mourning, as he expresses his love and longing for the myths he met and that made him who he is.
Given the context, the first one to emerge is Paco de Lucía. “We come from there and whoever says otherwise… We have not invented anything. Paco opened the doors for us younger generations to be here,” he points out. “In addition to the fact that I come from a guitarist family, with my grandfather Miguel Tomate or Niño Miguel (his uncle), Paco influenced everything, he is the one who put the guitar in its place, who brought a new harmony and all the melodies he made. with Camarón, so beautiful.”
And here emerges the figure that marked his life. For 18 years he accompanied Camarón de la Isla’s singing, until the genius disappeared, too young, in July 1992. “Now that I think about it I say to myself ‘I was there’. He makes my head wonder a little, telling me, “My God! It’s a dream come true,” he sighs.
“If I am history, it will be because I was lucky enough to go with Camarón and record albums like La Leyenda del Tiempo,” he clarifies. He performs this song precisely as a reminder of his mentor during the New York concert, in his first appearance in the United States. since 2018 and almost two decades after performing at the flamenco festival accompanying Enrique Morente.
“I talk to you and my hair stands on end,” he says while remembering that he started working with Camarón at the age of fifteen and that Paco often went to see them at concerts, which excited him and still does.
Memory is present. “I had a very bad time when Camarón died and I remember and it still hurts. I’ve always missed him. If someone in your family dies, you will never forget it. Well, anyway, because he was more than an artist. He was my older brother, as they say, he raised me,” she maintains.
He says that one day Camarón came home, “I was at school,” and his family trusted the singer. “I went with him and he treated me wonderfully well. I don’t remember a single ugly thing about him in my life,” he remarks.
From one star to another, even brighter due to its global expansion: Frank Sinatra. It was 1993. “He treated me very well. When Camarón had just died, they would tell him something, that he was sad. He would put me at the door of his dressing room and ask me to play the guitar, ‘come on, come on’, and he would smoke a cigarette,” he recalls. “He was not rude,” he says.
He had this experience because he opened for ‘La Voz’, something he remembers as something nice that makes him feel proud. “Saying that I have been the opening act for Frank Sinatra is not nonsense either,” he emphasizes.
While waiting to release his new album, Flamenco, scheduled for September, on this new visit to the United States he reviews his career. On stage he is accompanied by Kiki Cortiñas and Morenito de Illora on vocals, Johny Cortés on percussion, and on second guitars his nephew Cristi Santiago and José del Tomate, his son, who continues the family dynasty and among whom the admiration and the connection of blood (and hair). And to the dance, Karime Amaya, another imperial surname of universal flamenco. His great-aunt was the great Carmen Amaya.
“When I give a concert I don’t think about the audience because, when they come, I don’t think they are an enemy, but rather they want to have a good time and I motivate myself, I have a good time and I transmit it. What you transmit is important so that the public is happy, that they do not get bored and leave happy,” the objective is set.
And he gets it. Apotheosis in the stalls and in the stands. Really, its more than hour and a half show is a real tomato. New York, flamenco city.
