Paco de Lucia was born in a gypsy neighborhood of the Southern Spain city of Algeciras in 1947, in a poor environment, the youngest of five brothers. His father, a street sales man during the day and guitarist at night in popular balls, put a guitar in his hands when he was 6 and taught him how to play. And Paco played, played and played … with rage.
By 12, his family could no longer afford his schooling and Paco played professionally with his brother in popular flamenco hangouts of the region. From there he evolved into being the most influential flamenco guitarist in history and popularized flamenco around the world -a music until then not easily understandable to many.
He brought flamenco to jazz, jazz to flamenco and became one of the most admired guitarists ever, all styles comprised. The speed and strength of his “picado” remains unsurpassed and reveals, in addition to exceptional musicianship, thousands and thousands of hours of practice.
As jaw dropping as this feature may be, Paco´s art did not lay on speed or technicality but in the subtlety of his playing, the passion and the capacity to awake emotions in the audience. Every note out of his guitar is immediately recognizable among other guitarists for the quality of its sound and the musicality of the interpretation (see video with John Mclaughlin and Al Di Meola).
Paco de Lucia passed away on 25 February 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYkz30RL_GU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv34G5b-ty8
The editorial team of Katoikos
