Paco and Camerón

In 1968, Paco began a collaboration with the singer Camerón de Isla. During the seventies they were among the biggest celebrities in Spain.

Together they recorded ten albums. His haunting homage to Cameron on the 1998 album Luiza is one of my favorite songs. It is Paco singing at the end of the song.

Camerón died in 1992.

Cool Cameron vid

Who is Paco de Lucia?

Born in Algeciras (Cádiz) in 1947, de Lucia first broadcast a performance on Radio Algeciras when he was 11 years old. His father, his brother Ramon de Algeciras and master Nino Ricardo were his main influences. At 12, he began playing with his brother Pepe in a group called Los Chiquitos de Algeciras. Shortly after winning a prize at the International Flamenco Contest in Jerez in 1962, he and his brothers were hired by the José Greco Company, with which they toured the world. Encouraged by Sabicas and Mario Escudero, he began composing. His first records, guitar duos, were recorded with Ricardo Modrego, a member of the Jose Greco Ballet, and Ramón de Algeciras. 

A Very Fortuitous Coincidence

My wife and I planned a trip to Canada. Little did we know at the time that very same week Paco de Lucia was performing in Montreal as part of the Montreal Jazz Festival.

It was by sheer coincidence (or was it) that I found out Paco was playing at the festival. The last time Paco played at the festival was ten years ago. He will perform at the theater Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on Jun 25th.

Travelling North

Sometime last year I began looking at airfares to Canada. I've never been there before and the exchange rate with the Euro is not favorable and airfare to South America is exorbitant. I figured that it was the perfect time to visit our neighbors to the north.

The timing for the trip hinged on my wife's vacation schedule which she has to make out the November before the next year. So it's kind of like throwing darts at a calendar in terms of the weeks to choose throughout the upcoming year.

She ended up with a week during June and we decided that would be the best time to head north. We had no advance knowledge of what we were to discover next...

Paco de Lucia

About ten years ago I stumbled by accident onto the greatest flamenco guitarist and arguably the world's greatest, Francisco Sanchez aka Paco de Lucia.

Paco's career has spanned over forty years, but the pinnacle of his career was probably in the 1970's. So for this reason being able to see him play live has become a decreasingly likely probability. Especially since I only became aware of him around 2001 or so.

There was a tour around 2004 for the Cositas Buenas album, but with the Bush administration being in power and their propensity for ridiculousness Paco's bass player was not allowed a work visa because he was Cuban.

I think that because of the bitter taste that left with Paco none of his subsequent tours have had dates within the U.S. So, I'd pretty much given up hope of ever being able to see him live...until now.