Paco De Lucia
@ the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
16 November 2012 - 22 November 2007

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Biography

Paco de Lucía was born Francisco Sánchez Gómez December 21, 1947 in Algeciras, a city in the province of Cádiz. He adopted the stage name Paco de Lucía in honour of his mother, Lucía Gómez. Paco De Lucia is the son of flamenco guitarist Antonio Sánchez, and brother of flamenco singer Pepe de Lucía Pepe de and flamenco guitarist Ramón de Algeciras.

1958, at age 11, de Lucía made his first public appearance on Radio Algeciras, and a year later he was awarded a special prize in the Jerez flamenco competition. In 1961, he toured with the flamenco troupe of dancer José Greco. Between 1968 and 1977, he enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with fellow New Flamenco innovator Camarón de la Isla.

De Lucía is considered by many to be one of the greatest flamenco guitarists of all time. Not only does he dominate in flamenco, he is one of the very few flamenco guitarists who is also talented in other genres of music, e.g. jazz, classical, and world music. Many believe that de Lucía fluently goes into these territories and plays like no other. De Lucía was the winner of the Prince of Asturias Awards in Arts in 2004. He has toured and recorded with Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin as well as his own Paco De Lucía Sextet (which includes his brothers Ramón and Pepe).

De Lucía’s wide discography has given rise to a new way of understanding flamenco and has launched his music and his instrument to a level comparable to modern jazz performers. Being an incredibly talented guitarist, he is known to many as the master of rasqueados and picados. Paco de Lucía has an incredible command of blinding speed on the nylon string guitar. It is said that he is able to play 16th note triplets at 180 BPM (that is, 18 notes per second).

Until being asked to perform and interpret Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in 1991, de Lucía had never learned to read musical notation. While learning to play the Concierto as a flamenco guitarist, where rhythm and pace is essential, he preferred to risk giving the listener a 'dirty' note when being forced to go from low to very high notes rather than to displace the rhythm and pace just to keep the notes clean. He felt that as a flamenco guitarist he could interpret the Concierto in a fashion not previously done. Joaquín Rodrigo declared that no one had ever played his composition in such a brilliant manner.