Paco de Lucia, dies at 66

[SJ200Fan]

Just read on CNN that Paco de Lucia died. That's a loss. If you've never heard "Friday Night in San Franscisco" 1981 album, you should.

 

 

CNN) -- Legendary Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia, who is credited with transforming the folk art of flamenco into a more vibrant modern sound, has died. He was 66.

 

The Gipsy Kings may have gone a long way toward making flamenco mainstream, but de Lucia paved the way.

 

A proponent of the New Flamenco style, de Lucia's career is defined by crossover collaborations with guitarists such as Eric Clapton, John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola, and jazz pianist Chick Corea.

 

De Lucia was playing with family members on a beach in Cancun, Mexico, when he suddenly fell ill, according to the spokesman for his hometown, Algeciras, in southern Spain.

 

He died on the way to the hospital Tuesday in Mexico.

 

Miguel Nunez, the Algeciras spokesman, said the preliminary cause of death appears to be a heart attack.

 

Algeciras, near the Strait of Gibraltar, plans to declare several days of official mourning.

[Stringtao]

R.I.P. Paco. You were a true artist.

One of my favourite all time shows was Paco, Di Meola and McLaughlin. Just a night of shame, for ever thinking I could play guitar.

His hands seem to work on their own. With no connection to his head. Which always looked detached from the event. Off somewhere else.

 

Sad day.

[boozeball]

I was turned on to Paco's music very early into my study of guitar. I was 12 years old and on the weekends I swept floors and dusted displays at the record store down the street from my house. I got paid in store credit for my work. When I told the owner of the store I had been given my first guitar he started going around the store picking out records for me to take home, one of which was Paco's album "Almoraima" I listened to that album slack jawed, I was at the time unfamiliar with flamenco and gypsy jazz (I was a 12 year old metal head), my mind had been blown. Rio Ancho remains to this day one of my all time favorite pieces of music. RIP Paco, thank you for the wonderful music you left behind.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxodluTaz4g&feature=kp

[QuestionMark]

Quite sad...

 

A loss to all of us in the guitar world.

 

QM aka Jazzman Jeff