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
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