De Lucia, Paco

Paco de Lucia

Guitarist

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

“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,” wrote Bill Milkowski describing the great flamenco guitarist, Paco de Lucia, in down beat.”He’s proud and majestic, like a regal Arabian steed prancing with grace and elegance, yet able to reveal great power.”

Born Francisco Sanchez Gomez in December of 1947 in the Gypsy area of southern Spain known as Algeciras, he would later use his mother’s name, Lucia, after becoming a professional. He first took up the guitar at age seven and began receiving lessons from his father, Antonio de Algeciras (stage name) and his brother, Ramon. “I was playing for more than ten years when Paco first began to play the guitar,” the elder brother stated in Guitar Player.”I taught him, although I wasn’t his only influence by any means. Paco had a great deal of talent from the very beginning.” De Lucia studied the toques of his idol, Nino Ricardo, almost exclusively until he was twelve years old.

After winning a local competition a year later, he was asked by Jose Greco to join the dancer’s company and travel to America to play. It was here that one of the flamenco masters, Sabicas, was so impressed by the youth’s talent that he urged him to devote his time to developing a style of his own. At age fourteen he was deemed too young to play for the main prize in the La Catedra de Flamencología in Jerez, but his performance was so stunning that he was awarded a special prize: El Premio Internacional de Acompanamiento. He would enter the recording studio just a year later.

De Lucia also began to tour with Ramon under the Algeciras name, backing up singers and dancers as he had during most of his life. It was his teaming with Gypsy singer Camaron de la Isla and their mixture of contemporary and traditional styles that would mark the beginning of his controversial and successful career. Having already mastered the technical aspects of flamenco music, de Lucia began incorporating chords and scales that were usually associated with jazz. “The feeling is very much the same in both flamenco and jazz,” he explained in down beat. The difference is that flamenco “is really much more anarchic.”

In 1976 de Lucia recorded a rumba, “Entre Dos Aguas”, which had never been done before in flamenco history. High sales figures for the single, which made the Spanish Top 20, immediately established him as an international superstar. Flamenco purists were outraged and considered the single a bastardization of their music. De Lucia defended his concept though, stating that he would remain true to the traditional form but that there must also be room for change. “I was brought up in a flamenco atmosphere, and I only really feel flamenco, and after that I play what I want to play without worry,” he said in Guitar.

He continued to explore new territories in 1977 by recording on American fusion guitarist Al DiMeola’s album, Elegant Gypsy. Traditionalists were even more upset upon hearing the mostly electric album, but DiMeola defended the Spaniard in down beat, stating, “He’s not leaving flamenco, he’s expanding it.” For such an emotional player as de Lucia (he does not even read music), who has admitted influences as experimental as Jimi Hendrix, it must have been very hard to try and grow and yet remain faithful to his past. “I cannot do with flamenco all that I should like because then it loses its identity,” he told down beat. Regardless of what his mentors were saying, de Lucia was forging a new style that was more than welcome by his audiences. From 1977 to 1981 he won the Guitar Player Readers’ Poll Award for best flamenco guitarist and became a member of the magazine’s Gallery of Greats.

Although he continued recording, his rise to the top and continuous creativity would take a toll. “I have had so many periods of anxiety and nervousness since becoming more popular, and fame can eat you,” he told

For the Record…

Name originally Francisco Sanchez Gomez; born December, 1947, in Algeciras, Spain; son of Antonio Pecino Sanchez (a flamenco guitarist; stage name, Antonio de Algeciras) and Lucia Gomez.

Won local guitar competition in Algeciras, Spain, and was invited to join Jose Greco’s touring dance company at age 13;began recording career at age 16.

Awards: Awarded El Premio Internacional de Acompanamientop>at La Catedra de Flamencologia at age 14; selected best flamenco guitarist by Guitar Player magazine’s readers’ poll, 1977-81.

Address: c/o Columbia/CBS Records, 51 West 52nd St., New York, NY 10019.

Guitar Player.”You always have so much pressure to repeat your successes.” But de Lucia was able to create magic once again in 1980 with the help of DiMeola and John McLaughlin. The three formed an acoustic-guitar super trio that stunned audiences with their brilliant musicianship. Evidence of their virtuosity and comraderie can be heard on the live 1981 album, Friday Night in San Francisco. McLaughlin explained the group’s conception to Guitar Player’s Tom Wheeler: “Al and I had the same idea—to play with Paco. I heard Paco on the radio, and it was love at first hearing. I said, ‘I have to play with this man, and that’s all I know.’ And so I looked for him until I found him.” Two years later the trio would enter the studio to record an appropriately titled follow-up LP, Passion, Grace and Fire.

De Lucia is still playing the flamenco music that is so much a part of the rich Gypsy heritage, but in a way that is both rooted in the past and easily accessible to today’s audiences. Those who may doubt his commitment to either should take note. “… I play guitar not for me, but for flamenco,” de Lucia told Guitar Player.”I don’t want to be a star, or a rich man. I am working for my village, for my country, for my music, for the tradition of the art form, and I want to make the music better.”

Selected discography

Solo albums

La Guitarra Fabulosa de Paco de Lucia, Philips.

Fuente y Caudal, Philips.

Almoraima, Philips.

Paco, Island.

Entre Dos Aguas, Philips.

Meister der Spanischen Gitarre, Philips.

Motive, Philips.

Plays Manuel de Falla, Philips.

Solo Quero Caminar, Philips.

With brother, Ramon de Algeciras

Dos Guitarras Flamencas en America Latina, Philips.

Paco de Lucia y Ramon de Algeciras en Latino America, Philips.

With Ricardo Modrego

12 Canciones de Garcia Lorca para Dos Guitarras en Stereo, Philips.

12 Exitos para Dos Guitarras Flamencas, Philips.

Dos Guitarras Flamencas, Philips.

With Al DiMeola

Elegant Gypsy, Columbia, 1977.

With John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell

Castro Marin, Philips.

With Paco Pena

Paco Doble, Philips.

With Al DiMeola and John McLaughlin

Friday Night in San Francisco, Columbia, 1981.

Passion, Grace and Fire, Columbia, 1983.

Sources

Books

Evans, Tom, and Mary Anne Evans, Guitars From the Renaissance to Rock, Facts on File, 1977.

Periodicals

down beat, April, 1981; November, 1985.

Guitar, April, 1976.

Guitar Player, June, 1977; May, 1979; March, 1981.

—Calen D. Stone