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Paco de Lucena, born Franscico Diaz Fernandez (1859 - 1898 in Lucena) was a Spanish gipsy guitarist, and one of the most influential flamenco players of the late nineteenth century. He influenced a number of classical and flamenco guitarists, who emerged early in the twentieth century as interest in the guitar revived. Paco de Lucena died when Andrés Segovia was five. When Segovia began playing, a year later, his first guitar was one played by Lucena. On
May 27 - 31 a 150th anniversary of Lucena's birth was
celebrated with a flamenco concert in Lucena Castle. Francisco Gustavo Sánchez Gómez (21 December 1947 – 26 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía, was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer and producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he helped legitimize flamenco among the establishment in Spain, and was one of the first flamenco guitarists to cross over successfully into other genres of music such as classical and jazz. Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton, authors of Guitar: Music, History, Players, describe de Lucía as a "titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar", and Dennis Koster, author of Guitar Atlas, Flamenco, has referred to de Lucía as "one of history's greatest guitarists". De Lucía was noted for his fast and fluent picados (fingerstyle runs). A master of contrast, he often juxtaposed picados and rasgueados (flamenco strumming) with more sensitive playing and was known for adding abstract chords and scale tones to his compositions with jazz influences. These innovations saw him play a key role in the development of traditional flamenco and the evolution of new flamenco and Latin jazz fusion from the 1970s. He received acclaim for his recordings with flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla in the 1970s, recording ten albums which are considered some of the most important and influential in flamenco history. Some of de Lucía's best known recordings include Río
Ancho (later fused with Al Di Meola's Mediterranean
Sundance), Entre dos aguas, La
Barrosa, Ímpetu, Cepa Andaluza
and Gloria al Niño Ricardo. His collaborations
with guitarists John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Larry
Coryell in the late 1970s saw him gain wider
popularity outside his native Spain. De Lucía formed
the Paco de Lucía Sextet in 1981 with his brothers,
singer Pepe de Lucía and guitarist Ramón de Algeciras,
and collaborated with jazz pianist Chick Corea on
their 1990 album, Zyryab. In 1992, he
performed live at Expo '92 in Seville and a year later
on the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. After 2004 he greatly
reduced his public performances, retiring from full
touring, and typically only gave several concerts a
year, usually in Spain and Germany and at European
festivals during the summer months. Paco de Lucía was born on 21 December 1947 as Francisco Sánchez Gómez in Algeciras, a city near the far southern point of Spain in the province of Cádiz. He was the youngest of the five children of flamenco guitarist Antonio Sánchez Pecino and Portuguese mother Luzia Gomes; his brothers include flamenco singer Pepe de Lucía and flamenco guitarist Ramón de Algeciras (now deceased). Playing in the streets as a young boy, there were many Pacos and Pablos in Algeciras. In Spain and Latin America, any of these children with common first names would be referred to as follows: '"Name of Child", (son or daughter) of "Name of Mother,"' or "Paco (son) of Lucia" in his case, instead of using the child's last name. Later, after learning to play the guitar and tasked with figuring out a way to bill himself, wanting to honor his Portuguese mother Lúcia Gomes, he adopted the stage name Paco de Lucía. His father Antonio received guitar lessons from the hand
of a cousin of Melchor de Marchena: Manuel Fernández (aka
Titi de Marchena), a guitarist who arrived in Algeciras in
the 1920s and established a school there. Antonio
introduced Paco to the guitar at a young age and was
extremely strict in his upbringing from the age of 5,
forcing him to practice up to 12 hours a day, every day,
to ensure that he could find success as a professional
musician. At one point, his father took him out of school
to concentrate solely on his guitar development. In a 2012
interview de Lucía stated that, "I learned the guitar like
a child learns to speak." Flamenco guitarist and
biographer Donn Pohren and record producer José Torregrosa compared
Paco's relationship with his father to the relationship of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Leopold Mozart in the way both
