Doors Villavicencio Palace were opened for the last time in this edition of the Jerez Festival to shelter the cante and the self-confidence of an old child. Manuel Monk closed the recitals at the Palace with its ancient echo, revolutionizing the audience with the umpteenth evidence that we are witnessing the birth of a great singer despite the fact that he is only eleven years old and fits into his one and a half meters of flamenco build.
He surrounded himself with the best, so that he would not lack the supreme sound of the palmas de Juan Diego Valencia y Tarot nor the tasty and brilliant guitar of Nono JeroThe rest, which was not little, was provided by the child, leaving the audience open-mouthed in amazement, who enthusiastically applauded each of his interventions.
He closed his eyes searching for the trance to evoke from the convent the bells loosely stitching the malagueña of Chacon and a couple of abandoners. He congratulated all the women on their day and He did not break his law stringing together to the rhythm of soleá by variants of bulerías La Andonda According to Dog from Utrera o The Roezna, to ring out the finish with the bells of oblivion. He took his mouthfuls, cracking the moans in the pleasant rocking of the tientos tangos and entered the joys, stringing together those of Córdoba with the tirititrán in a solution for palates that know istingui. Here he reveled in the short bars with the indispensable wink to the airs of Pinini. Then he announced a cante in disuse that still has to be better prepared to round out his proposal. He sang serrana with less conviction than in the rest of the repertoire. And "as all good things come to an end" he closed the door with bulerías with some heartfelt tributes to The Cake. With his funny little paw and the Tarote age he sealed a recital of substance for a child of such a young age.
«Manué sang as he pleased. (…) The artistic quality, the knowledge and the good manners of his precocious depth, he learned and absorbed from the two hundred years of three hundred old men»
The palmas They carried the picture on their shoulders and in time. Nono's neat, Jerez-flavored guitar trilled to the left of the cante splashing the delicacies of Albarizuelas. And Manué sang as he pleased, abusing the vocal beats and throwing too many flowers into many of the lines he chewed, without clouding the artistic quality, the knowledge and the good manners of his precocious depth, learned and sucked from the two hundred years of three hundred old men.
Credits
Recital by Manuel Monje
29th Jerez Festival
Villavicencio Palace
March 8th 2025
Cante: Manuel Monk
Guitar: Nono Jero
Palmas: Tarot and Juan Diego Valencia


