Words by Tony Bryant
On the tenth anniversary of the death of Paco de Lucía, one of the world’s most influential guitarists, Sotogrande Life renders homage to the man who rose from the streets of Algeciras (Cádiz) to dominate an instrument he began learning at the age of five.
The “gaditano” guitarist suffered a fatal heart attack on a beach in Cancún, Mexico, (where he had a holiday home) while relaxing with his family on 25 February 2014. News of his death sent shockwaves through social media and television channels, forcing politicians, musicians, celebrities and royalty to interrupt their schedules in order to honour the passing of this legend.
Although his name became synonymous with flamenco, and especially with the Gypsy singer, Camarón de la Isla, he went on to become the most imitated and revered guitarists of his generation – a musician that Eric Clapton had referred to as “a titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar”.
A star born in a family of musicians
Born Francisco Sánchez Gómez in Algeciras, Cádiz, in 1947, Paco would first team up with his younger brother Pepe when just fifteen years of age, and together they achieved considerable acclaim as Los Chiquitos de Algeciras. He was the youngest of the five children of flamenco guitarist Antonio Sánchez Pecino, who inflicted an extremely strict routine on Paco from the age of five, forcing him to practice up to 12 hours every day to ensure that he would become successful as a professional musician. As his biographer Donn Pohren noted, Antonio “moulded his son” into a worldclass musician, and continued to “dictate” even after Paco became famous.
At the age of seventeen, Paco, who took the stage name of ‘de Lucía’ from his Portuguese mother (Luzía Gomes Goncalves), was soon on his way to international stardom, especially when he became the regular guitarist for the flamenco troupe of José Greco, an Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer known for popularizing Spanish dance on the stage and screen in America mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.
A staunch supporter of Hermanos Conde guitars (he even had his own signature model), Paco’s early style was heavily influenced by Niño Ricardo, a Spanish flamenco guitarist considered one of the pioneers of contemporary flamenco guitar playing. However, it was while in America with Greco that the legendary guitarist Sabicas – at that time considered the greatest flamenco guitarist in the world – convinced a young Paco to find a different path and create his own style. This clearly had an impact in de Lucía who soon created a new language that gave a more modern feel to the existing flamenco guitar, at the time dominated by Ramón Montoya, Niño Ricardo and Sabicas.
In 1967, he recorded his first solo album, La Fabulosa Guitarra de Paco de Lucía, and by this time he was well on his way to becoming a star in Spain.
The global music scene was changing at the start of the 1970s, and Spain was no exception, especially on the flamenco scene. A meeting between Paco de Lucía and a young flamenco singer by the name of Camarón de la Isla (José Monje Cruz) was about to change the face of flamenco forever. Together they altered and changed the rules of the art, embarking on a quest that was to turn the flamenco scene on its head.
Paco’s early work with Camarón produced some of the finest flamenco ever recorded and these albums, of which there were ten, paved the way for a revolutionary new style termed ‘new flamenco’, which captured the attention of the younger generation.
Although Paco de Lucía was fast becoming the most phenomenal flamenco accompanist of them all, he also enjoyed a solo career, and this would take him to greater heights than he could have ever have achieved with Camarón de la Isla.
His recording Fuente y Caudal was to achieve unprecedented success, and the rumba, Entre dos aguas, created an anthem that has become one of the classic guitar pieces of all time.
Inevitably, Camarón and Paco parted company in 1977 with the recording, Castillo de Arena, although they would team up again fifteen years later, shortly before the singer’s death in 1992. Aside from his association with Camarón, Paco accompanied many of the most renowned flamenco singers of the 20th and early 21st centuries, including Antonio Mairena, El Sordero de Jerez, Enrique Morente, Fosforito and El Lebrijano, to name a few.
New directions
During this period, Paco de Lucía performed extensively across the US and Europe, increasing his popularity outside the Spanish flamenco scene – joining forces with jazz and Latin musicians, while developing a keen interest in flamenco/jazz and rock fusion.
He began playing on stages around the world with some of the great jazz figures of that era. In fact, Paco was one of the first flamenco guitarists to branch into jazz music, working alongside iconic musicians such as American pianist Chick Corea, and renowned jazz guitarists Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell, among a huge list of others. It is said that his love of the genre began in 1967, when he performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival, where he was greatly influenced by trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. He continued working with Corea, McLaughlin and Coryell throughout the 1980s.
A string of solo recordings followed, including Ziryab, a tribute to the ninth-century Persian musician; and Luzia, which was dedicated to his mother. In 2004, he produced one of his most celebrated works, Cositas Buenas; and in this same year, he was presented with the prestigious Principe de Asturias Award.
His status continued to gain momentum, as is demonstrated by the numerous awards and accolades he received for his achievements and contribution to the flamenco guitar, which, to this day, have remained unsurpassed.
Legacy
Described as being “central to the history of flamenco in the last quarter of the twentieth century”, Paco stood out for his fast and fluent ‘picados’, a passage of single notes that give flamenco its unique flavour; and ‘rasgueados’, the rhythmic strumming of the muted strings. He was known for adding abstract chords and scale tones to his compositions, which is one of the reasons he has been worshipped by guitarists in every corner of the globe: if one looks closely, one will see a little bit of Paco de Lucía in just about every Spanish guitarist born this side of the 1950s.
He was widely considered to be Spain’s greatest musical export, and he had a revolutionary influence on flamenco music both as a composer and performer. De Lucía is also credited for introducing the cajón (box drum) into flamenco, an Afro-Peruvian instrument which he saw as a permanent solution to the need for percussion in flamenco.
Billboard magazine named him one of The 30 Most Influential Latin Artists of All Time in 2015, while claiming: “The virtuoso instrumentalist popularised flamenco worldwide, and brought the Spanish sound to the forefront of avant-garde jazz.”
He was posthumously inducted into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame one year after his death. The town where he was born erected a bronze statue in his honour in 1994, which has been relocated several times, until arriving at its current location at the entrance to the port in 2017. The town hall has also introduced the Ruta de Paco de Lucía, a route that includes the house where he was born, places he referenced in his music, his tomb and various other locations that are relevant to his life.
A tribute concert by Antonio Sánchez, nephew of Paco de Lucía, will take place at The Beach on August 21st to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the maestro’s death. Find more information here.
