Flamenco Chills: Paco de Lucia

A notable music event took place at Palma's Auditorium last night. Paco de Lucia played.

De Lucia is the world's leading virtuoso of the modern or "new" flamenco guitar. Internationally he is one of Spain's best-known musicians. He has broadened the scope of flamenco, crossed over into different styles, fused it with rock and jazz. He has popularised flamenco in a way that no one else has. Which is why he's not to everyone's taste.

Like many forms of music there are the purists and the experimenters. Flamenco, at its purest, both sung and played, is something it is unlikely that visitors to Mallorca would ever encounter. Partly this is because it is not the music of Mallorca, and partly because at its purest it is impenetrable to all but the true aficionado. Without wishing to sound like a Philistine, vocal flamenco can be an appalling wail and caterwaul. There's no doubting the vocal agility required to perform it, but respecting it and liking it are two entirely different things.

Flamenco's origins are debated, but it is principally a music of Andalucia, whence de Lucia comes. In an interview with "Ultima Hora" he described flamenco as being one of five or six "essential genres of music". It is certainly instantly recognisable, the rhythmic hand clapping being one its most obvious aspects. Before de Lucia came along though, it was a minority-interest music in international terms. Fundamentalist flamenco is still very much alive, but its sung variety remains excruciating to a point at which it is too painful to listen to.

When de Lucia teamed up with the likes of John McLaughlin from the jazz world, he did to flamenco what Miles Davis had done to jazz itself by embracing other musical styles or what Dylan did to folk by picking up an electric guitar. He appalled the purists, but he set in motion the popularisation and greater accessibility of the music.

This modern, new flamenco has spawned numerous artists, the names of whom will probably be unfamiliar. While they have retained the essentials of the flamenco "cante", they have taken other influences in making the music melodic in a way that the fundamental form is not. Just one example is José Mercé. Explaining the crossover into other musical areas, he has said that "more than fusion, this period of flamenco is one of the greatest confusion". Typical of his work is "La Vida Sale". The singing can still be hard-going, but the fusion is with an altogether lighter Cuban rumba.

The innovativeness of de Lucia, Mercé and others has made flamenco more widely accepted, but the music has really broken out thanks to a newer movement of flamenco jazz and thanks also to dance and chill-out. The music has moved light years away from its purest form, but the roots remain in the work of Chambao (the ones who did the Andalucian advert song - "Ahí Estás Tú") and the DJs David Ferrero and Pedro del Moral, otherwise known as the Fundación Eivissa. "Doñana" is one of theirs. It starts with a flamenco guitar and adds an electronic suggestion of waves crashing onto rocks and the powerful and poignant vocals of Beatriz Nuñez, backed by a Latin rhythm and interspersed with flamenco "cante". The result is astonishing.

None of this would have been possible without de Lucia. It was his genius that set it in all motion, creating a current-day music of almost impossible vitality, as was the case with the music for the Andalucia advert. And that was what I call promotion.

De Lucia has been a "face" of local tourism promotion. In a way, despite his having a home on the island, he was a strange choice, given that flamenco is not the music of Mallorca. But in its fused form it has become so, as much as it has become an international music. The tourism agency could do far worse than to consider commissioning de Lucia and/or contemporary DJs and producers to compose something as startling and dynamic as the Chambao song.

When they came up with the Rafael Nadal ad, the accompanying music was drippy and wet. It had nothing to do with Mallorca, the Balearics or indeed Spain. Flamenco is anything but wet. It is remarkably powerful, and in its current incarnations its appeal has gone global. De Lucia is correct: it is one of the world's essential musical genres. And it's right here.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.