Flamenco Night - Marina Heredia (Spain)

Oh, the mold of pain
in the chest and the explosion
in the brain,
cast from the living mind.

Inside it, the space is sorrowful
of the point when
it wrongfully thought itself
a background.

Joseph Brodsky

“The living legend of flamenco” is the name given to Marina Heredia by the world press. She was born in Granada, the cradle of Flamenco, into the family of Jaime Heredia, one of one of the greatest soleá performers. She made her first stage appearance at the age of twelve, released her first album two decades ago, and has been holding a leading position in this ancient and undying traditional art.

She gave a brilliant demonstration of her voice and skill already in her first album “Me duele, me duele” (2001). Three years later, Marina Heredia received the “Andalusian Youth of the Arts” Award for contributing to the spread of flamenco art. In 2009, she became the first woman to give a flamenco concert in the National Music Auditorium in Madrid. Her third album “Marina” received the award for Best Album of the “Cante Flamenco”.

Marina Heredia had performed with guitar-players Paco de Lucía and José María Gallardo, the Moroccan singer Amina Alaoui, pianist David Dorantes, and Roma performers from Hungary and Pakistan. Sensitive to different styles and trends, she daringly employs rumbas and tangos, Cuban habaneras, and New Orleans jazz. She sings in English and German, remaining faithful to her native Granada, where under the Alhambra walls she first felt the thrill of the ancient tradition.

It is to Granada that the “Garnata” show is dedicated (“Garnata” being the Arabic version of the city’s name). It first premiered in September 2014 at the XVIII Biennale of Flamenco Art in Seville. Moors’ lamentations and Christian prayers, gipsy merriment and the Andalusian cante jondo joined in a poignant suite of rhythm and singing, voices and guitars to deliver to us across the centuries the flaming duo of body and soul.