• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Art
  • Comedy
  • Dance
  • Fashion
  • Festivals
  • Film
  • Food
  • Music
  • Sports
  • Theatre
New York Latin Culture Magazine®

New York Latin Culture Magazine®

World-class Indigenous, European & African Culture since 2012

  • New York
  • Latin
  • Culture
  • Magazine
  • Things To Do in NYC
  • Travel
  • Subscribe
  • Sponsor

Flamenco Legends: Paco de Lucía Project

Javier Límon’s Flamenco Legends: The Paco de Lucía Project is at the Purchase College Performing Arts Center in Purchase, New York (White Plains) on Sunday, October 20, 2019 at 3pm.

Tickets from $40


Paco de Lucía

The legacies of great artists go well beyond particular masterpieces. In the case of guitarist and composer Paco de Lucía, his playing, his composing, the sound of his ensembles, his entire approach, marked a “before” and “after” in flamenco.

No group has taken up the challenges of that legacy with greater authority than The Paco de Lucía Project. In the 1980s, the guitarist, who had long-established his place in flamenco history, put together a sextet that incorporated jazz and global music elements and exploded flamenco conventions.

About 20 years later, he assembled a second, younger group. Brimming with energy and technical brilliance, this second sextet both pushed and freed the master, suggesting tantalizing possibilities for the future.

But Paco de Lucía died unexpectedly of a heart attack while on holiday in February 2014. He was 66.


The Paco de Lucía Project

That last ensemble, reconvened as The Paco de Lucía Project, is now on its second tour of North America, celebrating the release of The Paco de Lucía Project (Casalimón Records), a live CD documenting the sound of their inaugural tour. As good as that snapshot is, the sextet has continued to evolve while taking on the challenges of de Lucia ́s legacy.

“That first experience of touring America, taking this music and Paco’s name everywhere, thinking of him every day — it was magnificent,” says guitarist Antonio Sánchez, the son of Paco’s late older brother. “As we toured with this group, each concert was better than the one before. Luckily, we recorded the one in Miami and it’s now a tribute to Paco.”

The sextet features Sánchez on guitar; Alain Pérez on bass; Israel Suárez “Piraña,” percussion; Antonio Serrano, harmonica; David de Jacoba, vocals, and flamenco dancer Antonio Fernández “Farruco” (a/k/a Farru). Except for de Jacoba, who joined later, this is the band captured on de Lucía’s historic double CD Live in Spain 2010.

Javier Limón, the world’s best flamenco producer

Grammy-winning producer and composer Javier Limón, a collaborator and personal friend of de Lucía, masterminded the reunion of the group and produced the CD as a celebration of the legendary guitarist.

“Paco created a new sound with his first group. But then, with this band, he arrived at a different sonority,” says Limón. “And I kept thinking: why are we throwing away a sound that took so many years and so much work to create?”

“By the time he assembled the second sextet, Paco was at his peak, he was the wise old man, the master, and the players were all so young. It was a different dynamic,” reflects Limón. “Alain Pérez is arguably the best Latin bass player of his generation.

Antonio Serrano is the best jazz musician in Spain; and you have Piraña, whom Paco loved, the best percussionist in flamenco’s history. And then you have Antonio, and David, and Farru … Each one of them is a soloist, a leader. This band is the best flamenco group in the world.”

“This band is the best flamenco group in the world.”
Javier Limón

Flamenco is passed down through the generations

Meanwhile, guitarist Antonio Sánchez has embraced the challenges of his uncle ́s legacy with unfailing grace. “I take carrying on Paco’s music with great humility. It’s a real challenge,” said Sánchez, who joined his uncle’s group as a second guitar in 2010 .

“The name is a burden only if you don ́t study, if you don ́t apply yourself and work. Working with this group is a huge responsibility, very demanding, but it also brings out a lot of love on my part — and no fear. On the contrary, I was eager to do this. It has been great to remember him every day in his music, but also it has been great to see how this group has evolved, matured.”

From Flamenco to Jazz to something Universal

While accompanying de Lucía, the members of the group showcased their talents mostly in the space for jazz-style soloing that the guitarist had opened in his music. As it turns out, besides the obvious challenges, the sextet’s reunion also presented opportunities.

