Paco de Lucía

Francisco Sánchez Gómez 21 December 1947 25 February 2014 known as Paco de Lucía was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist composer and record producer A leading proponent of the new flamenco style he was one of the first flamenco guitarists to branch into classical and jazz Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton authors of Guitar Music History Players describe de Lucía as a titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar and Dennis Koster author of Guitar Atlas Flamenco has referred to de Lucía as one of historys greatest guitarists De Lucía was noted for his fast and fluent picados fingerstyle runs A master of contrast he often juxtaposed picados and rasgueados flamenco strumming with more sensitive playing and was known for adding abstract chords and scale tones to his compositions with jazz influences These innovations saw him play a key role in the development of traditional flamenco and the evolution of new flamenco and Latin jazz fusion from the 1970s He received acclaim for his recordings with flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla in the 1970s recording ten albums which are considered some of the most important and influential in flamenco history Some of de Lucías best known recordings include Río Ancho later fused with Al Di Meolas Mediterranean Sundance Entre dos aguas La Barrosa Ímpetu Cepa Andaluza and Gloria al Niño Ricardo His collaborations with guitarists John McLaughlin Al Di Meola and Larry Coryell in the late 1970s saw him gain wider popularity outside his native Spain De Lucía formed the Paco de Lucía Sextet in 1981 with his brothers singer Pepe de Lucía and guitarist Ramón de Algeciras and collaborated with jazz pianist Chick Corea on their 1990 album Zyryab In 1992 he performed live at Expo 92 in Seville and a year later on the Plaza Mayor in Madrid He also collaborated with guitarist Juan dAnyelica on his album Cositas Buenas After 2004 he greatly reduced his public performances retiring from full touring and typically only gave several concerts a year usually in Spain and Germany and at European festivals during the summer months Paco de Lucía was born on 21 December 1947 as Francisco Sánchez Gómez in Algeciras province of Cádiz in southern Spain He was the youngest of the five children of flamenco guitarist Antonio Sánchez Pecino and Portuguese mother Lúcia Gomes his brothers include flamenco singer Pepe de Lucía and flamenco guitarist Ramón de Algeciras now deceased Playing in the streets as a young boy there were many Pacos and Pablos in Algeciras In Spain and Latin America any of these children with common first names would be referred to as follows Name of Child son or daughter of Name of Mother or Paco son of Lucía in his case instead of using the childs last name Later after learning to play the guitar and tasked with figuring out a way to bill himself wanting to honor his Portuguese mother Lucía Gomes he adopted the stage name Paco de Lucía Source Article Paco de Lucía from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30