2/4/2024 0 Comments Candela bar modesto![]() Eduardo Parra (Europa Press)Īll the witnesses of those days agree that the singer Enrique Morente played a central role in creating the Candela’s mystique. For this and other reasons, Gamboa states categorically that “the Candela was the place that turned everything upside down: the flamenco we have today is, to a great extent, thanks to the Candela.” Bar Candela, located in the Lavapiés neighborhood of Madrid, on its last open day on January 11, 2022. ![]() With the coming together of today’s maestros, such as Rafael Riqueni, Juan Manuel Cañizares and the aforementioned Núñez, the seeds of the generation that would succeed that of Manolo Sanlúcar, Víctor Monge Serranito and Paco de Lucía were sown. The Candela became the stage for much of the flamenco guitar revolution. ![]() We nurtured each other, and the older ones came to learn something new from the young ones.” “It was a jungle: we were going at it to the death, because we had to stand out to make a place for ourselves, but we always did so respectfully and politely. Núñez describes how they would meet there to show each other their new compositions. ![]() The Candela basement was essentially a space where the artists shared their music. “I learned a lot there, both artistically and personally.” “Miguel was like a brother to me,” he says. “He allowed us to use the space to rehearse and to give dance and guitar lessons without charging us.” Flamenco dancer Joaquín Grilo had a similar experience and was even given a key to the premises so he could let himself in to rehearse in the mornings. “Miguel was a good aficionado and totally understood the idiosyncrasies of the flamenco artists,” adds Nuñez. Nothing is eternal, gentlemen, so get used to the idea Miguel Aguilera Fernández, owner of Bar Candelaīesides being a place to hang out, the bar was also a rehearsal room. In the cave, amid a sepulchral silence and extreme respect, authentic concerts went on until 6am or 7am.” “It became a place of homage and the temple of flamenco guitar. “All the guitarists and flamenco artists in Madrid went to the Candela, as well as those who were just passing through,” he says. The guitarist Gerardo Núñez was another of those who decided to carve a niche for themselves in the capital’s flamenco scene, and he found the Candela an ideal stomping ground in which to grow artistically. Open for almost 40 years, the Candela went through many different stages but, for a time, it became the go-to haunt or, in other words, “the common casita for flamenco artists from all over Spain, who had been coming to Madrid to look for a future since the 1980s,” as the guitarist, writer and producer José Manuel Gamboa explains, adding that he himself spent more time there than in his own home during that period. The magical nights in la cueva (the cave), the basement of the bar, became legendary and their protagonists share a vivid collective memory of anecdotes worth treasuring. Bar Candela, a venue in the Lavapiés neighborhood of Madrid that closed last week, was such a place an iconic flamenco hangout whose unique atmosphere was nurtured by its founder, Miguel Aguilera Fernández – aka Miguel Candela – who was loved by all who knew him. There are only a few places that manage to dwell in the minds and hearts of those who took refuge within their walls.
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