fathers "moulded their sons" into becoming world class
musicians, and both continued to dictate even after the
latter became famous. Paco's brother Ramón idolized Niño
Ricardo, and taught his complex falsetas to his young
brother, who would learn them with relative ease and
change them to his own liking and embellish them. This
initially angered Ramón, who considered Ricardo's works to
be sacred and thought his brother was showing off; but he
soon began to respect his brother immensely, and came to
realize that he was a prodigious talent, fuera de
serie (out of the ordinary). As also with Ramón,
Ricardo was Paco's most important influence, and his first
guitar hero; Paco said "all of us youngsters would look up
to him, trying to learn from him and copy him." In 1958,
at age 11, Paco made his first public appearance on Radio
Algeciras. That year, he met Sabicas for the first time in
Málaga. A year later, he was awarded a special prize at
the Festival Concurso International Flamenco de Jerez de
la Frontera flamenco competition. At the age of 14 he made his first record with his
brother Pepe, Los Chiquitos de Algeciras (Kids
of Algeciras). In the early 1960s, de Lucía toured
with the flamenco troupe of dancer José Greco. In New York
City in 1963, at the age of 15, he had his second
encounter with Sabicas and his first encounter with Mario
Escudero, both of whom became de Lucía's mentors and later
close friends. They urged him to start writing his own
material, advice he took to heart. In 1964, he met
Madrileño guitarist Ricardo Modrego with whom he recorded
three albums: Dos guitarras flamencas (1964), 12
canciones de García Lorca para guitarra and 12
éxitos para 2 guitarras flamencas (1965). His early
albums were traditional flamenco recordings and he
recorded classics such as Malagueña on the 12
éxitos para 2 guitarras flamencas album. He toured
again with José Greco in 1966 and recorded Ímpetu,
a bulerias composed by
Mario Escudero, for his debut solo album, La fabulosa
guitarra de Paco de Lucía (1967). He appeared at the
1967 Berlin Jazz Festival.
According to Gerhard Klingenstein, top jazz musicians who
appeared at the festival (i.e., Miles Davis, Thelonious
Monk), profoundly influenced de Lucía, and sparked a
fascination for jazz that remained with him throughout his
life. In the late 1960s, de Lucía toured Europe with a group
called Festival Flamenco Gitano and encountered other new
talents in the flamenco world including singer Camarón de
la Isla, with whom he enjoyed a fruitful collaboration
between 1968 and 1977. They recorded ten albums together
and received considerable acclaim. Richard Nidel said that
their partnership was "central to the history of flamenco
in the last quarter of the twentieth century." Organizers
began offering de Lucía lucrative contracts for concert
tours in 1967, which he declined as he preferred to tour
in company, which he did with his brother Ramón, de la
Isla and other musicians. De Lucía recorded many albums
with his brother, including Canciones andaluzas para 2
guitarras (1967), Dos guitarras flamencas en
América Latina (1967), Fantasía flamenca de Paco
de Lucía (1969), and 12 Hits para 2 guitarras
flamencas y orquesta de cuerda (1969). They met Esteban Sanlucar in Buenos
Aires and Juan Serrano
in Detroit, and during 1970 spent considerable time in New
York City where they grew close to Sabicas and Mario
Escudero, playing together into the night. De Lucía made a cameo appearance, dressed as a Mexican guitarist, in the 1971 western Hannie Caulder, playing the melody of Ken Thorne's main theme over a string section. That year, he released the album El mundo del flamenco, which included a version of Mario Escudero's Ímpetu, a bulerías. Guitar International mentioned his "very aggressive" approach to playing Ímpetu. Escudero was a major influence on de Lucía during this period, inspiring him to explore new possibilities for flamenco. He began working with record producer José Torregrosa. De Lucía's 1972 release El duende flamenco de Paco de
Lucía was considered a groundbreaking album in the
flamenco community. As the 1970s progressed, de Lucía
continued to produce groundbreaking albums and ventured
into an increasingly unconventional and innovative style
of flamenco with jazz influences. His next release, Fuente
y caudal, acclaimed particularly for his Entre
dos aguas, which has become arguably his best known
composition, and also for Solera and Cepa
Andaluza. Entre dos aguas, a rumba featuring
bongos with an electric bass, means "Between two waters,"
