The Story
Francisco Sánchez Gómez was born in Algeciras, Spain, and released his solo debut, La Fabulosa Guitarra de Paco de Lucía, in 1967 at age 19, after starting out recording as a teenager alongside his brother Pepe. Fuente y caudal (1973), built on the breakout instrumental 'Entre Dos Aguas,' established him as flamenco guitar's leading modernizer — bringing jazz harmony and structure into a tradition that had mostly stayed apart from it.
In 1977, at a reception in Lima, Paco de Lucía encountered Peruvian percussionist Caitro Soto playing the cajón, a box drum. He bought the instrument, brought it back to Spain, and gave it to his sextet's percussionist Rubem Dantas — the cajón has been a standard part of flamenco ensembles ever since.
Friday Night in San Francisco (1981), a live acoustic trio album with John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola recorded at San Francisco's Warfield Theatre, is regularly cited among the greatest acoustic guitar albums ever made. Siroco (1987) continued his solo catalog into the following decade.
In 2014, the Latin Recording Academy awarded Paco de Lucía its Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He died February 25, 2014, in Mexico.
