Paco de Lucía

Biography

Francisco Sánchez Gómez was born at number 8 in calle San Francisco in Algeciras on the 21st of December in 1947, son of Antonio Sánchez Pecino and Monte Gordo, Luzía Gomes Gonçalves from Portugal Later Paco de Lucía and the rest of his family, composed of four more brothers, moved to calle Bajadilla, where at the age of seven he began to play the guitar by the hand of his father, a guitarist who in the Campo Gibraltar -area of Spain around Gibraltar- was known as El Gitano Rubio, and his older brother Ramón, who had fed from the talent of Niño Ricardo whilst he worked in Juanito Valderrama´s company

He was only fourteen when he recorded his first album along with his brother Pepe Both announced themselves as Los Chiquitos de Algeciras and achieved recognised success in Jerez de la Frontera´s competition in 1962 In this same year all his family moved to Madrid Here he enrolled in José Greco´s company, with who he spent nine months touring America, where he got into contact with Sabicas, who encouraged him to abandon the Niño Ricardo school and start his own

In 1964 he recorded his first solo record with the name Paco de Lucía, still combining the name Paco de Algeciras He also recorded an album with Ricardo Modrego and started to accompany diverse singers, such as Fosforito, Naranjito de Triana, El Sevillano or El Lebrijano In 1967 he recorded La fabulosa guitarra de Paco de Lucía, his first great success, as here he began his guitarist revolution, although the influences of Niño Ricardo could still be seen However Paco de Lucía started to soon demonstrate that he was going to be the greatest guitarist of flamenco history, unsurpassed by anyone This is confirmed when he joined Camarón, with who he formed the greatest artistic partnership of our times

Alongside him, he records numerous albums from 1969 until 1979, all these with the label El Camarón de la Isla con la colaboración especial de Paco de Lucía - Camarón de la Isla with the special collaboration of Paco Lucía- His father, Antonio Sánchez, was the producer of the whole collection until he passed into the hands of Ricardo Pachón Whilst working with Camarón, his 'rumba´ Entre dos aguas achieved unexpected success, a piece which he had composed as filling for one of his albums Paco took advantage of this to continue broadening the boundaries of the flamenco guitar

In 1976 he recorded Almoraima, a piece in which he definitely separated from his roots, to demonstrate a consolidated personality It is here that he began to develop the idea of forming a flamenco group, consolidated in the collaboration of Dolores in his record Paco de Lucía toca a Manuel de Falla (1978) It is the moment when the genius approached the great jazz figures of the times, to increase his knowledge of harmony He toured with John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell in 1979, later once more with McLaughlin and Al di Meola in 1981 and the last of all with the pianist Chick Corea in 1982 Just one year before this he started his sextet with the album Sólo quiero caminar

Ramón de Algeciras, Pepe de Lucía, Rubem Dantas, Carles Benavent and Jorge Pardo turned into his second family Afterwards he broadened his training forming a septet, thanks to the dance of Juan Ramírez and Manolo Soler Afterwards, until 1991, he decided to play in a trio alongside his niece José María Bandera and a young Juan Manuel Cañizares from Cataluña, but before this he had given birth to two important records: Siroco (1987) and Ziryab (1990) He also put the rest in a new incursion in classical musicEl concierto de Aranjuez with the Cadaqué´s Orchestra in 1991

In his septet, Cañizares was replaced with El Viejín; Manolo Soler, by El Grilo, and Pepe de Lucía, by Duquende With them he recorded Luzía in 1998, in tribute to his mother, who had just died This piece included a masterful 'rondeña´ dedicated to Camarón with which he revolutionised guitar playing again, and from here, the maestro decided to rest until now Recently he received the Niña de los Peines Award granted by the Regional Andalusian Government, an award which, despite being one of the most important existing, isn´t at the height of the genius without whose contributions it isn´t possible to understand the flamenco guitar of the twentieth century