Surprising everyone, the LP hit the pop charts and eventually sold seven million copies. In 1981, Al Di Meola replaced Coryell in the Trio, and the three recorded Friday Night in San Francisco. I have, as my only interest in all this, to grow as a musician who plays flamenco and not to bring things that some way or another changes the identity of this music.” I have incorporated other things, but things that have not altered the philosophy of the music. I have always been careful that it doesn’t lose the essence, roots and tradition of what is flamenco. As Paco de Lucia once told NPR about his style, “My flamenco is not a fusion. Paco’s break in Amercia came via “Mediterranean Sundance” and two years later, he began working with John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell in what later became known as the Guitar Trio, fusing jazz, flamenco, World, and more than a little rock attitude, but entirely on acoustic guitars (McLaughlin and Coryell flatpicking on roundback Ovation acoustic-electrics, while de Lucia picked with fingers and nails on a traditional nylon-string). In the late ’60s, he began a partnership with flamenco singer El Camarón de la Isla and the two invented an electrifying new style of flamenco that catapulted them to national fame. Born as Francisco Sanchez Gomez in 1947, he started performing at 11, cutting his first album at 15. Though not a Roma himself, de Lucia was exposed to it via his father and brothers, who were flamenco musicians, and he began playing guitar at age seven. A melding of man, wood, and strings, de Lucia displayed pure, raw ability and a peerless musical sensibility when he held the nylon-string guitar.įlamenco is an art form of the Roma – the Spanish gypsies who live in the Andalusia region – and involves dance, singing, clapping, playing guitar, and using hand percussion. When he played, there were no effects, no electricity, and no tricks or mirrors – not even a pick. In the ensuing decades, de Lucia would become regarded as the world’s leading flamenco guitarist and, in some players’ minds, the world’s greatest living guitarist. This seminal recording featured intense flamenco improvisations from both players, exposing this Latin guitar style to a new generation of young rock and fusion fans. In the U.S., de Lucia was best known for his collaborations with jazz-rockers like John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Larry Coryell, and Al Di Meola, with whom he recorded “Mediterranean Sundance” in 1977. Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia died February 26 after suffering a heart attack in Cancun, Mexico.
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