Paco de Lucía, in Pirineos Sur

Text: ANA ITURBIDE
Photos Paco Manzano

Paco de Lucía in Pirineos Sur. Auditorio Natural de Lanuza. Julty 24th,2013

Masterful flamenco strings for the night of Lanuza

Alain Pérez, bass

Antonio Serrano, harmonica and keyboard

Farru, Antonio Fernández Montoya, dance

Rubio de Pruna, cante

David de Jacoba, cante

El Piraña, Israel Suárez Escobar, percussion

Antonio Sánchez, guitar

The guitar of Paco de Lucía resurfaced yesterday at the Auditorio Natural de Lanuza.  This is the second time the guitarist performed at the Festival Pirinieos Sur.  The first was in 2004, and nearly a decade later the strings again sound brilliant to the audience who had anxiously awaited the genius of a musician is today a globally recognized flamenco star.

The young adolescent who started working in the dance company of José Greco was yesterday on stage.  His strength and concentration are impressive, playing each piece as if it were new, with a fifty-year career under his belt, and yet the material is fresh and rich.

“Variaciones de Minerva”, “Mi Antonia”, “Soniquetes”, “Tangos por Cositas Buenas” and “Vámonos” were some of the pieces the rapt audience of three-thousand five-hundred cheered during the concert. 

Throughout the evening all the musicians were able to demonstrate their individual abilities on their own, as well as accompanied by the maestro: Piraña with his percussion, a spectacular Alain Pérez, the very flamenco harmonica of Antonio Serrano, Antonio Sánchez who played together with Paco as if they were a single guitar, singer Rubio de Pruna facing off with David de Jacoba and Farru who blew everyone away with his dancing.

One of the first to pave the way for flamenco to combine with other sounds such as jazz or blues, Paco de Lucía still clings to the roots: “The impetus behind my way of playing is precisely the fact of being flamenco, if I weren’t flamenco it wouldn’t be me”.  And he’s so convincing that some of us, even knowing this great musician isn’t a gypsy, still see him as more gypsy than flamenco itself.

Special mention is in order for the performer who opened for Paco de Lucía.  Enrique Amador, “Musi”, a gypsy and resident of the Zaragoza neighborhood of La Madalena, accompanied by his own band including guitar, bass, percussion, flute and violin, did a fine job that was worthy of the importance of the event.

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Paco de Lucia en Pirineos Sur

 

Enrique Amador «Musi»