Paco De Lucia
December 21, 1947 – February 26, 2014
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of one of the world’s greatest Spanish flamenco guitarists, Paco De Lucia. Paco died after suffering a heart attack while playing with family members on a beach in Cancun. Paco has been credited for bringing vibrancy and color into the folk art of flamenco. My father loved flamenco and he loved the way Paco played. I remember my father playing them and asking my son Ryan to teach him to play flamence (even though Ryan didn’t even know how yet). It was months before my father died that he had asked Ryan and sadly he never had the opportunity after my father’s brain injury.
Today, let’s celebrate the wonderful life of Paco as he made music that literally spoke to my soul. The sound of his guitar playing was like soothing words wrapped around my heart, drawing out a range of emotions. His playing was phenomenal and he will truly be missed. He influenced many and was successful at crossing over the genre boundaries.
Paco was born in Algeciras, in southern Spain on December 21, 1947.He was born in to a family of musicians and started his love of the guitar early in his life. Paco once said, “My father and all my brothers played guitar, so before I picked it up, before I could speak, I was listening. Before I started to play, I knew every rhythm of the flamenco. I knew the feeling and the meaning of the music, so when I started to play, I went directly to the sound I had in my ear.” It is reported that the city of Algeciras will be holding two days of morning as the mayor Jose Ignacio Landaluce of the town calls Paco’s death: “irreparable loss for the world of culture and for Andalusia“.
I will leave you with some videos of Paco and his amazing playing, the first was one of my father’s favorites.
~ Marisol
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