Last night Paco de Lucía played a concert at the Plaza de Toros (bullfighting ring) in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. There is always excitement when Paco de Lucía plays anywhere in the world, however, this was an extra special concert because it was in Jerez’s Teatro Villamarta where he performed in 1962 with his brother the singer Pepe de Lucía; they were known as Los Chiquitos de Algeciras, and they were chiquitos – little boys. They won a prize in a competition organised by the Ayuntamiento of Jerez.

Performing with Paco de Lucía last night at the Plaza de Toros were Antonio Sánchez on second guitar, flamenco singers Duquende and David de la Jacoba, the dancer El Farru, Antonio Serrano on harmonica and keyboards, Alain Pérez on bass and El Piraña on percussion.

On YouTube of course there are lots of video snipets of the concert and although the picture quality is poor, in this bulerías we get some idea of the super performance they gave on that night. The atmosphere must have been electric.  

The audience was full of flamenco artists: his brother Pepe de Lucía, Joaquín Grilo, Sara Baras, Antonio Carmona, Moraíto, Isidro Sanlúcar, Gerardo Núñez and Miguel Poveda…to name a few.

Jerez de la Frontera holds an annual flamenco festival – the Festival de Jerez (from 25 February to 12 March 2011) with many performances in the Teatro Villamarta.

www.jerez.es

© 2010 Thérèse Wassily Saba