It’s really been 20 years since Roni Benise started sharing his flamenco-inspired Spanish guitar chops with the world. Well, at first, he shared it with the streets of California. And on May 2, he’s sharing it St. Petersburg during a show at Mahaffey Theater.
After a few years of self-management and literally playing for people in the streets, Benise, a self-taught virtuoso, found himself getting picked up by clubs that used to turn down his exotic style. Eventually, Benise’s success led him to start booking his own shows, and in 2005, he filmed his “Nights Of Fire!” performance for PBS. You wouldn’t believe how much culture he blended into the show: samba dancers and tribal drummers only scratch the surface of what the Emmy Award-winning special had to offer.
Benise has said that his shows are heavily influenced by the places the music has taken him over the years, and the gig at Mahaffey—located at 400 1st St. S.—is part of a 20th anniversary tour that swings into town with samba dancers and all.
Tickets ($32.50 and up) have already gone on sale for this night of fire, and after clicking around themahaffey.com, it looks like all of Mahaffey’s seats are on sale, which is a deviation from the socially-distanced seating the Florida Orchestra’s been using during its shows at the theater. We’ll keep an eye on that as news around COVID-19 changes in Florida.
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This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2020.