Who was Paco de Lucia?

Hello to everybody today we want to talk about a very special person that just pass away in Playa del Carmen, one man that made a revolution on flamenco music,  Paco de Lucía, amazing interpreter of flamenco guitar , considered by many a genius of the guitar.

His name was Francisco Sánchez Gómez , born in Algeciras, Cádiz Spain on December 21, 1947 , he died in Playa del Carmen Quintana Roo Mexico on February 25, 2014 at age 66 leaving a great musical heritage for humanity.

As a curiosity of how  he took his artistic name , is that his neighborhood in Cádiz had many Pacos and Pepes , so to avoid confusion the neighbors start to call him Paco of Lucía (the name of his mother was Lucía Gómez )

Paco de Lucia played a key role in the development of traditional flamenco and the evolution of New Flamenco, unveiled flamenco to the world, he was the first spanish artist to mix jazz, bossa nova through classical music with flamenco.

 Another great contribution of Paco de Lucía was the inclusion of the cajon, an Afro- peruvian instrument, Caitro Soto exposed him to during his visit to Peru in the late 1970s, and it became an essential tool of contemporary flamenco 

Here are some famous quotes.

- "The guitar has given me the ability to express myself with the rest of the world without using the word . "

-" Paco de Lucia is the character who takes the stage and shows what he do best , and Francisco Sanchez is the man who likes to get drunk with friends, laughing in the street who wants to be one of group. "

- "Man that is born by the sea has a sense of freedom."

- " Only the mediocre copy . Geniuses steal."

-" The packaging may be important , the content should be."

-" The belly sated faster , the spirit is never satiated ."

If you never heard Paco de Lucía music here is a list with the albums that he most liked, in his words:

" These are the albums I value the most, because they are the ones I devoted my greatest efforts to, the ones I consider as forming my creative career in flamenco, the ones that made me struggle the most and the ones I most enjoyed. "

La fabulosa guitarra de Paco de Lucia (1967)

Fantasia Flameca de Paco de Lucia (1969)

El duende Flamenco (1972)

Fuente y caudal (1973)

Paco de Lucia en vivo desde el teatro real (1975)

Almoraima (1976)

Solo quiero caminar (1981)

One summer night (1984)

Siroco (1987)

Zyryab (1990)

Concierto de Aranjuez (1991)

Paco de Lucia interpreta a Manuel de Falla (1992)

Live in America (1993)

Luzia (1998)

Cositas buenas (2004)

Nueva antología- edición conmemorativa Principe de Asturias (2004)

It is not a coincidence that he left this world in Paya del Carmen, he started to come  on vacation 30 years ago , when Playa del Carmen was only a little village  of fishermen , was the ideal site to relax, one day he decided to establish here and spent 5 years ,  with the  magical beaches and the beauty of the place he compose the álbum ¨Cositas Buenas¨(Nice Little things) .

We leave you with a video of Paco de Lucía playing Cositas Buenas (tangos).

Enjoy ¡