Paco de Lucía

Visionary trailblazer and rule-breaker, Paco de Lucía was an acclaimed and influential flamenco guitarist that stretched genre limits with revolutionary leaps into jazz and Arabian music. Born Francisco Gustavo Sánchez Gómez in 1947, de Lucía hailed from Algeciras in Southern Spain, where he grew up in a family of prominent musicians that oversaw his rigorous guitar training. He released his first album at 14 alongside his brother Pepe, finding a second home on the stage and touring constantly with mentors and legends like Sabicas and Mario Escudero. His 1967 solo debut, La Fabulosa Guitarra de Paco de Lucía, established him as a virtuoso and curious composer, laying the groundwork for the new flamenco style and his several-album run with Spanish Romani singer Camarón de la Isla throughout the ‘70s. His jazz experiments defined collaborative projects with John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell as The Guitar Trio, as well as his 1990 album with pianist Chick Corea, Zyryab. Despite his restless innovations, de Lucía's flamenco roots remained at the heart of his work, pouring some of his most cherished compositions into 1987's Siroco and 1998's Luzia, which became monuments to his proud Andalusian legacy before his passing in 2014.