Francisco Sánchez: Paco de Lucía (2002) Online

it would be worthwhile mentioning one of its greatest interpreters, namely Paco de Lucía. In a special tribute to him on TV recently, as well as showing Saura's film `Sevillanas' we were offered a thoroughly interesting documentary co-produced by Televisión Española (TVE), ARTE G.E.I.E. (France-Germany) and ALEA TV (Spain) and directed by Daniel Hernández Diez, entitled `Francisco Sánchez. Paco de Lucía' (2002) (TV). If this biographical documentary should turn up on your television, it is well worth your time, as it is an excellent tribute to a brilliant musician.

Here are a few comments of mine about this documentary film:

There comes certain moments in history when the whole world stops, just ceases, and is left in suspension, breathless, and the entire blessed planet seems to focus on one single person. And that moment is eternal, extending on beyond its brevity, in the memories of those fortunate enough to have been witness of something unique, unrepeatable. I can remember clearly, as if it were yesterday, that cold December night in Covent Garden, 1959, when Joan Sutherland gave us that extraordinary performance of the Mad Scene from Donizetti's `Lucia Di Lammermoor': there was a minute's total silence before the applause broke out and everyone rose to their feet in appreciation of one of the greatest moments of the Twentieth Century. Or that night in late 1967 in New York when the real genuine authentic original version of Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin in the inspired one and only performance of `Ball and Chain', fortunately kept for posterity in the live recording on a CBS LP and never transferred to CD .. Or those sublimal tones rendered by a twenty-year-old Jacqueline Du Pré on her cello in her exquisite interpretation of Sir Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto back in 1965, never equalled by any other `maestro', even admitted by Mstislav Rostropovich himself. Unfortunately she was forced to give up playing the cello around 1972 and she died of multiple sclerosis when she was just 42.

And so it goes with Paco de Lucía, one of the most gifted guitarists I have had the luck and pleasure of listening to. But when on `Friday Night in San Francisco' in 1981 he was teamed up with two more of similar genius, namely Al di Meola and John McLaughlin, the result was electrifying - to say the least. In this documentary film Paco de Lucía admits he was nervous - what's this of improvising.....? He had, as flamenco guitarist, never improvised! Well, you do not notice it in the trio's rendering of `Mediterranean Sundance', `Short Tales of the Black Forest', and especially `Frevo Rasgado' and the exhilarating, breath-taking `Fantasia Suite', among other tracks. The sheer empathy between these three brilliant musicians just simply transcends all attempts at any kind of reasoning objectivity. I said `electrifying': lightning flashes out from those taught strings on their guitars in stunning rhythms as the three fuse into one belligerent, coherent, hallucinatory experience. The planet stops; ceases on its axis.

In this new biographical documentary, we see (and hear) snippets of scenes from his life - born in Algeciras in the deep south of Spain, passing through Madrid, New York, etc, to his home in Yucután, Mexico. You see this great empathy that Paco de Lucía has when performing with other musicians: the great Santana, the one and only Chick Corea, the irreplaceble Camerón de la Isla ... and it could only be this way: to play flamenco you need first and foremost great feeling and sensitivity. And of course great skill. To all this Paco de Lucía adds an intellectual perspective in his treatment of his music. However, for many many years Paco de Lucía could not even read music! But this is music which flows in your blood, and you either feel it or you do not. No music academy or conservatory can teach you this. You cannot study for it: you either have that incredible gift, or you do not.

Flamenco is itself a fusion of moorish music with Andalucian rhythms, expressed in various forms from `canto hondo' to dances and of course the guitar, but the word itself is a derivation from Dutch origin - vlaeminck (excuse the spelling!). Even the guitar is a hand-down from the Indian `sitar' passing through `xitar', `xitarra' to its modern Spanish `guitarra'. However, the result today is thoroughbred, especially in the hands of such great musicians as Paco de Lucía.

This documentary, nicely directed, explores both the man and his music through his life, from snapshots on the beach of Algeciras as a young lad, to his beautiful home in the Yucután, with numerous extracts - much too short! - from his concerts all over the world. This is a must for anyone remotely interested in this genuine music, and not only for Hispanics.

A really useful 90 minutes of your time well spent here.