referring to his home town of Algeciras, where the
Mediterranean meets the Atlantic. Biographer Pohren
describes Cepa Andaluza as a "phenomenal"
bulerías, which is "accompanied by palmas, shouts of
encouragement and general jaleo, and makes one want to
leap up and dance." The album also features several other
tracks named after Andalusian landmarks, a theme de Lucía
continued in his later albums. The Fuente y caudal
album was one of the best selling Spanish records for
several months and de Lucía and Torregrosa found that the
additional instruments and approach away from traditional
flamenco proved more popular with the general public. The
early influences of the traditional players became
increasingly less apparent as de Lucía embraced jazz and
other influences, creating his own voice and distinct
style, yet never venturing too far from his roots. On 18 February 1975, de Lucía became the first ever flamenco performer to perform at the Teatro Real of Madrid. He played a set with his brother Ramón, in front of a relatively young audience without the use of effects. Pohren said that de Lucía's performance "was brilliant technically, and played a meaningful, moving, traditional brand of flamenco that did not betray what Paco had in store for the flamenco guitar in the future." The recording was released as En vivo desde el Teatro Real. His 1976 album, Almoraima, was a wider success and featured Almoraima and Río Ancho. The album was named after a former convent of the same name located about 21 kilometers (13 mi) from Algeciras on the road to Jimena de la Frontera, which had recently been converted into a hotel complex. The album featured significant Arabic and jazz influences especially in the bulerías composition of the same name; the name Almoraima is of Arabic origin from the Moorish period. De Lucía performed on an episode of Parkinson on BBC in the UK, in which Michael Parkinson said "a marvelous young musician who is making his very first appearance on British television. His unconventional and modern approach to playing flamenco has already made him a big star in Europe, particularly in his native Spain." In 1977, de Lucía married Casilda Varela, the daughter of General Varela; they had three children. He released his final album, Castillo de Arena with Camarón de la Isla. The lyrics were written by Antonio Sánchez, with the exception of the bulerías Samara, which Sánchez and de la Isla wrote together. This would be his last LP with a singer for at least 15 years. He reportedly said that the human voice is "naturally too limited" and that he prefers the exploration of different instrumentalists; he also said a busy schedule was the reason for lack of recordings with singers. He performed extensively across the U.S. and Europe during this period, increasing his popularity outside Spain and the flamenco community in Europe, and met many jazz, Latin and other musicians who continued to influence de Lucía's evolution as a "Nuevo flamenco" player. He began to show a very keen interest in jazz fusion and rock, and in 1977 performed with Carlos Santana in the Plaza de toros de las Arenas bullring in Barcelona. He was invited by Al Di Meola to record on his "Mediterranean Sundance" piece for his album Elegant Gypsy. Despite considerable new interest in flamenco and de Lucía's playing generated by the album, traditionalist flamenco critics did not approve of the piece and hated that many people considered Mediterranean Sundance flamenco music and frowned upon de Lucía. Di Meola informed the critics not to worry and that "Paco is not leaving flamenco, but expanding it." In 1978, Paco and his brothers recorded Interpreta a Manuel de Falla, a classical effort of compositions by Manuel de Falla. In 1979, de Lucía, John McLaughlin, and Larry Coryell
formed The Guitar Trio and together made a tour of Europe
and released a video recorded at London's Royal Albert
Hall entitled Meeting of the Spirits. Pohren said
that de Lucía's decision to work with musicians like
McLaughlin, Di Meola, Coryell, and Chick Corea must have
been an "exciting and stimulating" experience for him,
given their technical musical knowledge and ability to
improvise and said that they carried him "so far afield
that at times he must have been profoundly confused, a man
running the risk of losing his musical identity." This
concerned de Lucía, who said in a late 1990s interview, "I
have never lost the roots in my music, because I would
lose myself. What I have tried to do is have a hand
holding onto tradition and the other scratching, digging
in other places, trying to find new things I can bring
