Carlos Bazarra
Valencia (EFE).- Sole Giménez has designed a tour to celebrate her 40 years of musical life where the luminous, Mediterranean and classy pop of her already distant Presumed Implicated has shone once again in a two and a half hour recital at the that Joan Manuel Serrat, flamenco and even Edith Piaf have also accommodated.
In front of a devoted public that had sold out days ago at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, the singer, composer, lyricist and television jury has displayed a proud bouquet of songs this Friday in which she has been able to vindicate her most pop, funky past and carefree together with his most feminine present, already solo and where bolero, salsa and Caribbean rhythms combine with his voice, privileged when he is about to turn 60.
It has been a complete review of his life, and that implies not only rescuing songs from almost four decades ago but, in an almost fairytale musical ellipsis, singing a duet with his daughter Alba -chorister throughout the concert- no less than the festive lullaby he dedicated to her when she was still pregnant with her, “My little treasure”, one of the most famous songs in the Presuntos songbook.
diversity of rhythms
Sole Giménez -born in Paris, raised in Yecla (Murcia) and Valencian by adoption- has sung in Spanish, Catalan and French, has covered a Brazilian song, has shared flamenco compliments with Miguel Poveda and, above all, has not stopped to thank -the public, his musicians, his family, life- the luxury that comes from having been able to devote 40 years to his passion, music and its infinite creative and interpretive possibilities.
She has done so accompanied by a great band, focused both on the pop-rock needs of the Presuntos stage and its more jazz, swing and bossa nova aspects, as well as on the sounds of the second stage of the concert, with more leisurely and classical rhythms. but also with Caribbean and Latin American echoes.
The first part of the recital has been marked by her stage as vocalist, lyricist and composer in Presumptos Implicados, from the initial «Ícaro» to «Palabras de amor», going through «Me das el mar», «Recibes cartas», «Mil Butterflies” and “In the Dark.”
But there has also been room, in that first hour, to premiere “Celebremos” (a vitalist song with tropical airs), make Jobim’s “Aguas de março” his own and share “I wait for you” with Antonio José, a bolero that he composed for him Armando Manzanero shortly before dying from covid and that both have mixed, also as a posthumous tribute to the Mexican composer, with “This afternoon I saw it rain.”
In good company
After the first pause -and a change of costumes, always by the Valencian designer Isabel Sanchis-, Sole has undertaken “Un tren perdido” alone together with the Cuban pianist Iván “Melón” Lewis; “Your letters are a wine” with Miguel Poveda to vindicate the figure and legacy of Miguel Hernández, and “Un ramito de violetas”, where the spirit of Cecilia has become a bolero and the romantic drama has mutated into Caribbean sounds with the trumpet by David Pastor.
But the generational climax of the concert has come with the irruption on stage of Joan Manuel Serrat, who said goodbye to the stage in December after a long tour but who this Friday succumbed to the invitation of a surrendered Sole Giménez, who has undone in praise of his teacher while the public -among which was the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig- gave him a standing ovation.
Both have shared “Those little things” that they have already recorded as a duet on one of the ten solo albums that the singer already treasures, but this time dancing holding hands. And since they haven’t had enough, they have given an ecstatic public “Paraules d’amor”, solos before the piano and in a moment that Sole later described as a “miracle”.
But there was time for more: “Feel your heat” and “How we have changed” have once again raised an ecstatic public that, for a few moments, has believed they were again in a concert of Presumed Involved from the 90s.
The collective euphoria has calmed down again with the encores: “Non, je ne regrette rien” (which he has spun with the Argentine “Honrar la vida”) and “Alma de blues” after recalling the story of Billie Holiday, the muse that gave him inspired me to write that jazz epic of Presuntos.
But the “Celebration!” (this is the name of this tour, which will take him to various parts of Spain in the coming months before arriving in Latin America, as EFE TV has advanced) he could not stay with that environment and Sole has pulled his claws to give away a whole “medley » (with «Sed de amor», «Cada historia», «Lluvió» and «La noche») before making the floor of Les Arts tremble with «Todas las flores».
The end of the party to her four decades of musical life came with an energetic and luminous finale, with the artist wasting smiles and wanting to thank her infinitely for the luck she has had with her career, with thousands of concerts behind her and a legacy of which tonight she has felt fully proud.
