Paco de Lucia (1947 - ) – El Duende Flamenco

Paco de Lucia is probably the most dominant guitar player in any music genre. Simply put, there hasn’t been and there will never be a flamenco guitar player as talented as him. Born Francisco Sanchez Gomez in Algeciras (Andalucia, Spain), he grew up with flamenco music in his veins. His father, Antonio Sanchez, was a professional guitar player in Algeciras and introduced young Paco to flamenco guitar very early in his life.

In Paco de Lucia’s words, flamenco is something that is learned through life: people, music, family, party. Then comes technique only as a vehicle to deliver the music. Without the spirit, it is meaningless. This is very important to understand, as Paco de Lucia’s technique is unprecedented. However, no matter how outstanding his skill is, it is equally or less important than his art.

Paco’s talent emerged since he was a little boy. He also grew up surrounded by professional flamenco singers, dancers and guitar players. As flamenco was his life from the very beginning, Paco’s father was known to make him practice endless hours. At age 12, he made him quit school so he could be 100% dedicated to guitar.

His career started at age 11 and ever since it’s been exceptional from every point of view. Please keep reading as I’ll take you through different aspects of one of guitar’s greatest highlights in history.

Guitar style

It was natural that Paco de Lucia first assimilated (and mastered) the traditional school of flamenco. Niño Ricardo was his main influence, but also Sabicas had an important place in Paco’s formation as a guitar player. Once, Sabicas advised him to work on his own falcetas (guitar variations) instead of playing other guitar player’s riffs. I think this had a deep impact in future phases of Paco’s style.

In the late 60’s and early ‘70s Paco de Lucia slowly experimented away from tradition, and in 1973, the album "Fuente y Caudal" was released. "Entre Dos Aguas", a rumba style song that almost didn’t make it to the final cut put him in the mainstream map. It became an instant hit in the Spanish charts. A catchy tune, it’s not even a brilliant piece and it doesn’t show Paco’s potential. Anyways, it’s important because it was a big departure from tradition and very likely it shaped some aspects of his future style. He later introduced jazz and latin elements to his music, specially in live performances.

In 1975, when he was 28, Paco de Lucia played at the Teatro Real in Madrid (something like the Royal Theatre in Spain, a venue dedicated to classical music and not flamenco). Paco introduced a new way of holding the guitar with his legs crossed and holding the guitar with a more horizontal angle as opposed to the traditional way in a more vertical fashion. Hard to believe, such a change made a lot of people angry and they considered it a big insult!

(traditional) (Paco’s way)

However, there were more relevant innovations to come than just holding the guitar differently! Paco de Lucia reinvented flamenco by introducing non conventional harmonies and passages to the traditional style.

For generations, the role of guitar in flamenco was to accompany the voice (cante) and dance (baile). While it’s true that some of Paco’s predecesors (like Sabicas or Niño Ricardo) made guitar a much more melodic instrument, Paco himself took it to a whole different level.

Even as Paco de Lucia revolutionized harmonies and his own fills, he kept the essence of flamenco: explosive and fast scales, impossible arpeggios and rhythmic figures plus other extremely difficult techniques such as tremolo picking, guitar percussion and arzapua. He also left the original rhythms intact, as that is what defines flamenco above all things. Technically, he is the most advanced of all flamenco guitar players (and that’s a big thing to say). Needless to say, many purists were not very happy with his innovations at the time.

Like all flamenco players, he plays finger style. He plays scales with his index and middle finger usually as fast as 800 BPM or more. Arpeggios are even faster. Even with his amazing speed, he is a wonderful slow player. Flamenco tends to be explosive, which means a slow passage can be followed by a fast stroke or a burst of notes before you know it.

Paco de Lucia is a great expressive guitar player. Don’t think that just because he can play fast, he is a show-off like thousands of guitar shredders out there (which 99.9% play with a pick, anyways). He has total control of the instrument because that is what flamenco demands. For him, musical integrity is first. Technique is a means to deliver his music, not the other way around.

When it comes to flamenco guitar, no other guitar player comes close to him. His speed and skill is impossible to emulate. But like all great guitar players, his main achievement is how he took existing styles and then created his own legacy for generations to come.

See Paco de Lucia’s Guitar Family Tree

Album Highlights

Paco de Lucia likes to record his albums in a single take, without editing the material or recording separate tracks. His recordings sound alive and full of energy. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear a few imperfections that bring life to his albums. It takes integrity to do this and I personally like this approach more than an artificially perfect sound, like many modern recordings.

La Fabulosa Guitarra de Paco de Lucia
His first solo album, which has a clear influence from Sabicas and Niño Ricardo, made a statement to the flamenco world about the rising of a guitar legend. This is a very traditional flamenco album, played flawlessly by a then 20 year old Paco in 1967.