into flamenco." The Guitar Trio continued touring in 1980. De Lucía reportedly suffered from headaches and backaches while performing because he found it difficult to improvise and follow McLaughlin and Coryell's advanced knowledge of jazz improvisation. Paco professed, "Some people assume that they were learning from me, but I can tell you it was me learning from them. I have never studied music, I am incapable of studying harmony — I don't have the discipline, playing with McLaughlin and Di Meola was about learning these things." In 1981, Coryell was replaced with Di Meola, and The Guitar Trio released one of their most successful records, Friday Night in San Francisco, which sold over 1 million copies and generated a significant interest in flamenco music in America and Europe. It featured an extended combination of Mediterranean Sundance and Río Ancho; this became arguably the piece most associated with the musicians. De Lucía also formed the Paco de Lucía Sextet in 1981 (which included his brothers Ramón and Pepe), and released the first of its three albums that same year. On 30 August 1981, de Lucía performed a solo set at St. Goarshausen in Germany, where he performed Monasterio de Sal and Montino among others and later performed with The Guitar Trio. The event was broadcast on national WDR television. In 1982, Paco put on a series of concerts with jazz pianist Chick Corea. Corea was a considerable influence on him in the 1980s and he and McLaughlin adapted a version of his piece Spain, performing it live together several times in the mid to late 1980s. He released a "Golden" double compilation album in 1982, La Guitarra de Oro de Paco de Lucía, covering Paco's earliest recordings with Ricardo Modrego of Federico García Lorca songs to date, and featured two siguiriyas, a flamenco form in which he hadn't indulged in his recordings since 1972. In 1983, the Trio released Passion, Grace & Fire, and he had an acting role in Carlos Saura's highly acclaimed film Carmen, for which he was also nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Score. De Lucía composed original film scores for several films in the 1980s, including The Hit, a 1984 film in which he provided the soundtrack with Eric Clapton, with a minor contribution by Roger Waters. On his 1984 album, Live... One Summer Night, De
Lucía not only played guitar, but also filled the role of
producer. Paco de Lucía has also appeared as himself on
television in documentaries and TV shows and accepted a
position as a judge at Seville's 1984 Biena. By the mid 1980s, both the Sextet and the Guitar Trio had reached its plateau and stopped performing together, although de Lucía would continue to perform with McLaughlin as a duo across Europe in 1986 and later. In a 1986 interview with Down Beat magazine, Di Meola said that the reason for the breakdown was that their performances were designed to "drive the audience berserk" with a display of astonishing virtuosity and that they had run out of new spectacular fast runs to impress the audiences. Di Meola remarked that the music had become too "wild and crazy" and that he preferred to explore the quieter side of music, something Paco also felt, saying that he preferred "controlled expression to velocity." In May 1986, he performed at the Centro de Bellas Artes Rock music festival alongside the likes of Earl Klugh, Spyro Gyra, and Dave Valentin. In 1987, de Lucía performed for the first time in the Soviet Union, and went back to his roots with his highly successful release, Siroco. Siroco is often cited as his best album and one of the greatest flamenco albums of all time. His compositions La Cañada, the opening track, a
tango called La Barrosa, an alegrías named after
the Playa la Barrosa in
the province of Cadiz, and Gloria al Niño Ricardo,
a soléa, received considerable attention and are
considered modern flamenco classics. Eric Clapton and
Richard Chapman described La Barrosa, a sweet
alegrías played in B major, as, "full of effortless
delicacy with cascading phrases." "Gloria al Niño Ricardo"
is dedicated to Niño Ricardo who was de Lucía's "first
hero" of the guitar. Several of his compositions from that
album form the staple of his contemporary concert
performances, and he often begins his concerts with La
Cañada. In 1989, de Lucía refused to perform at the
bullring in Seville with Plácido Domingo and Julio
Iglesias. Although the sextet had declined after 1986, in 1990 they
got together to record Zyryab, a groundbreaking
Arabic flamenco / jazz album with jazz pianist Chick Corea
and fellow virtuoso flamenco guitarist Manolo Sanlúcar.
