Flamenco Dependence: Paco de Lucía 75

Paco de Lucía - Entre Dos Aguas

There's holidays and kids running around here but I have to get this posted.

They made a holiday out of Frank Zappa's born/died dates -- everyone should check that new Waka/Wazoo box set of 1972 stuff, it's essential -- called Zappadan, and he'd have been 82 today.

But FZ ain't the only geetar gawd born on December 21st.

Not by a longshot. In fact, here's one -- every bit the virtuosic equal of the Zappas of the world -- who'd be turning the milestone platinum 75 today.

Would be, had he not passed away nearly a decade ago, that is.

A lotta folks know him from his participation in what a friend of mine -- no small guitar player himself -- once called the greatest guitar record of all time, where our birthday boy formed one third of a colossal trio for the epochs.

The record shows the three of them burned down the Warfield on a Friday night in San Francisco back in the day, using only their (totally acoustic) instruments.

But our hero of the day was way more than just the Spanish guitar deity in a supergroup.

Often credited with bringing Flamenco into the modern age, and bringing Rock and Fusion filigree into traditional Flamenco, Paco de Lucía was a genuine and vital gap-bridger across music.

There's no quantifying how many initiates he attracted to this kind of music, who otherwise would have never got hip to Flamenco or Spanish guitar were it not for his influence and output.

Injecting a kind of blazing, rock-era fury into a theretofore super-traditional idiom, his music spanned genres effortlessly and naturally.

Others will drive on roads he paved, is all I can say.

Anyway I am for some strange reason stuck on 1981 this month... this is the second of three in a row from then. And you're damn right it's an incendiary show too.

Stick 'round for the end as well, when a super special guest joins the fun.

Paco de Lucía

Live Under the Sky

Denen Coliseum

Tokyo, Japan

7.25.1981

01 Montiño

02 Aires Choqueros

03 Monasterio de Sal

04 La Vida Breve 

05 La Cueva del Gato

06 Danza Ritual del Fuego

07 Solo Quiero Caminar

08 Entre Dos Aguas

09 Duet for Guitar and Piano

10 Yellow Nimbus

11 Chanela

Total time: 1:19:44

Paco de Lucía - guitar & percussion

Carles Benavent - bass

Rubem Dantas - percussion

Pepe de Lucía - vocals

Jorge Pardo - saxophones & flute

Ramón de Algeciras - guitar

Chick Corea - piano (Tracks 09-11)

off-air FM capture of indeterminate origin, containing the complete concert; likely a master cassette

dead air trimmed & applause crossfaded to fit a single CD -- with broadcast noise slightly reduced in a couple of tracks -- by EN, December 2022
478 MB FLAC/direct link

I trimmed some of the dead air out of this one, and tightened up the parts where they're tuning and so forth, so that this would slide onto a single CD for those that still do that.

I'll be backloading December with three more posts to close out the year, but today is all about saluting a departed guitar superstar with maximum picados on his 75th birthday.--J.

12.21.1947 - 2.25.2014