Fuente y Caudal
This is the album that brought international fame to Paco de Lucia due to the track "Entre Dos Aguas", recorded in 1973.

Almoraima
Regarded by many critics as one of Paco’s best albums, this recording shows a more defined and personal style that would eventually evolve into the peak of his creativity: Siroco.

Live – One Summer Night
Paco’s sextet first live album, recorded in 1984. In the early 80’s, Paco experimented heavily with jazz and latin music. As opposed to Friday Night in San Francisco, this album is a very good balance of musicality and outstanding technique. It’s a great fusion of latin and jazz while showing respect to the true art of flamenco.

Paco’s sextet is not a traditional ensemble of flamenco music. He introduced the Peruvian cajon, plus traditional afro-latin percussions. Carlos Benavent plays electric fretless bass (amazing bass player with a Pastorius-ish style), Pepe De Lucia (Paco’s brother) sings and Ramon De Algeciras (Paco’s brother as well) plays guitar along with a third guitar player and Jorge Pardo (amazing jazz musician) in the flute and sax.

Siroco
My favourite of Paco’s albums and to many critics, the greatest milestone in the art of flamenco. This is the album that shows the best of Paco’s modern innovations blended with the traditional form. It’s a daring work of modern flamenco and shows the summit of Paco’s talent.

The tracks in this album consist of traditional flamenco settings (i.e. two guitars and palmas, or solo guitar) which delivers great intimacy to the listener. For someone not familiar with flamenco technique, the level of difficulty could be deceiving since the complexity of the songs is more based on harmonies, positions, arpeggios and rhythmic elements rather than the obvious blinding-speed scales (he gives us a few anyways).

This album has La Barrosa. My favourite Alegria ever, which happens to be one of the most challenging flamenco pieces to date.

Zyriab
A very innovative album. It follows a more modern style than Siroco with a non-traditional flamenco ensemble and music departing from tradition. The title track "Zyryab" is a very original composition set in a dark mood, with Chick Corea’s piano in it. Paco’s guitar is always faithful to the art of flamenco, though.

Videos

Original footage from Friday Night in San Francisco. It shows Mediterranean Sundance in its original performance. Even though the album contains material played by Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin, it is actually in few tracks the three of them play together.

This song is played by Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola 5 years after Almoraima was released and 6 after Entre Dos Aguas became an international hit. Like I mentioned before, this album doesn’t have much musical value, other than showing Paco’s superhuman speed (really, his talent goes way beyond that). Paco himself admits that he used speed in this tour as a way to compensate for his lack of improvisation skills at the time.

On the technical side, note his two-finger picking technique in the right hand. He doesn’t change the natural angle of his right hand when playing scales. Most players tend to stick out the wrist and place the index and middle finger in a straight position when playing scales. While allowing more strength to the stroke, it becomes unnatural and it’s more difficult to go back to the arpeggio position. Paco is able to deliver unusual strength and speed while playing at the natural angle.

Also note the occasional thumb stroke in his right hand when playing slower notes. This is commonly used by flamenco guitar players to accentuate one-note melodies. This is a big no for classical guitar players, though.

This is Paco de Lucia playing Entre Dos Aguas in 1976, a catchy tune that put him in the international scene. This is someone who one year earlier played at Teatro Real in Madrid, earning the respect of the whole guitar community in Spain. Nor the song or the performance have much musical value, but it became a big milestone in his career and as such has a big historic value in general.

Concierto de Aranjuez, First Movement – Allegro con Spirito.

Right from the beginning, it became clear this was going to be a different recording of the famous Concierto de Aranjuez. The first big difference starts with the instrument itself, as all previous recordings were made with a classical concert guitar, not a flamenco guitar. Flamenco guitars have a slightly smaller resonant body and are made with different wood, therefore having a brighter, more percussive sound.

Paco’s flamenco technique first shows up when doing the traditional circular stroke with his right hand, a flamenco trademark. Being the First Movement the most rhythmic in the concert, this technique blends in perfectly with the mood of the composition.

Concierto de Aranjuez, Second Movement – Adagio.

The Second Movement of the Concierto de Aranjuez is an extremely challenging piece for any guitar player. Only those with exceptional interpretation talent can deliver an effective performance, which is technically challenging at the same time. Paco performs on both sides in a way never heard before.

This is what I mean by saying Paco’s talent goes way beyond Friday Night in San Francisco.

La Barrosa – Siroco.

My favourite piece by Paco de Lucia. Released in Siroco in 1987, this Alegria could be his most challenging composition overall. The perfect example of how technique is only a way to deliver something more meaningful musically. The composition is superb, taking the listener through various passages and alternating between various harmonic patterns. On the technical side, it is guitar at its highest: arpeggios, arzapuas, scales, rasgueo, golpes. Truly incredible guitar playing. A much more elevated level of guitar playing compared to anything seen before or after.

Discography