The album is named after Ziryab, an 8th – 9th century
Shiraz born poet / musician at the Umayyad court in Córdoba,
credited with introducing to Spain the Persian lute, which
evolved into the Spanish guitar — and according to some,
established flamenco itself. One track on the album, a tarantas, is dedicated to
Sabicas. The album was critically well received; Jazz Times praised the
passion and rhythm of the musicians featuring on the
album. Until asked to perform and interpret Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in 1991, de Lucía was not proficient at reading musical notation. Biographer Pohren, however, at the time of writing his biography in 1992, said that he was still not proficient and had found a bizarre way of learning the piece, locking himself away. His performance with the orchestra under Edmon Colomer was highly acclaimed, a sensitive, atmospheric rendition that composer Rodrigo himself praised, describing it as "pretty, exotic, inspired" ... I might add that Paco plays it with a great deal of feeling, far more than is normally heard. And that goes for the orchestra that backs him up." In 1992, he performed live at the bullring at Seville Expo '92, and a year later on the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, playing "La Barrosa". In 1995, he and Bryan Adams recorded the hit song and video Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman on the soundtrack for the American film Don Juan DeMarco. In 1996, his first "golden hits" album, Antología, was in the top 20 in
Spain for at least 16 weeks, selling over 65,000 copies.
In 1997, de Lucía performed in a tribute show to the
assassinated Spanish politician Miguel
Angel Blanco, alongside the likes of Julio
Iglesias and Los Del Rio.
In 1998 he released and produced "Luzia", dedicated to his
mother (whose name is spelled phonetically). It is
considered to be one of de Lucia's most complete and
mature artistic statements. De Lucía lived for five years in Yucatan, Mexico, but returned to his native Spain in 2003 after professing to have become really tired with spending his whole life touring for six to eight months a year, getting up at the crack of dawn and living in hotels. He continued to keep a holiday home in Mexico though and regularly visited with his family. In 2004 he toured the United States and Canada with Seville flamenco singer La Tana, but subsequently greatly reduced his live performances in public. He retired from full touring, and would only give a few concerts a year, usually in Spain and Germany and at European festivals during the summer months. Pohren described de Lucía as "extremely timid and retiring", saying that, "Being a very private person, [he] was dismayed at the ensuing popularity and lionization, and the increased pressure fame placed upon his shoulders, demanding that he constantly innovate and work harder to achieve technical and revolutionary perfection." In 2003, de Lucía released Integral (2003), a 26 CD Limited Edition Box Set, and Por Descubrir, a compilation album. In 2004, de Lucía released Cositas Buenas with Javier Limón. It was released on Blue Thumb Records by Universal Music Spain S.L., and features four bulerías, two rumba tracks, a tangos and a tientos. It won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Flamenco Album 2004. In 2005, he was nominated for producer of the year by the Latin Grammy for La Tana's "Tu, Ven a Mi", which was De Lucía's first recording where he directed another artist since working on Camarón de la Isla's Potro de rabia y miel. In 2004, he won the Prince of
Asturias Awards in Arts, and on 23 March 2007,
the University of Cadiz
recognized de Lucía's musical and cultural contributions
by conferring on him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa. In 2010, he
was awarded an honorary doctorate by Berklee College of
Music in Boston, and performed at the Montreux Festival. However,
he is known some years to select countries where he
doesn't usually perform and played at Arena in Pula,
Croatia, in 2006 and 2010, and in Turkey, Morocco and
Tunisia in 2013. He appeared at the 49th Carthage
International Festival on 31 July, playing at the Roman
Theatre. De Lucía died of a heart
attack on 25 February 2014, while on holiday with
his family in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
While playing soccer with his son on the beach, he asked
his wife to take him to the hospital because he felt a
"strange coolness in his throat." He was taken to a
hospital in the city of Yucatán, and was able to enter the
emergency room on his own, but had to be helped into a
gurney. Soon after, he lost consciousness and passed away.
