The renowned flamenco/jazz guitarist Paco de Lucia died this past week. I don't have much acquaintance with his music, but what I've heard has been pretty impressive. So, in memoriam:
I'm always struck by the sheer physical force of flamenco players (not that this is pure flamenco, exactly, but it's rooted in flamenco). Sometimes they just seem to be beating the hell out of their instruments. I used to know a classical guitarist who didn't think highly of flamenco players in classical repertoire, and I was a little puzzled b ythat, as it was all the same to me: nylon-string guitar, Spanish-sounding. I understand now–when he plays classical music, de Lucia does sound a little coarse. But that's almost irrelevant; flamenco seems to be much more about passion than subtlety and finesse. Here's a 17-minute concert clip that makes that point pretty well. It includes a singer, and a dancer, male, who I suspect will raise female pulses. As you can see, there is a 35-year distance between the two performances, but de Lucia's technique seems intact.
Does that singing sound Middle Eastern to you? It's not an accident: flamenco has roots in the region of Spain that was Moorish for hundreds of years. I don't know what he's saying but it's powerful stuff.
RIP.
A little something extra: Paco may be most widely known in this country as one of the members of a rather stunning guitar trio which included John McLaughlin and Al di Meola. Each of those may get his own post in this series, but here is a performance by the trio. I doubt there have been many occasions when so many notes were played on guitars in six minutes and thirty-nine seconds.
Light On Dark Water 
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