“Every day we seem to be doing something different, and it’s great fun, very enjoyable, and it brings us together,” said Sánchez. “And we also started to realize that we can pay tribute to Paco with our own music.

There will always be classics by Paco in the program, songs like “Zyryab” or a rumba like “El Cafetal,” but now also some of our compositions, things we used to do with him in rehearsals but were never recorded. It’s a chance to capture and bring back some of those little things we had with Paco, and it’s beautiful.”

Tickets from $40


Published October 20, 2019 ~ Updated February 23, 2023.

Filed Under: flamenco, Latin Music, Purchase College Performing Arts Center, Romani Archive, Spanish

Primary Sidebar

Mexican Opera in Spanish

Ailyn Pérez in "Florencia el el Amazonas" (Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

Mexican Opera “Florencia en el Amazonas” Stars Ailyn Pérez in Spanish at the Metropolitan Opera

Dominican Alternative + Haitian Afrobeats

Yasser Tejeda Dominican Alternative (Harlem Stage)

Yasser Tejeda and DJ Sabine Blaizin Get Everyone Dancing at Harlem Stage

Puerto Rican Bomba & Plena, Cuban Jazz Holidays

Arturo O'Farrill and Juan Gutiérrez "Navidad Nuyorkina" (Hostos Center)

Los Pleneros de la 21 Celebrate 40 Years with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra “Una Navidad Nuyorkina” at Hostos

Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda

Papo Vázquez (artist/Hostos)

Papo Vázquez Mighty Pirates Troubadours Play a Puerto Rican Holiday Jazz Parranda at Hostos Center

Mexican Holiday Folkloric Ballet

Ballet Nepantla "Nacimiento" (Nina Galicheva/BN)

Ballet Nepantla “Nacimiento” is a Holiday Folkloric Ballet About The Birth of the Mexican People From Indigenous and Spanish Roots

Cuban Son Musical

Buena Vista Social Club™ musical (Atlantic Theater Company)

Buena Vista Social Club™ is now a Saheem Ali musical about a band of retired Cubans who made the whole world dance again, at the Atlantic Theater Company

Theatre Professionals ~ Theatre Employers Network

Find your next project. Discover your next team. Do it on RISE.

Things to Do in NYC

Things to do in NYC in November 2023

Things to do in NYC in December 2023

Things to do in NYC in January 2024

Sponsored By The Best Of New York

2023 Sponsors 🙏🏽

92nd Street Y, New York

Atlantic Theater Company

Ballet Hispánico

Ballet Nepantla 🇲🇽

Calpulli Mexican Dance Company 🇲🇽

CCCADI Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

Carnegie Hall

Harlem Stage

Hostos Center

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Parade

Marco Orsini Documentary Filmmaker 🇵🇷

Metropolitan Opera

New York City Center

RISE Theatre Directory

Robert Browning Associates

Teatro Real, Royal Opera of Madrid

Footer

Search

Sponsor

New York City's leading cultural organizations sponsor New York Latin Culture Magazine®

Subscribe

Subscribe to New York Latin Culture Magazine's email.

Follow

¡WEPA!

New York

Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey

Latin

Art, Books, Comedy, Dance, Fashion, Food, Festivals, Film, Music, Parades, Theatre, Sports

Caribbean

Antiguan, Bahamanian, Barbadian, Cuban, Dominica, Dominican, Grenadian, Haitian, Indigenous, Jamaican, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Kittitian Nevisian, Saint Lucian, Trinidadian, Vincentian

North American

African American, Belizian, Costa Rican, French Canadian, Guatemalan, Honduran, Indigenous, Jewish, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran

South American

Argentine, Bolivian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Guyanese, Indigenous, Jewish, Paraguayan, Peruvian Surinamese, Uruguayan, Venezuelan

European

French, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian

African

African American, Senegalese, Gambian, Bissau-Guinean, Sierra Leonean, Liberian, Ivorian, Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninese, Nigerian, Equatoguinean, São Toméan, Gabonese, Congolese, Angolan

Asian

Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Jewish, Romani

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy

Copyright © 2012–2023 New York Latin Culture Magazine®. All Rights Reserved. New York Latin Culture Magazine® and Tango Beat® are registered trademarks, and New York Latin Culture™ is a trademark of Keith Widyolar. Other marks are the property of their respective holders.