His brother Pepe commented that De Lucia had quit a two
pack a day smoking habit 20 days earlier, and vowed to
take up more sports activity after the death of his friend
Félix Grande. His remains were buried at a cemetery in
Algeciras, Andalucía. De Lucía posthumously won the Latin
Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his album Canción
andaluza at the 2014
awards ceremony. De Lucía was widely considered to be the world's premier flamenco guitarist and by many to be Spain's greatest musical export. He had a revolutionary influence on flamenco music both as a composer and otherwise. His influence on flamenco guitar has been compared with that of Andrés Segovia's on classical guitar. His album Fuente y Caudal (Fountain and Flow) has been cited by many to have changed the world of flamenco guitar beyond traditional flamenco culture. Along with Enrique Morente and Camarón de la Isla, de Lucía was the first artist to break away from traditional flamenco and form what is now known as nuevo flamenco. As a composer, de Lucía was the first Spanish artist to mix jazz with Andalusian music in a more or less systematic way. This includes, but is not limited to, his collaborations with Di Meola, McLaughlin, and Pedro Iturralde. De Lucía was influenced primarily by Niño Ricardo, a
leading figure in the history of flamenco guitar, and
Sabicas, regarded as one of the most influential musicians
involved in the development and refinement of the flamenco
guitar as a concert instrument at a time when the guitar
was considered an instrument meant to merely accompany a
singer. Sabicas was a mentor to Paco in developing his
flamenco guitar technique, as well in honing Paco's skills
as a composer, characterized by melodic structure,
rhythmic and harmonic, perfectly consistent from beginning
to end, and non - lyrical phrased guitar falsetas when the singer
stops singing. Esteban de Sanlúcar and Mario Escudero were
also major influences on him and sources of inspiration.
According to biographer Pohren, de Lucía was "fascinated
with jazz" and held a deep respect for high tech jazz
musicians, regarding Di Meola, McLaughlin, Coryell and
Corea as highly as musicians as he did his flamenco
mentors. Despite these influences, according to the Jazz Times, "Most
flamenco fans can trace the music's history to either
Before Paco or After Paco." In 2004 interview with El
País he said "I have always found that the more
technique you have the easier it is to express yourself.
If you lack technique you lose the freedom to create."
Like many other flamenco guitarists he often played a
Hermanos Conde guitar and had his own signature model, but
had a range of guitars in his collection. Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton describe de Lucía as a "titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar", highlighting his "astounding technique and inventiveness" and his broad range of musical ideas from other styles, such as Brazilian music and jazz. He is noted for his innovation and color in harmony and his remarkable dexterity, technique, strength and fluidity in his right hand, capable of executing extremely fast and fluent picados. A master of contrast, he often juxtaposes picados with rasgueados and other techniques and often adds abstract chords and scale tones to his compositions with jazz influences. Bill Milkowski of Down Beat described him as "the portrait of studied concentration and pristine perfection: stiff backed and stern faced, with a distinguished air about him that some might misread as haughtiness. He's proud and majestic, like a regal Arabian steed prancing with grace and elegance, yet able to reveal great power." Craig Harris of AllMusic noted his "deeply personal melodic statements and modern instrumentation." Atlanta magazine said, "The guitar, when used properly, can be one of the most haunting and beautiful instruments to create sound ... when he brushes his fingers across the strings, [he] can create some of the most incredible music. It's almost like a lullaby." José Luis Acosta, president of the Spanish Artists and Editors Society stated that "Paco was and will be a universal artist, who took the guitar and flamenco sentiment to the heart of the whole world." In 2015, Billboard magazine named de Lucía as one of The 30 Most Influential Latin Artists of All Time, an editor writes: "The virtuoso intrumentalist popularized flamenco worldwide, and brought the Spanish sound to the forefront of avant - garde jazz.". In the same year, he was posthumously inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame for his contributions to flamenco music. On December 21, 2016, Google commemorated the anniversary of de Lucia's birth with a Google Doodle shown in Spain, Mexico, and several South American nations. Another of Paco de Lucía's contributions was the inclusion of the cajón, an Afro - Peruvian instrument Caitro Soto exposed to him during his visit to Peru in the late 1970s. He understood this instrument, which he saw as a permanent solution to the need for percussion in flamenco. Along with Rubem Dantas, he added its percussive elements and it became an essential tool of contemporary flamenco and later, other international musical trends. |