This week, on Solera Flamenca, we are bringing you one of our most exciting productions: Esperanza Fernandez´s everlasting voice, along with maestro Miguel Ángel Cortés´s guitar. An epic duo we had always dreamed of immortalizing in our productions. Now it has finally come true.

For this recording, Esperanza Fernández and Miguel Ángel Cortés works with the clapping and cheering (palmas y jaleos) of Diego Amaya (Chicuelo´s son) and Juan Mateo, a true genius of rhythm, who has worked with artists such as Chicuelo, or Juan Ramón Caro, among many others.

When we talk about Esperanza Fernández, we are talking about charm, art, and magic of a voice which represents the very essence of flamenco. It is not just us who say so. In other words, it is not a matter of mere opinion: Esperanza Fernández is regarded as the best female flamenco voice in the last 30 years.

This gipsy born in the popular neighbourhood of Triana (Seville) carries the flamenco heritage in her blood. She comes from a family full of important singers, dancers, guitarist… flamenco is in her veins, and she is definitely gifted for flamenco, as well. At the service of her unquestionable talent comes out her beautiful and delicate voice.

Her excellent sense of rhythm, harmony and mettle, a voice full of different nuances and her obvious elegance allow her to make her way through the traditional paths of flamenco, but also other fusion-like experiences, from the most dramatic seguiriya or canastero tangos to jazz, big band, chamber and symphony orchestras, etc. Her international career has reached cities as important as New York, París, Bergen, Lisbon, Tampere, Brasilia, Marrakech, Cologne, Brussels, Rome, Toulouse, Connecticut, Thessalonica, etc…

As regards his albums, since his participation in Camaron´s mythical “Potro de Rabia y Miel”, she has been required by many artists and producers to take part in works such as Gipsies sing to Lorca «Los Gitanos cantan a Lorca» (Vol. 2), Prayer for Ceferino «Oratorio por Ceferino», Crossroads «Cruce de caminos»…

In October 2001 she released her first solo album, titled «Esperanza Fernández», obtaining excellent reviews from the specialized press, being one of the flamenco best-sellers from the very beginning.

At present, Esperanza Fernández is working on a beautiful and ambitious audiovisual project which intends to encourage and foster the dissemination of flamenco all over the world: Flamen&Co “Flamenco and Company”, a set of chapters with Esperanza Fernández´s music repertoire. Each chapter will consist of a really personal interview to the greatest ones of today´s flamenco, at Esperanza Fernández´s house. Both artists will open their hearts to tell us about their experiences with flamenco in a very close and personal way.

In order to produce this documentary, the VERKAMI platform has been used, from where it is possible to make donations to its users so this beautiful project can come into being. It is worth mentioning every donation will be thanked with a CD with all the audio recordings of the performances, and a personalized thank-you note in the libretto inside.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PROJECT, CLICK HERE

Miguel Ángel Cortés was born on 26 January 1972, in Granada, España. He joined the world of flamenco through the Zambra del Sacromonte at the early age of 8. Only aged 14, he started touring around Europe, Japan, the USA… working with Mariquilla, Manolete, Javier Barón, Antonio Canales, Juan Ramírez, Beatriz Martín, Eva La Yerbabuena and Juan Andrés Maya. Soon later, along with his brother Paco Cortés, he would join the singer Carmen Linares for her various tours in Middle East, Europe and Japan.

All along his career, he has stood out when accompanying flamenco artists as prestigious as Enrique Morente, Carmen Linares, José Mercé, Chano Lobato, José de La Tomasa, Chiquetete, El Pele, Miguel Poveda, Estrella Morente y Marina Heredia, and some others. He is currently the regular guitarist of the singers Esperanza Fernández, Arcángel and Rocío Márquez. He has also collaborated with different music styles, such as Mick Taylor (ex-guitarist of the Rolling Stones), Luz Casal, Antonio Orozco, Manuel Carrasco, Kiko Veneno and Diana Navarro, for instance.

Some of this collaborations have been collected in albums and documentaries like “Omega” with the singer Enrique Morente and the music band “Lagartija Nick”, Antonio Orozco´s album “El principio del comienzo”, and Estrella Morente´s “Casa, Cueva y Escenario”.

In 2008 he took part in Seville Flamenco Biennial, as a guest artist in Manolo Sanlucar´s show “Tu oído es más viejo que tu abuelo” (your hearing is older than your grandfather). If his work as a soloist is remarkable, his facet as an accompanying guitarist definitely led him to becoming one of the main figures of flamenco nowadays. This stage of his career started in 1994, when he was awarded with the Second Prize in “Paco de Lucía Guitar Contest”. In 1998 his first album, “Patriarca”, was released. The second, “Bordon de trapo”, was produced by Gerardo Núñez and he counted on several collaborations, like Carmen Linares, Esperanza Fernández and Arcángel. In 2013 he released “El calvario de un genio”, where he pays a tribute to the poet Federico García Lorca.

In 2014 he starts the show “Lo Cortés no quita lo Gallardo” in the Seville Flamenco Biennial, accompanied by the classical guitarist José María Gallardo, referring to the album of the same name. They toured around a numnber of festivals, both classical and flamenco ones.

As a soloist, he has performed several concerts in places such as Jerez Festival, Seville Flamenco Biennial, Cordoba Guitar Festival, Flamenco Thursdays of Cajasol, Mont de Marsan Flamenco Festival (France), Tampere Flamenco Festival (Finland), Querétaro Flamenco Festival (Mexico), Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Music House in Moscow, Berlín Embassy or London Flamenco Festival, among others.

He has obtained several prizes and awards: Giraldillo Award for guitar playing in Seville Flamenco Biennial, 2015. Also, Best accompanying guitar Flamenco Hoy Award, 2011. The website Deflamenco.com awarded him in 2012. Finally, his album “Bordón de Trapo” was awarded with Best Guitar Album in 2007.

In today´s production we will be offering you a dazzling tangos where the good taste and expressivity of this magical duo of artists are more than proved, accompanied by the clapping and cheering of Juan Mateo and Diego Amaya. A video recorded with a guitar made by the maker Jerónimo Pérez 2019, an incredible guitar, with a really powerful and flamenco touch.