Juan Manuel Cañizares

Biography

Juan Manuel Cañizares was born in Sabadell in 1966. His family is from Andalusia and he immigrated to Barcelona in the fifties. His father was a great guitar enthusiast and he won a 'sonanta´ in an open-air festival by chance, which led him to learn how to play it. However it was his sons who really had an aptitude for the guitar, Rafael and Juan Manuel, for which reason he was incited to learn.

At only ten years of age Juan Manuel entered Sabadell´s Municipal Conservatory to later continue his studies in Tarrasa and Barcelona. In 1982 he won the Jerez´s National Guitar Award. In 1989 toured with the group El Último de la Fila Later on he collaborated with artists of other styles, such as Peter Gabriel, with who he did a recompilation under the label Real World.

He has worked with Camarón, Morente, Serrat, Marc Almond (leader of Soft Cell), La Fura dels Baus, Michael Brecker and Al Di Meola, amongst others. However stardom reached him with Paco de Lucía, with who he formed a trio along with the nephew of the genius José María Bandera, with who he toured between 1989 and 1992. The tour culminated in the recording of Isaac Albéniz´s Suite iberia, which appears alongside Paco de Lucía´s version of Concierto de Aranjuez.

Later on he worked with Jorge Pardo, Carles Benavent and the Big Band of WDR in the album Jazzpaña (with the musical arrangements by Arif Mardin and Vince Mendoza), and composed the soundtrack for the film La Lola se va a los puertos. Cañizares also contributed to Enrique Morente´s Omega. Nowadays he is one of the guitarists with most international sales and possibly, one of the natural substitutes of Paco de Lucía, as he posses a enviable technique and a great talent as a composer.